Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're

going to talk about relating to

parts of yourself as an enemy.

Now, I first want to start by saying I do

not support relating to parts of yourself

as enemies to overcome, including the ego.

You may have noticed this in different

personal development spaces that when

people talk about the ego, it's often

spoken about as this thing that we

need to transcend, that we need to

destroy, that we need to overcome.

It's an enemy that we

have to go to battle with.

And it's very easy to take this same

relationship to other parts of us, the

parts of us that might feel some fear,

the parts of us that might get angry.

Anything that we perceive is hurting us in

some way, or even those around us, we can

look at that and go, that is the enemy,

that is the thing that I need to overcome.

But we can really get into a troublesome

relationship with ourselves when we're

doing that repeatedly, because these

parts that are arising, including

anger or including fear, even though

they can be frustrating, they also

serve a purpose in different contexts.

Anger can tell you when something is off

and you need to respond in a certain way.

Fear can tell you when

there could be danger.

And so, often when we're frustrated

is when emotions like that, or those

parts get activated in contexts where

we don't really want them to be there.

But a lot of times that's because

in previous contexts that were

similar, we learned that this is

the way that we need to respond in

order to be safe, in order to get

attention, in order to receive love.

So it's not like these parts

are trying to hurt you.

They're, they just need some retraining.

They just need to learn from the

adult part of you how to respond

to the situation, and when they're

needed and when they're not.

So instead of relating to these parts

as enemies to overcome, I support

recognizing the positive intention of

each of these parts in you, including

the seemingly destructive ones, and

learning to create an internal space

where these parts can collaborate as

a team to respond most appropriately

to what's arising in the moment.

This is a way that you can move toward

what you're trying to do and the goals

you're trying to reach without betraying

parts of yourself along the way.

So see if you can take this perspective

into your day as you navigate the

different things that you will.

And as always thank you for your

practice, because this is big work.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.