[00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of the Balancing Busy Podcast. We are going to talk about those two times of day that none of us can avoid. Driving and cooking. Well, maybe you get to avoid cooking. But for the most of us, those are two things that we’re doing every single day, whether we want to or not, right? We got to get the kids here and there, run the errands, take care of the things.

[00:00:24] And Well, we need to eat, and it’s good when our family does too, especially when we all eat together. So is there a way to make these two tasks that maybe we can feel a little drudgery with, we can feel a little resentful sometimes with, where we can make them become more meaningful, more powerful, 

[00:00:44] and we can be a more present version of ourselves in the process that actually allows us to feel more joy. Today we’re talking to Dr. Rosina, who is a psychiatrist, and she just touched on this before we started the interview. And I’m like, wait, I love this idea because cooking? Cleaning, driving, those are things that I can’t get away from, even though I kind of try with some of them.

[00:01:10] And the idea of making them just be a little bit more meaningful, a little more powerful, give me a little more joy instead of stress, yes please. So let’s jump in and let’s talk about being more mindful when we’re running the errands, doing the driving, and cooking the food.

[00:01:36] 

[00:02:00] Leah: dr. Rosina, thank you so much for being on the Balancing Busy podcast. Before we jump in, and I’m so excited about this topic, and I know that listeners cannot wait to get into it, will you share just a little bit about you and your background? 

[00:02:16] Rozina: I Am a psychiatrist, uh, for last 26 years, um, and I started Um, being a conventional psychiatrist, going through my own stages of stress and, you know, being the mother, being a professional, being busy all the time, go, go, go, go, um, until I had, um, wake up call and we can go into that later on.

[00:02:43] Rozina: But after that. Um, I realized that some of the things that, um, I teach patients in the office, I had the calling to bring it outside the office. So people like you and me don’t have to suffer unnecessarily. In that. process, I have written a book called stress to joy. That is meant for busy professionals, business owner, women, to manage their stress, before it manages them.

[00:03:14] Rozina: I wrote a stress to joy guided gratitude journal, , and have developed a, stress to joy, online course. And I do a podcast like you, and thank you for joining me on my podcast earlier. I’m happy and healthy minded. Dr. Rosina. And I’m really excited to bring all these tools to your audience today.

[00:03:37] Rozina: I 

[00:03:37] Leah: am excited, too. And I’m so excited about this topic of how we can have more mindfulness cooking, driving. As I started to think about this, I got even more excited because I have had conversations in the last two days with two different girlfriends and They’re talking about all the places they have to go and what’s funny is the way that these conversations even took place was on the Marco Polo app and we all talk to each other while we’re driving, right?

[00:04:09] Leah: Like that’s when we have these moments to connect. So yesterday was one of my well, all three of my kids are in track together and yesterday was the last meet where all three of them would be participating and it was two hours away from our house. But I was like, I’m not missing this. This is my senior daughter’s last one, I will be there.

[00:04:30] Leah: So I had four hours of driving. So in all of this driving, I got to catch up on these Marco Polos. And I’m talking to one friend in Arkansas, another one in Utah, another one in another state. You know, I’m, I’m listening to these Polos and connecting and And getting, getting to have this time. But there is a common thread.

[00:04:50] Leah: We’re all driving all the time. We’re picking up, we’re dropping off, we’re getting the kids from here to there, running the errands. And then there’s this other thing that we’re all doing all the time, which is cooking. For some, it is Three meals a day for others. You know, it’s dinner every night, but these are part of everyday life.

[00:05:10] Leah: So this idea of taking this thing that I think a lot of us may be dread. We can even get a little resentful toward that just feels monotonous to turn this into something that actually feels rejuvenating is so exciting to me. So let’s jump in and will you talk to us about your thoughts behind mindful cooking, mindful driving?

[00:05:36] Leah: What even is 

[00:05:38] Rozina: that? Sure. And, um, have you heard about mindfulness? Yes. Yes. So many people know what mindfulness is. Tell me what your understanding of mindfulness 

[00:05:51] Leah: is. So my understanding, and definitely correct me, but my understanding would be mindfulness is when I’m, I’m being fully present. I’m coming back and I’m really aware and recognizing.

[00:06:02] Leah: Where I am in the moment and I’m not allowing distraction to be taking me everywhere else. There’s lots of times where I catch myself and I realize my mind is somewhere completely different. I’m already making tomorrow’s to do list. Sometimes I catch myself literally writing a podcast in my head as I’m doing something else or right.

[00:06:22] Leah: Like I’m. Distracted. Sometimes for good, sometimes definitely not for good. And so when I think about mindfulness, I’m thinking, okay, this is me truly being present in the moment. Am I getting it right? 

[00:06:34] Rozina: You are, you’re absolutely right. So the definition of mindfulness from psychology viewpoint is moment to moment awareness, intentionally and non judgmentally.

[00:06:49] Rozina: And so you being present completely in whatever experience, and as the experience is unfolding, being aware of that, , is mindfulness. So this concept of, uh, mindfulness while cooking and while driving came about because, um, you know, as I said, I’m also a mom and I’m also on the road a lot. You’re doing 

[00:07:12] Leah: some of those things all the time too!

[00:07:15] Rozina: That’s true. That’s true. But, um, the, the wake up call, uh, reference that I said in the beginning was, , 2004 was the time when I was, um, a busy mother business owner. I had a five year old kid, our offices had moved, the tension and the stress level was very, very high. And I was in this go, go, go mode that most of us are in situation and didn’t realize how stress was catching up on me.

[00:07:49] Rozina: And one day when I was driving back from work, I felt a little dizzy. I said, okay, well, you know, my home is like five minutes away. And as I was driving, my mind started thinking, Oh, tomorrow is the day off. What am I going to do? I’m going to relax. Maybe I’ll go by the lake and sit and read a book, or should I do a tub bath?

[00:08:11] Rozina: And while my mind was going over there, I heard this big bang and I came to awareness and found that I had fallen asleep on the wheel, I was hit by a car. And I had broken my right hand. Oh my goodness. 

[00:08:30] Leah: So your wake up was literally a wake up into a situation that you did not want to be in. And it was truly a moment of exhaustion, burnout, just going too hard, too long.

[00:08:46] Leah: I often talk about these feelings. Of being frazzled frantic, right? Like it just sits heavy on your chest and how sometimes there’s a little of that in life. That’s normal sometimes. But when it’s this on going day after day, and we keep telling ourselves. Next week, it’s gonna get better next month. It’s gonna get better.

[00:09:12] Leah: And it just doesn’t seem to ever get better. And I can relate to this. I can understand this idea of like, you’re fantasizing this day off this Oh, what would it be like to relax? I’ll admit that for a very, very long time, I would go into that fantasy. And then I would judge myself on that fantasy because there was too much to get done.

[00:09:32] Leah: And I’d never give myself permission to have it. So like, I would fantasize. I I’m going to read the book. I’m in a layout. I’m going to sleep in. I’m going to work on this thing that, that was just for fun, whatever it might be. And inevitably, I would not do any of those things. I would choose something that I deemed productive and, and that is what I would work on.

[00:09:57] Leah: And I really had to train myself. And it was a process because, oh, it was embedded deep, deeply rooted to train myself to, to give myself permission to even. Have downtime and believe that I deserved it, maybe, or that it was acceptable. So, so this happens to you, and, and you find yourself in this moment, and this eventually leads to this, this practice of mindfulness in these daily tasks, in cooking, in, in driving.

[00:10:28] Leah: So will you kind of talk me through how this evolved and, and what this actually looks like in cooking and then in driving? 

[00:10:37] Rozina: Sure. You know, after that incident, the life after that was very, very stressful. Yeah, 

[00:10:45] Leah: you’re hoping for better, and now you have a broken hand, a wrecked car, insurance that’s probably gonna go up, and you definitely didn’t get home at the time you thought you were gonna get home that day, and your day off became very, very different, didn’t 

[00:11:00] Rozina: it?

[00:11:00] Rozina: Yeah, waiting for the surgery on the hand because like by the time I came to awareness, you know, the airbags were inflated. My hand was like a chair on the steering wheel. So I couldn’t even pick up the phone. I was just like five minutes, literally five minutes from my home. And so again, like, you know, it was a big saga, but over the next several months, it was very, very hard when you can’t zip up your pants, when you can’t open the food jars. We can’t make phone calls like simple things.

[00:11:34] Rozina: I had a five year old kid. I couldn’t take care of him. So it was very, very, very stressful. But I was really fortunate because I was a psychiatrist. I was teaching these tools to my patients, and I was surrounded by my colleagues who would also be teaching. And so I learned a lot. I had to apply all these tools that I was teaching others in my own life.

[00:11:56] Rozina: For more UN videos visit www. un. org And gradually I started kind of making the moment and one, one pivotal moment that I would like to share is like one day, um, I was, you know, my husband took me to visit my family members kind of, you know, getting a little, um, change of scenery. I was held in the shower.

[00:12:16] Rozina: Uh, and, and, you know, the shower was upstairs and the family was gathered downstairs. So, I was, you know, after I was done, you know, somebody was supposed to come and help me change because I couldn’t change by myself. And so I got done and I called them, but my voice didn’t reach downstairs. So they didn’t know I was done and I was stuck upstairs.

[00:12:36] Rozina: I couldn’t come out because I can’t change. And I reached that feeling that. peak of helplessness. I’ve been back in the shower and I turned on the shower and I was banging the wall of shower, you know, with this feeling of helplessness. And then I had my epiphany, said, I’m banging the wall of shower. with my left hand.

[00:13:00] Rozina: What if I would have lost my left hand too? What if I would have lost my eyes, or my mind, or my life? And my five year old, the week before, was in car the whole week. She was not feeling well. And that was the first day she went back to the daycare. What if she was in the car too? So I had this shift of mind and that allowed me to get into the grateful mode of things that I still had.

[00:13:34] Rozina: And a week later when I was sitting in the bed and couldn’t sleep because I’m a right sided sleeper and all these nails around my right hand would not let me sleep, I was sitting and my friend had given me a journal and I pulled that journal for the first time, started writing with my left hand. And I said, thank you, God, for my left hand, my eyes, a husband sleeping by my side, a pillow to rest my hand, and ability to endure this pain.

[00:14:04] Rozina: And that started me on this journey of recovering from that very, very severe, stressful phase. But over the time, I kept on writing. And it allowed me to start now becoming more reflective of what I was doing, what was causing these problems and how I can overcome them. So one of the major thing, of course, driving was the one major thing that I really, really became very mindful of because, you know, Um, you know, of 

[00:14:37] Leah: course, you never wanted that to 

[00:14:38] Rozina: happen again, right?

[00:14:41] Rozina: Um, and cooking also became very important because, you know, as I said, you know, when your dominant hand is not working, you know, simple things you don’t realize you can’t do. And as I started recovering, I became much more aware of what I was doing. When I started writing the book for my, for my busy friends, I realized, you know how when you go to stress management programs, you hear people talk about how to manage stress.

[00:15:11] Rozina: Many gurus would indicate. It suggests you should do one hour of meditation every day, right? 

[00:15:18] Oh, 

[00:15:18] Leah: I’ve heard that for sure. 

[00:15:20] Rozina: How many of us are able to do that? 

[00:15:22] Leah: will say I have been able to carve that, but, but I mean, this is literally what I do, right? I focus on cutting hours, but I can vividly remember, I remember sitting there and hearing that kind of advice.

[00:15:36] Leah: And honestly, it wasn’t helpful. It made me want to cry. Because I’m looking at these people who are saying, Oh, I spent an entire hour meditating and whatever, and I couldn’t figure out how to, you know, even find the time to get a shower in. And it made me feel hopeless. And just, like, I remember just thinking, Oh, you must just have it.

[00:15:59] Leah: All you have someone to do all the things for you. And, and that was my own bitterness. And, and, you know, some green, green envy happening there. But, uh, yes, I, I, I, I know that so many relate to that. And, and I remember feeling those same feelings of an entire hour. And honestly, even now. Maybe I could carve an hour, but I’m not going to like that an hour for meditation alone is is not my my choice in in how I will spend my time.

[00:16:27] Leah: So how can we get the benefits when we don’t have a whole hour to to sit crisscross applesauce and and do some some um, Namaste. 

[00:16:40] Rozina: Yeah. And, and not to minimize the benefit of it. Okay. Right. Do it. You know, um, I, I’m a morning person. So I try to carve out my meditation time in the morning and I still recommend that.

[00:16:54] Rozina: But what happens is many people who are very, very busy people, when they hear about, you know, all these things they have to do, they feel like, you know, stress management is more stressful. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 

[00:17:07] Leah: Because you’re supposed to fit it in and the whole idea is I’m stressed probably because I don’t feel like I have enough time and now you’re telling me in order to feel less stress, I need to figure out where to fit this in also.

[00:17:19] Leah: And so yes, stress management, yes, creates more stress. 

[00:17:24] Rozina: So one of my friends that, you know, I told her that I, I really want to, you know, write this book and stuff. And so she said, I’m going through so much stress, you know, um, I’m stuck on the road for an hour and a half each way. And my stress is now showing in my skin.

[00:17:41] Rozina: You know, I. Uh, I don’t have any time for exercise. I don’t have any time for my hobbies and I, I can really use your help. And so like we talked about exercise was her tool, but she didn’t have the time to go to the gym. Uh, art was her tool, but she didn’t have time for doing that.

[00:17:57] Rozina: Okay. So what are you doing? You are spending three hours a day in the car. What if we make that three hours more beneficial for you? So that’s how we started talking about let’s, let’s use mindfulness while driving. So, um, you know, simple thing, be present in the moment. And it’s a, it’s a, it’s a great concept, but sometimes when you try to apply it kind of, It’s hard.

[00:18:23] Rozina: So then I took her through step by step instruction of how to make that driving more enjoyable when she’s stuck in the traffic. And she said, how can I enjoy driving? You know, I’m stuck. In an area which is not even beautiful, there’s no like, you know, uh, uh, natural scenery. I’m just stuck in the middle of like, you know, busy road.

[00:18:46] Rozina: And I said, you don’t need to have beautiful scenery to be able to enjoy. So these are the instructions I give her. And maybe I can walk you through so our audience can benefit. Would you like me to do that? I would love that. Yes. Okay. So the first step of mindfulness is intention. You can make an intention that I’m going to drive mindfully today.

[00:19:08] Rozina: And that sets, uh, sets mind into becoming more observant. And as you’re walking out of the home, as you’re walking towards the car, then become totally observant of your body movements. All the sceneries around, you know, how the weather is, how the even color of your car is, how your body is moving and how your posture is.

[00:19:30] Rozina: And as you’re moving towards the car, um, you can, uh, be observant of how your, uh, hand is kind of turning. Uh, or, or, or opening the car door as you go in and sit on the car seat, how does it feel in the body? How does the back feel? How the, the bottom feel? How the legs are? Are they relaxed? Are they tense?

[00:19:53] Rozina: And as you turn on the car, you know, either you’re turning on the key or, you know, uh, pressing the button to start the car, um, You know, observe how your hand is moving, observe how your hands are kind of going on the steering wheel, become observant of, um, aware of, like, you know, how your leg is going from the brake to the accelerator.

[00:20:15] Rozina: And as you, if you’re in the, in the garage or in the, in the parking area, as you’re backing up the car, observe. How the scenery keeps changing, you know, the perspective keeps changing moment by moment, although it’s the same scene, but as the car is moving, you know, your perspective keeps changing. And so you, you start observing each Other people’s perspectives.

[00:20:39] Rozina: Each change in that perspective. And as, um, as your car starts moving, feel that kinesthetic feeling of car moving. And as the scenery keeps changing, you keep observing whether it’s a light, whether it’s a stop sign, whether the car is moving smoothly. Become aware of that or stay aware of that one time.

[00:21:06] Rozina: One time me and my colleague, we were going for, for a seminar when I was giving a talk and it was, um, it was an Olympia and we live in Seattle. So it was a long drive and started raining. And my, my colleague was like, just getting worked up. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Now we’re going to be running late and it’s raining.

[00:21:26] Rozina: I hate rain. And, you know, her thought Pattern was making it so much more stressful. So, okay, let’s just calm down and let’s practice our mindfulness. And so what we did was we started saying, okay, we have already left home. So we can’t change that. Okay. And if you’re going to reach whatever time you’re going to reach fretting about, it is not going to help.

[00:21:51] Rozina: And then saying, okay, I hate rain, it doesn’t help either because rain is rain. 

[00:21:57] Leah: Especially if you live in Seattle, let’s be honest, not a good place to decide. Maybe you need to go to Arizona or something. 

[00:22:05] Rozina: Actually, actually, I tell, um, you know, they, they teach a little. poetry to, to little kids. They say, rain, rain, go away, come again another day.

[00:22:16] Rozina: And so one day my kid was singing that and literally like, you know, when you’re driving in Seattle roads, you can actually have part of the travel, like, you know, rain and part of it sunny. Yep. And so Um, so we had this sunny, sunny patch and then it started raining and my kids started singing rain, rain, go away.

[00:22:38] Rozina: I said, that’s a bad attitude to teach kids, especially in Seattle. So let’s change that poetry. So we, we, we made a different poetry. We said, When it rains, I won’t rain, when it shines, I won’t shine, when it’s cold, I won’t cold, when it’s hot, I won’t hot, I want whatever weather it is, and therefore I’m always happy because I always have what I want.

[00:23:04] Leah: Mm, I love that, and that is what we want to teach our kids, not that a particular set of circumstances is the answer to being happy. So Mm. Mm. As you were explaining this idea of, and we can apply the same thing to cooking. So this idea of being present, you know, really noticing all the moments that are happening as you’re driving.

[00:23:25] Leah: I’m imagining the same thing. I’m pulling out the ingredients. I’m, you know, maybe taking the, the herb, if it’s a thyme or cilantro, I’m rubbing it in my fingers, I’m smelling it. I’m noticing myself as I chop, right. I’m just envisioning, like really experiencing this. And it, it made me think about meditation and meditation.

[00:23:44] Leah: One of the biggest things, whenever anyone’s trying to start a practice of meditation is that your mind keeps wandering and you know, we’re not supposed to judge it. We’re supposed to just allow ourselves once we notice to come back. So I was thinking about this and I was guessing that this is maybe a similar practice because it is almost a form of meditation.

[00:24:04] Leah: Where you’re going to be noticing everything and then you’re going to realize your mind has gone somewhere totally different and then you just bring it back and, and get to that mindfulness again. Would that be, would that be correct? 

[00:24:16] Rozina: Yes. So mindfulness is awareness of everything. Also, the distractibility of the mind, you know, as your mind is due to thinking different things, becoming aware that that is what is happening is mindfulness.

[00:24:30] Rozina: So finishing the story of my friend and me going and getting, you know, running late to the seminar in the, on a rainy day, we, we actually said this poetry again to ourselves, like, \ I won’t rain when it, when it rains, I won’t rain when it shines, I won’t shine. And so we started enjoying the rain and we started enjoying how everything becomes more washed and clear and brighter after the rain and those little drops of rain as they were falling on, on the, on the windshield and you know, the wiper going back and forth.

[00:25:07] Rozina: We, we started enjoying that. That moment of being able to drive, being safe despite the rain, being, um, aware of our circumstances and yet enjoying that moment and yet it made that experience so much more enjoyable and We actually made in time, but sometimes you just fret so much about things not going well and that we kind of destroy our ability to enjoy that moment.

[00:25:44] Rozina: So I would suggest that as you, you know, our listeners and you and you’re trying to drive next time. So let’s take the example that you just mentioned. You had to drive to see your kids. perform for two hours. Um, you make, bring that awareness, you know, that, that joy that you would get, um, and make this process of this two hours enjoyable.

[00:26:15] Rozina: Playing certain games, like you just, you just said, you called your friends and stuff. I used to, I used to be so busy minded that I would have a recorder on my phone or a tape recorder on those times there would be these recorders because I used to get the best ideas while driving. 

[00:26:32] Leah: Yes. Cause you had a moment to pause.

[00:26:35] Leah: I do the same thing. I get amazing ideas driving and in the shower because I have a notepad that I keep in the shower. You can buy it on Amazon, you guys. It’s, um, called, uh, No More Ideas Down the Drain. I think that’s what it’s called. And, and I literally have a notepad and a pencil. It’s in every shower in our house because yes, you have those moments where you’re still long enough for your mind to actually be able to just spark creativity.

[00:27:04] Rozina: And if you don’t mind, I would actually challenge that. I would say try not to do that. Really? 

[00:27:11] Leah: Oh, that’s what I like, I feel like I get those good ideas. Okay, so I’m supposed to like, because I, I am, I’m going to be honest, I’m so productivity minded. I mean, that, that is one of my core values, right? Is, is production is.

[00:27:28] Leah: is productivity. And so trying to be still is really hard for me. It’s something I’ve been really working on over the last decade is, is feeling comfortable in stillness because I actually find that I feel uncomfortable in stillness. And so even as you’ve been saying all this, I’ve been thinking of my mind.

[00:27:47] Leah: Okay, so I could work on the, the, the mindfulness for maybe about a month. 15 minutes. And then I can switch my, my book on. Like, I love listening to productivity books and, and business books and self development. I could listen to that and I could get my Marco Polo’s done because, you know, that’s what she has.

[00:28:04] Leah: So am I already like, no, no, you need to just work on. Mindfulness. Have I already gotten it wrong? 

[00:28:11] Rozina: Not wrong because I was like that. I could see that, you know, I was, as I said, I used to have the recorder and I would record the idea because you don’t have time to write. And the best ideas are coming when I’m driving or I’m in the shower or I’m cooking.

[00:28:25] Rozina: And so these are the, these are the places where I used to practice that product. And, and our society kind of values, multitasking. It’s so true. We are talking. We’re doing like I was talking to one of the drug reps. And, um, you know, as I started teaching this mindful driving one drug rep, really, you know, we get the people who are sales rep for different medication.

[00:28:50] Rozina: Yes. Yeah, 

[00:28:51] Leah: that was that was good to probably clarify for those are like she has drug reps coming. Remember, she’s a doctor, they’re coming to to share new new prescription options. 

[00:29:03] Rozina: So I give them a gift, you know, when I shared the mindful driving, I shared this gift because they spend most of the time on the road going from different doctors.

[00:29:14] Rozina: And, um, one person really took it, took it to heart and, so I, I kind of taught him how to be present and enjoy every moment and maybe try to change the. Uh, rose, um, that she, he would, he would take different places and he took it one more step. So the next time when he was giving me feedback, he said, this exercise helped me so much.

[00:29:37] Rozina: Now, if I have like, you know, option of like, you know, going from the express way versus the alternate way, I, I changed my path. So I enjoyed new sceneries. I love that. You know, stop by, uh, for coffee or something like that. I make a like video of the life, life going around me. And so, he, he made it kind of the stories of his stops.

[00:30:03] Rozina: And everything started popping out much more. Like, we don’t even realize, uh, so many things that we pass by. Life is passing by and we don’t realize. When I started practicing, like, you know, I stopped by in the middle. Of the, you know, middle of my path to my office going to the restroom and I observed this beautiful, like, you know, 100 years old tree stump over there and I took the pictures like, and I was joking, like I took the picture when I stopped by for the toilet thing.

[00:30:35] Leah: But I do love what you’re saying, and I think there’s so much truth in we can find joy in the mundane. If we are intentional and that that nugget that idea that in those daily tasks that have maybe. Become mundane or dreaded, whether it’s driving the kids around or it’s making dinner that we can set an intention and if we are, if we’re willing to give it a try, if we’re willing to put in the effort, we can find joy, actual joy and fulfillment in these tasks that we’re doing.

[00:31:13] Leah: And I just love that so much because There are things that we can’t really avoid. We can’t get away from him. We can’t get away from the time in our car. Maybe or the meals that need to be made or the laundry that needs to be folded or whatever it might be. And so finding this opportunity to pay attention and to look and toe to find that that beauty that that gratitude that joy.

[00:31:38] Leah: It’s just what a great Way to approach these daily tasks. 

[00:31:45] Rozina: Yeah. Yeah. And kind of, I laughed when you said, okay, I’m going to, um, do Marco Polo and I’m going to do this. And I started saying that I used to kind of share, record these. Once I started practicing mindfulness while driving the amount of tiredness at the end of driving went much down because Although I am driving, I’m now enjoying and it becomes relaxing.

[00:32:09] Rozina: So I enjoy all the, all the trees, all the birds, all the sky movement. And you know, when my car is stopping, I’m actually observing other cars and other people. And you would say some people are like really, really getting angry because they’re stuck and some people are dancing and enjoying and some people are talking.

[00:32:27] Rozina: I’ve even observed people trying to do makeup at the stop sign. I’ve seen that 

[00:32:32] Leah: once or twice too. Yep, I’ve seen that. I saw someone shaving. Going down the freeway, shaving. Oh my god. I was like, okay. 

[00:32:42] Rozina: That’s, that’s crazy, uh, aspect of multitasking and putting yourself and other people in danger.

[00:32:49] Rozina: Absolutely. 

[00:32:50] Leah: We, we do not recommend that one at all. We are going for a more aware mindfulness approach. Not how many things can I get done while I drive? Yes, yes, absolutely. Oh, this has been so good. Do you have any final thoughts to share with us as we wrap up? 

[00:33:08] Rozina: There’s so much to share, but kind of a couple of nuggets , um, awareness combined with gratitude, even yes, takes it to the next level.

[00:33:19] Rozina: So being able to drive, having the car, having the money for the gas, being able to talk, being able to see having this coordination of the body, the whole thing, you know, if you see it, that just that one moment. You may be dreading trying, okay, I need to go drive my kid to whatever activity. Just imagine so many right things have to happen for you to be able to be able to do that small thing.

[00:33:50] Rozina: So being able to drive is a big blessing. Having a kid, having a kid who’s interested in doing things, having the capacity to be able to, um, do that activity, um, is a blessing and if you start kind of observing. Appreciating and being grateful that activity that mundane activity would become the act of meditation, which is kind of clarified.

[00:34:22] Rozina: Meditation work means being focused on one point. So you know, when you use this magnifying glass and you attract all the sun rays at one point that the paper burns. When you are doing meditating, you’re bringing all your mental energy to one point. And so whether you sit down and do a traditional non, you know, um, passive meditation, or you do active meditation in form of mindful driving.

[00:34:52] Rozina: And like you said, mindful cooking, um, or mindful shower. Um, maybe that is the only time you can focus, use that time as you are, you know, as you’re entering the shower, say, I’m going to do a mindful shower today, observe how your hand is moving, how observe how the water is touching your body, how observe all those bubbles and observe all these ideas also coming to your mind and appreciate that instead of trying and running and doing it and believe me.

[00:35:25] Rozina: There’s sometimes you feel that those ideas would leave you if you don’t document right there and then, but if you actually enjoy that moment and calm your body and mind down, your mind would be much more focused later on. 

[00:35:42] Leah: I do believe that. I don’t know if I can be convinced to not write it down on the shower pad, but I know that you are right.

[00:35:50] Leah: That the more that we can. Enjoy where we’re at. And in that moment, the more energy we’re going to have, the more clarity we’re going to have later, constantly trying to do so many things at once. It is exhausting and it just leaves us depleted. And you do get to the end of the day and there’s just nothing left, which.

[00:36:14] Leah: Isn’t necessarily the best thing, especially for a lot of us, where the end of the day is when you’re spending time with your partner. The end of the day is when everybody’s finally home and you’re spending a little family time. That is not the time where you want to have nothing left in the tank. So, oh, so, so good.

[00:36:30] Leah: Thank you so much. And we have a gift for everyone, which we will have in the show notes. But will you just tell everybody what that is? 

[00:36:40] Rozina: So, uh, for you to be able to, uh, bring mindfulness and gratitude in the moment, I have developed a like five minutes instruction audio guide that would allow you to become present wherever you are.

[00:36:53] Rozina: Um, and it combines mindfulness, it combines progressive muscle relaxation, gratitude, and smile. So I invite you to download this, uh, audio guide. And I call it a feet to floor or relax in a minute and start practicing. And so even if you do it like, you know, one time in the morning or scattered throughout the day, those one minute, one minute, one minute would help calm down your body.

[00:37:23] Rozina: And as the stress level goes up and you do this one minute exercise, it would bring it down. And so then as the stress goes up. You’ll do it and it will come down. So your stress level does not go out completely out of control and you can maintain your ability to be your best or form at your best. And you know, it’s like, it’s a blackboard.

[00:37:45] Rozina: When you’re writing, writing on the blackboard, if you want to write another message, it’s better to wipe the blackboard and write the next message. Otherwise everything gets jumbled, right? So these mindful exercises are like wiping the blackboard so that space is clear, the message gets clear, you are more productive, you are at your best.

[00:38:09] Rozina: And yet you are not as stressed as otherwise you would be. So that is my gift for you to manage stress by bringing these mindful moments into day to day regular activities like shower, like driving, like cooking. Mm, that’s so 

[00:38:28] Leah: good because while I know there are many who may say, I do not have an hour, I don’t even have 15 minutes, I know every single one of us can find one minute and even one minute several times throughout the day to bring ourselves back to intention, to being fully present so that we truly can live our best life.

[00:38:48] Leah: Oh, thank you so much. This has been wonderful. Thank you, everyone, for listening to this episode of The Balancing Busy Podcast. We will have these wonderful resources, Dr. Rosina’s book, this wonderful gift she has for you, and all of her links in the show notes, so you’ll be able to find those by going to balancingbusypodcast.

[00:39:09] Leah: com. I will see you next week as we work to do less but better so that we can live a life that lights us up, and we can do that without compromising our home, our happiness, or our health. . 

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