Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today, I'm going to talk about how we

can have more lightness and ease in our

meditation practice and in our lives.

So I think what I've observed over time

is that one of the tricky things about

the path of mindfulness is coming face to

face with all the stuff we may not have

wanted to look at inside of ourselves.

And we come face to face with some things

about the human condition and about

our lives that can be hard to be with.

So Jon Kabat Zinn often used

to say, you know, meditation's

not for the faint-hearted.

But sometimes I think what can happen is

we start to take it all really seriously

and a kind of heaviness can set in.

And while it's true, on the one hand, that

looking deeply within and understanding

ourselves is a serious thing in the sense

that our ability to be happy and live in

harmony with the world and others really

does depend on us having a healthy mind.

But if we approach mindfulness

too seriously, then it just

becomes really challenging.

It really pays to take a lighthearted

approach to watching the mind.

That's why a healthy sense of

humor is a really good ally

on the path of mindfulness.

Because if we can smile at ourselves, if

we can smile at the mind, we can actually

be a lot more honest with ourselves.

We can relax a little bit more and

not take things too personally.

We can just kind of have this attitude

of sitting back, watching the antics

of the mind and not really getting too

worried about it or caught up in it.

I like to kind of almost view the mind as

an innocent, but sometimes naughty child.

It's kind of like, Oh, Mindie what

are you getting up to in there today?

Or, Oh, wow.

That was a good one, Mind.

That was very creative.

I mean, just kind of laughing at it.

And by the way, I do actually have

a pet name for my mind, I do call it

Mindie, which is kind of daggy, but I do.

But more than anything, it's

just this kind of sense of

smiling at the mind, you know?

And the reality is, is that the

more you practice meditation, the

more you realize that your struggles

are actually collective struggles.

It's not just you alone.

The human mind is a pretty

wild thing for all of us.

We all think crazy thoughts sometimes.

We all have very similar

struggles with the mind.

This is just part of the human condition.

And it really is so kooky some of

the stuff the mind comes up with

that you can't help, but laugh at it.

So humor and warmth towards

the mind really helps us get a

bit of space and perspective.

If we can have this light,

easygoing relationship with the

mind, then mindfulness becomes

a lot more fun and nourishing.

So my invitation for today.

Bring a little warmth and humor into your

mindfulness practice and see what effect

that has on you and on your practice.

I think you'll find this practice

of bringing in the warmth

and humor really uplifting.

So we can experiment with this

now, in today's meditation.

So I invite you to settle in for that

.And as always, thank you for your

practice and your presence here with us.