Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session I'm going to share three questions you can use to ground yourself. Now, if you're listening to this, it means that you're human and that also means you're no stranger to what it's like to have an agitated mind. There are a number of reasons why our mind might feel agitated, but often it's because of very primal conditioning that the brain is engaged in related to the external world. Feeling maybe unsafe or out of control, or just confused about how to relate to what's here right now.

And so these questions help address some of those primal concerns that the brain might have so that it can restructure and reorganize itself around a little bit more stability. The first question is simply, in what ways am I safe? In what ways am I safe? So it's a question you drop into your awareness. And as soon as you drop a question into your mind, the mind is going to look for answers. So you say, in what ways am I safe? For me right now, it might be I notice there's a roof over my head. I feel relatively well fed in this moment.

And I don't feel any threats that I can perceive. You might have different answers that arise for you. But just asking that question allows you to orient toward this very basic human need of safety. In what ways am I safe? The next question, what can I control right now? What can I control right now? Now the idea of control tends to get a bad rep in the meditation community, because it's all about letting go of control. We don't have control over anything, right? Not quite.

It is still important to feel a sense of control. Even in meditation, when we're directing our attention back to the breath, that is a form of controlling the mind and influencing with a sense of agency. So the brain really responds well to feeling it's agentic relationship to the world around it, feeling a sense of influence and control. So you might not be able to control everything, but ask, ask yourself, what can I control right now? I can control maybe taking a break. I can control going for a walk.

I can control what I'm going to think about. I can control who I call next and what I do next. All of that helps to orient the brain around a sense of agency in this moment. And then the last question is, in what ways can I let go? But I would actually rephrase this to, in what ways can I let be? So this acknowledges that there are some things that might not be in your control. The idea of letting go can be hard because it feels like we're just walking away from it, which is why I like the rephrase of let be.

Instead of gripping onto it, we're just holding it. We're giving it space to be here. If it chooses to stay, okay, but we're not taking this same gripping relationship around it. In what ways can I let be? So three questions. In what ways am I safe? What can I control right now? And in what ways can I let be? Try these out in moments where you're feeling a little overwhelmed and agitated.

Chances are they'll help calm your mind and help you to reground. Thank you for your practice. Let's settle in for today's meditation.