I'd like to take a look now at uncertainty from a cultural perspective. Our culture is based on the scientific paradigm, the scientific paradigm tries to assess causality in order to predict the future. The goal is to optimize positive experiences and stave off negative experiences. You ever noticed when a friend says they just did a study, and they found that x, y and Zed, but then you ask your friend who's gay, and they have no idea. When I think of they, I think of four guys in lab coats at Harvard. And then two weeks later, another study comes out, and that contradicts the first study and gives evidence that proves the exact opposite conclusion.

But really, we have some relah this scientific paradigm under which we we live and feel protected, but as Thomas Kuhn said, paradigm shift every 20 Yours are so. And right now in the information age, I think they're shifting even faster. Look how much our lifestyles have changed in just the last 40 years. There's hundreds of television stations and billions of websites and tweets happening every second. If you live in a big city, and you're tuned in, then you're probably overstimulated. And here's the problem.

There's so much information happening. And it makes us feel that we're always missing something that we're always lacking. The grass is always greener on the other side. That's how our minds operate. And nothing's ever good enough that the situation could always be improved upon that there's always more more more. This is a recipe for emotional and psychological disaster.

So on the one hand, you have psychiatrists in the DSM telling you that depression is a genetic disorder that human beings suffer from and then On the other hand, you have psychologists like Albert Ellis Thomas Dawes Rollo May, saying that your body and mind construct depression as a reaction to your environment. Let me ask you, which position is more empowering? Do you want to believe that you have this gene in your body that causes this whole array of dysfunctionality? Or do you want to analyze the preconditions of your way of being in the world and your environment? And see if there's some adjustments that you could make, like mindfulness, adding mindfulness to your life to increase your happiness and overall well being? And what about what Rocha setup depression?

Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression? Since after all, you don't know what work these conditions are doing inside you One of my favorite meditations, is when we learn to label our thoughts, which is what we'll do now. We do this raise consciousness around how limited and how maladaptive our minds can be. Because really, they're only a few types of thoughts or thoughts about the future, like planning, rehearsing and fantasizing, their thoughts about the past, like remembering, reminiscing, regretting and their thoughts about the present, like desiring, coveting and my personal favorite, judging. So take a few minutes, raise consciousness. I believe blank, any thoughts that arise and then let Then go.

So please close your eyes. Thinking to your breath. If any thoughts arise, just observe them and label them. Your thoughts about the future you can say hello, unplanned thoughts about the past you can say, Oh, I'm remembering. Just let them go into the breath observe your thoughts. label them and release them.