Sayadaw: At home when I had depression and I kept being mindful for 6 months or a year, there was momentum and insights started arising.

One day I walked home mindfully from work and was taking a shower. When I smelled the soap, I had this insight that this was the nature of this process; that smell only happens through this sense door.

It was so incredible for me to have this insight, not at an intellectual level but at an experiential level.

This got me curious – I wanted to know more and just kept being mindful because the more mindful I could be, the more I would discover. That was a huge motivation to practice and carried me for 2 ½ years before I became a monk.