Mindfulness and a Meaningful Life | Gisele Bündchen, Anderson Cooper

I don't know how I achieved this task, but I am very happy that I did. I drew the long straw, so I'm really glad I didn't realize that you meditate almost every day. I do, it's a big difference. when I really don't I feel almost like I'm catching up when I don't meditate how did you get there? When you started? How did you start? I started meditating out of necessity actually when I was in my early 20s and I had severe panic attacks and couldn't really find a way. I didn't know what else to do. It was really like the last resort I saw.

When would they come out? The panic attacks appear more or less, I mean, it started on a little plane, but I was pretty severe having them for about nine months, but they started on a little plane and then it became like tunnels, elevators, airplanes, buildings whose windows don't open. They opened and then it became my own apartment and I mean, it was nice, it became like my world, it kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and I just needed to find a solution to get out and and and I always have been, you know. connected, I would say that to this trust in the spiritual realm, let's say that way and then I prayed, you know, I pray because every time I think that you go through the worst moments of your

life

, I mean, that's when you like to go. to pray, I mean, that's what I do and I came up with the idea of ​​yoga and then I found a teacher and instead of just doing it ourselves and we started practicing meditation every day around 5:30 in the morning, like this It was how I started my meditation with hope and then I was basically proud.

I'm reading techniques, which is alternate nostril breathing, which is what you alternate, helps balance the latter on the right side of the brain. I had never heard of it until Hillary Clinton wrote about it in her book. I don't know if anyone else knew that yeah, we absolutely shouldn't do it and I, yeah, I asked Hillary Clinton about it and one of my producers was like, "You know what you should ask her to do it." and I thought there was no way Hillary Clinton was going to do the alternate nostril breathing technique on camera and I said, you know what we're going to try?

I asked her and she was more than happy to start doing everything, it's pretty simple, yeah, it's pretty easy I mean. it's basically like you know you inhale on one side and you exhale on the other and then you inhale again, you just alternate inhaling and you can Google because the guy will take a long time, but it's nice, it's immediate. I feel the effects and I want to do what you know, ten minutes of that gets you into a space that's very clear and then meditate after that, so I really thought that was in addition to changing my diet and, yeah, actually.

Let me look at

life

in a completely different way because before that I was a person who was going a hundred miles an hour on the hamster wheel and just chasing my tail. You had already started modeling. I was modeling since I was 14 years old. That was when I was in my early 20s. I was 23 years old and that's when I started my meditation practice. Did you notice an impact very quickly? I did it because you know I was having severe panic attacks for a long time and I had I changed my diet, you know, I really liked to stop drinking, stop drinking coffee, stop smoking, but I was still like I had a lot of anxiety about things. and I think that breathing and daily meditation really helped me because it focused me and helped me become the observer instead of being like in the middle of the storm.

I was able to step back and look at that almost like I could watch my life as a movie and I was able to do that. By taking a step back, I was able to step away from that anxiety and that feeling of not being able to catch my breath and feeling like I was going to pass out and still see the thoughts or feelings but they didn't affect you in the same way because you become the observer. , so it's like you're watching a movie and when you're watching a movie you know you can cry because you can be feeling all the emotions, they're going to watch the movie, but you know it's a movie in a way, you know you're watching that and There's a part of you like you know the star of the restaurant is coming to kill.

This person likes, you know, let's say, but so that you can feel all the feelings of Kay Run, you know, but at the same time you like, no, you're not in it, you're not, you know, the dinosaur is not behind you . Basically, I think in a way it's like you can look at your life and then you can see that doing this is really good in a lie, you know you can make decisions from a place of truth instead of making hasty decisions and like you have to make This decision in you is not very clear to you when you can take a step back and become the observer you make decisions with a different level of consciousness with a different clarity and therefore better decisions I feel that in you I find One of the things that I talked about before when I was on stage is that even if I don't meditate 20 minutes a day or 30 minutes a day or several times today, whatever, even if it's a minute or two in a car or on a plane, I can center myself. in a way, Oh, big time, I really do, I mean, I think in the beginning, when I was having my severe anxiety and panic attacks, I actually went in like, you know, I don't know if you've ever heard of Vipassana, which is like an intense 10-day meditation.

I actually like seven days and I go silently and I just meditate for seven days and with that comes a lot of things, obviously when you're not talking you realize how much of a monkey mind it is. trying to take control because that's the job of the mind, right, it's like a friend told me this once, he said the mind is an instrument, don't let it touch you, so that's a really powerful thing to remember. to be just remember that you know that's the job of the mind is to hold on to things to stick to things and it's your job to say I choose this thought and I don't choose that and you know, because anything you give energy to is what grows In fact, I have a chapter in my book that talks about it's like you know where your energy goes, that's what grows and it's like we have to choose where we put our energy and because that's where we go in to manifest is more consciously. and we can make those decisions and where letting our mind go will be best for us and I think meditation is what it does today, for example, I'm meditating, I use meditation. for many different things, even if I can sit for five minutes and you want to answer a question so I can see the meditation.

I usually like to do it at 5:30 in the morning because I love it before my kids are you. I know you get up before the dog starts crying to go out, all that is what I like the most because everything is silent when you wake up, it's 5:30 in the morning, yes, between 5:30 and 5 :45, time you get up. around 10:00 yes never I mean really I wake up around 10:00 what do you mean I would like from 10:00 to 10:00 in the morning I wake up like me what time you leave very bad I don't like it 2 :00 a.m. I'm watching drug dealers and stuff, oh my God, you see, I'm a morning person.

In fact, I like to wake up before the sun. I mean, I love it, oh, that's great, yeah. I was like, yeah, I don't, it's just being like that. person but it wasn't really working for me so I had to make a little adjustment so sometimes you know we have to adapt it's like you know we're like there's different cycles in our life and when I was 20 maybe I was going to go to bed around midnight, but now my mom, you know, the kids get up early in the morning and they need things, so I feel like if I can take care of myself if I can put on the oxygen mask. first and do something for me first, then I am a much better mother, I am much more patient, I am much happier and I mean the profession that you are in, especially from the beginning, you know that people are judging about you.

Whether they hire you for this, they're commenting on your appearance, they make, they form judgments about you, a lot of things are not in your control and I think a lot of people in their life feel like things aren't that deep inside. their control as they would like it to be. Meditation helps them feel more in control of things. I think more than anything they allow me to have this different kind of understanding and in some ways acceptance of what is because I think every time there is no acceptance of what is, whenever there is resistance there is pain because you know we can't get into it. say what you know in my prayers or when I talk to you, you know my guardian angel whatever you want to call your higher self.

I always Ask, you know, show me the way, guide me and no matter what happens, help me reach the best and the highest, and I have to do it, and sometimes the best and the highest may be something else that my mind has decided that That is the path you should follow because I believe. our mind has a tendency, you know, we have a lot of conditioning that comes from our family, it comes from religion, it comes from society, so we live in this box and it has to look a certain way because we've been taught that way, like if he were if he's outside of this box he doesn't feel safe, he doesn't, but the universe, I mean, there's a higher intelligence.

I think he knows better than us and I think if we can trust that higher intelligence and say that things are happening. for me, not for me, you know things are happening for my growth, for my, you know, evolution. I think that when there is acceptance there is no pain because you trust, there is confidence and you say, okay, this is coming, you know whatever the challenge is. It can be challenging, it can be very intense at times and you just know it. I think when there's that acceptance, there's a kind of trust that you know things are happening for you.

You're a better father, do you think? I think so. I think he has made me a better person. You know what I mean. I guess I'm not trying to be. I mean, I think I used to be a cool person like you before. I know I need to get things under control and I think that's part of my panic attacks. You know, I didn't have control over a lot of things. You know, and I feel like that also brought me a lot of anxiety because I didn't know things. future, I didn't know what I was going to do, I didn't know tomorrow, you know, and I think all of that became things that created anxiety, made it more and I think once I trusted it in a way, once.

I like to allow it to be whatever it is and just say thank you and make the best out of any situation and then my life became a lot better and I think even with my kids you know it's like I'm not trying you know they're perfect little beans. , you know, I feel like my job as a mom is just to be their guardian, how old are they? I have an extra child who is 11 years old. I have an 8 year old and a five year old. so two boys and a girl are wonderful and they are so different that they couldn't be more different in personalities, they are amazing and they teach me every day and you know, with each of them I am always like that. a dance because each one of them has different needs, they all have and you know if you talk to one of them you know it doesn't necessarily work the way you talked to my daughter, that you would talk to my son or you know they all have different ways. to operate differently and it is beautiful to witness them and ask them to expand.

They allow me to expand and grow in ways I never talk about. It is meditation. I mean, some people try to get their kids to meditate. something else, you know, Benny, actually, he's my all of them, actually, this is a funny story because I met her. Normally, when I'm in Costa Rica, I love to meditate outdoors. I like to sit on the grass alone because I love nature. I feel that caring for nature is a very high vibration and every time I am close to nature I feel that my energy is like a play. I feel elevated.

I feel like I'm being healed in some way and then he's very connected to that. Also, every time I'm sitting outside, you just come and I mean, you know I'm sitting there, he just comes and sits with me and stays there with me, so it's like he loves to do that, it's just natural for him. he. my little girl, she got fired when she was five, she's a firecracker, so it's like sitting her down, he's a bit, you know, sitting a five year old isn't really his thing yet, but for Benny's Vidya it's really, It's like you know it, natural. something for him and Jack has also given him a little pillow and I said, you know, if you feel like there's too much, you can go to any space in the house and just sit here, this is your space and everyone knows that if you're here it's your space and no one is going to bother you because sometimes kids can get to know each other, hear each other's nerves, you know, it's like you plan a lot before you're here.

I was talking to the store and you know, he's saying that. For me, I'm trying to think about what my second act or my 51st is now and I feel like I've been in a big rush and now I feel like I need to find some kind of new chapter. Do you feel like you know what the next chapter is? It definitely has something to do with it. I mean, I think knowing yourself is the most important thing to me. You know, I've been on this quest since I was very young. I left home when I was 14 and I feel like I'm understanding myself better now, sowhich I think that's always going to be for me.

It's like a constant job that happens all the time, but I definitely feel like I'm in a different chapter of my life because I feel like when you know, when I started working at 14 and I was out in the world, I felt like I needed to please, you know, I needed to like it first. I wanted to please my parents because I wanted to be the good girl. I have five sisters. I am the middle child and a twin. You know, I never feel very special at all. You know, like you're the middle or whatever, and I think at this point in my life I just want to be, I think before I took the doors they were opening and I was just taking the opportunities and doing the best I could and being really accommodating and I think now, if you know, I really don't know, it's more about living my truth, it's about finding out what are the things that I really like, speak to my heart.

What are the things that inspire me and that bring me joy in my everyday experience because you know it's not a life, it's about the destination, it's about the journey, but the journey happens every day with every choice you make because it's not guarantee that we will be here tomorrow and I want to live how I feel like I want to live every moment to the fullest, so I think the next chapter will be a lot more of that every day. It's like you know I'm living my truth, am I doing what makes me happy? It's amazing so you left home I mean you grew up in a small town in the south of Brazil yes I love Brazil I haven't heard of tenure since that's how young it is yes you left at 14 yes and we mean travel the world from there, yeah, I left when I was 14, I went to, I moved to Japan, I lived in Japan for three months when I was 14 and then what was that? going from a small town in the south of Brazil to suddenly being in Japan, you know, I think my mom did an incredible job as a Guardian, she was for all of us because we were.

I felt very independent at 14, for some reason, you know, I was 14. Sometimes I don't know if you feel that way, but at 14 you feel like you know everything. Some reason why 14 is that age was like I know I can take care of myself so I was shutting myself out of the world and I knew it. how to cook and clean and all that because I was doing all that at home sharing the housework with my five sisters and when I laughed I felt like I already knew how to do that so I felt like that was covered and then I found out I was very naive , so I had to learn pretty quickly, but I saw a lot of different crazy things happening around me and then I realized, well, now I'm out in the world and I have to really be with your mom with you you know my mom was with my five sisters, so I left home alone at 14 and then everyone came back, but at 16 I moved to New York and I didn't speak a word of English or Japanese, so it was very interesting to live in Japan without speaking English or Japanese, I just said yes to every yes, you know, so I hoped it was easy and then I just fixed the paper.

If she's that good, she said yes. I guess I'm not that nice today, so I think you know, I'm fine, let me think about it, but she didn't speak English. I just didn't want them to think you know. I guess people always thought that models were like, you know, d'amour and I'm not. I want to let them think that about me, so I thought maybe I'd just pretend I know English, but no, I don't, so yeah, so I just left system 14 alone and being out in the world, he's like I said. , you already know. I didn't go to high school, but I feel like I have a diploma in the School of Life in a lot of ways because, you know, I think when you go out into the world and figure it out, you learn pretty quickly. you know when your parents are not there to protect you you know how to make decisions and you have to be you know you have to take responsibility for your decisions because there is no one there to protect you the other thing you talk a lot about is the environment you are behind the scenario talking about Mother Earth, that you know that we are all her children.

I mean, I always say you know it's funny to me. I have been working with the UN to do the best I can to talk about what is happening to our environment. And I always think it's funny how here we are destroying what gives us life, you know, I mean our air, our home and everything we have comes from another land and yet we feel like we can keep taking. taking and exploiting natural resources like they're endless, but you know there's only so much water, there's only so much natural resources and we were going through them like there was no tomorrow, you know, and you see cities.

Like a certain Paulo, for example, you know that Brazil is one of the places between Brazil and the African continent with the greatest amount of fresh water in the world and we had a drought, do you know that Cape Town ran out of water? Know? And I think that's how it is. There's a lot going on and because everything's going so fast and everyone's like, "Oh, we have to use this because you know how to progress and what kind of progress they're going to have when you don't have it anymore." Know? Do you find that your meditation? practice because I think a lot of people when they think about meditation, we talked to some of the previous speakers, they talked about this as well, they think of meditation as very internal and self-centered.

Do you think your meditation practice also makes you more? A kind of outward focus on the world. I think it just gives you a different kind of awareness. I think you see things from a different place. I think everything slows down and you become more aware. I think about everything because when you meditate, what do you do? It's like you go silent and I think there's something especially in our society today, all of this happened so fast. I mean, I remember when I was a kid, you know, there were no cell phones, even when I moved to Japan and I had to use them. my phone cards to call my mom and say: you know you have a dollar left and you know I called my mom like once a month from Japan because there wasn't, you know, 1994, you know, 1995 and I think you know someone who calls to the house and you say, wait a minute, I'll get my mom's message, you know, I remember when phones came out and they actually had the message that you can leave a message before you couldn't, so he had like a notebook with a pencil next to the phone to leave the message and I think in a way it was cool because you know people can do their work and then they can go home and have dinner conversations with their family and they would do it if people couldn't see them at work, they would have to wait until the next day and I think with this kind of ramp-up process where you're available 24/7, I think it's really creating a lot more anxiety, so what i think Even more so, it's important to have moments like you said, you know, several times a day.

I don't think you need to go for seven days, you know, Vipassana or five days, maybe sometimes you do it if you have something specific. we're dealing with, but would it be nice if every day you could check in, you know, if it's two minutes in a car ride, if it's five minutes in the morning when you wake up, if it's before you go to bed, if it's before from an important meeting just to take a moment, you know, you're going to go in and go in or take, you know, focus on your breathing, breathe deeply and just allow yourself to, you know, decompress.

I think it is essential to be able to deal with quantity. of pressure that we have in our society today I mean, I don't know how else I mean I couldn't do it without it I tell you a lot you said when you started you said you started yoga did you just do it? I have a yoga teacher who also started doing meditation with or you just started doing it by reading about it and doing it at first. I started with a yoga teacher. She came to my house like I said at 5:30 every morning because I had to work, you know, I was like a workaholic, so I needed to get some work done really early so I could do it, if he passed us, you know there was yoga is a philosophy, so it's really like pranayama is part of the breathing techniques, but then the asanas are the actual postures and the meditation are all different aspects of yoga, that's why I used to study yoga, the philosophy of yoga, so which was the breathing techniques and all those different things with the yoga teacher, that's how I started from the beginning and then once I felt like I knew enough about how to do it, then my practice is by myself, how I practiced it alone, you can do it anywhere, that's what you know, you don't need any tools like You know, I travel all the time in a hotel room.

I can have a small space just to do some Vipassana and some asanas and sit there and do a five-minute meditation. It could be in the car. It could be my bed. It could be on the plane it could be anywhere but he does it, he really does it, he does it and I don't think he does it as often as I do because he's naturally a more grounded person. I feel like I'm very you. I know my attention goes to many different places. I am a multitasker and my mind is very busy, so I feel like I need to know.

I realize when I need it. I stop in the moment. now and I only need five minutes and I'm a different person. I tell them it's completely different when I don't do it and then when I look like ants are crawling in my pants and I feel like I kind of advocate and I really can't, I'm like, you know, this is a good time for me, sticker, you know, five minutes and I just go in and come out of it, but I don't know if it's because I allow myself to breathe deeply and I can really feel myself coming back into my body because I think a lot of times when anxiety and all that stuff comes like You notice that you are not breathing, you are outside your body. everything gets very hectic and then if you can center yourself just take advantage of that moment, it's a gift that costs nothing, you know it's a gift, it's the greatest gift, I think you know you can, all you need is awareness to say that you know. is the moment this is I'm going to take these five minutes or two minutes or whatever time I have right now to just sit in silence and breathe, you know, the book is called lessons, my path to a

meaningful

life for you, what is a

meaningful

life I think a meaningful life is living your life with a purpose, you know feeling like you have a gift, I think we all have a gift, each one of us, I think we all come here with a special gift that is unique to us, we are singular we have something that we can offer to no one else can that only we have and I think what we must find is to find whatever is inside of you and use it in the service of others, it is not something easy to find, yes I would say which is not. because I think it takes a lot of asking yourself, you know, it takes a lot of asking yourself or sometimes it might be something that you can have an epiphany and find it.

I don't know, you know. I think it can be different for everyone, I think some people I have stories of people who you know were completely unaware, like how they were living their life and one day something happened and they woke up and were like, "Oh my God, you know, so I think that can happen." It may be a process that you know takes you there, but meditation helped you on that path to find something close and meaningful to you. I have always been a person who has searched for things like Who am I, why am I here?

I grew up in the south of Brazil, you know, Brazil is a very religious country, a Catholic country and my family is very Catholic and I remember asking the religious teacher, excuse me as if God, you know if Jesus says, you know, don't make judgments, as you know, they turn the other cheek, basically, someone who's seen one cheek turn the other, like why are these 10 commandments, you know, it seems like I'm like the huge gun, well, I actually went to the office. from the director and I didn't really understand why she. I was sent to the principal's office.

I thought, "Sorry, you didn't give me the answer. Still look at the answer to that question. I think I was about 12, so when I left home at 14 to go to world school, I decided it must have been like that." . I was relieved when you left, they said I was actually a student, okay, because you know one thing I could control was my grades. I thought I'm going to study, you know, and I have good grades, so I was pretty non-troublemaker. at school, but except asking quarters, but I definitely had questions that weren't answered, but you know, I think I asked myself that curiosity about life was why I study Buddhism and Taoism and Judaism, I mean Kerala, and astrology and numerology, I mean.

I've been studying all that stuff since I was 14 because I was trying to figure out that someone had to give me an answer as to why I'm here like he must be here for something, I mean, so I was really curious. discovering what that was and I really came to believe that we are all special and unique and that we are all here because we are one and that each of us contributes to whatever gift we have. You know, some people are here to be my amazing mothers and just be fed, no, you know people who provide amazing nourishment and somePeople are amazing listeners and some people are amazing with the land and some people are amazing because they are going to ask tough questions and push people. think you also know how to think outside the box and I think we all are you know one of the things I've struggled with and I realize I think my mom has heard me and my mom is never happy it's never anything you know she wants to be motherbut when she still had this drive to create things and I realize, as I've gotten older, how much I'm like her in that way.

I'm rarely happy with where I am. Do you feel happy? I do, but I feel like I'm always pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. I would say I never feel comfortable. I really feel like if I'm comfortable, I'm not growing, so I think so. Okay, if I'm too comfortable, I'm not, I'm not spending, I'm not challenging myself enough, so I'm constantly looking for things that challenge me and take me out of my comfort zone. I can grow because I think it's like thinking about a seed. You know it's not comfortable to farm. You know he has a burst of that hard shell and then he breaks through the earth and then he makes his way through it to get to it. surface you know it's like birth our birth you know we come to them I mean this is life you know we have to overcome challenges so we can be born you know come out the other side you know stronger and and and I think that's why that's why I love life because it's amazing Yes, are you looking forward to getting older?

I mean, are you looking forward to it? I mean, that's getting older. I'd rather have eight, you have all the wrinkles, but I love it. I think I'm Definitely I would say that today I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. Confidence comes with age and I think just confidence. I think wisdom. Know?. I think there are things that you have no way of knowing when you are 14 or 20 years old, you know what I mean because you are growing up and you are going to have those experiences and you have to know that there are certain things that you just have to live to know that they are not going to happen to you. kill, you know what?

I mean, if he doesn't kill you, he can probably make you stronger and I think I like to read thinking that way and I feel like life is a great gift and I just feel like everything is positive as long as we learn from it, so that whatever my attitude towards life is, you know what I think it's not about and I think that only with time do we get the opportunity to experience all those different colors, you know, the whole rainbow. of colors that life you know, we don't know what awaits us, but if we can have an open heart and be prepared for it and grateful and grateful for it, whatever it is, and just make the best of whatever it is, I think.

Life can be pretty fantastic and I think it's not about getting older, I think it's about growing in wisdom. I'd say better, don't you think? I think just evolving and growing. I mean, I think that's why we're here. The book is lessons, my path to a meaningful life. Thank you very much, thank you guys.