Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today, we're going to talk

about the mental habit of

always bettering ourselves.

So as humans, we have

a tendency to compare.

We compare ourselves

to others all the time.

But another thing we often do is we

create this mental image of how we want

to be in the future and then we compare

ourselves as we are now to that image.

We, we kind of have

this gap that opens up.

We ended up feeling that who

we are now is not enough yet,

not worthy yet, not there yet.

So we feel that we need to be better

than we are right now constantly.

It's a really common mental fixation, you

know, to be really focused on bettering,

improving, changing something about

ourselves rather than accepting ourselves.

And so I think when people first come to

mindfulness, they have this idea that this

is what mindfulness is all about, right?

It's about improving ourselves even more.

But mindfulness is not so much

about changing yourself or

fixing yourself in any way.

It's actually more about unwinding from

the thoughts that tell us we're not

enough yet, we're not there yet, we're

not okay yet, that we need to be better.

Mindfulness actually teaches us to

cultivate self-acceptance and self-love.

And with that comes an enormous amount

of inner peace, confidence, and freedom.

It's a huge relief when we can

finally learn to accept ourselves

just as we are and let ourselves be.

Now, this doesn't mean that we're

never going to do anything to

improve our life circumstances, or

certainly doesn't mean we're going

to give up on our morals or values.

Rather, it means unwinding from

the stories that tell us where

deficient and we need to be fixed

so that we can live our lives and

make our choices from a place of

fullness, wholeness and self-love.

It's important to know that when we

conjure up this mental image of a better

future self, and then we conclude that

we're not okay as we are, there's no

objective reality to those thoughts.

It's just the mind creating thoughts.

So you can feel free to treat these

thoughts, like any other thoughts.

Simply acknowledge them, letting them go.

As long as we stay stuck in this idea

that we need to be better before we

can be worthy and satisfied, there's

always going to be tension in the mind.

It's like we're constantly in battle

with ourselves, wanting ourselves

to be different than we are.

So today, here's my invitation to you.

Rather than trying to make yourself into

something else, see if you can switch

the focus today to loving and accepting

yourself just as you are right now.

No strings attached, no

ifs, buts, or conditions.

Each time you catch the inner critic

telling you you're not good enough

yet, just smiling at the mind and then

bring the focus back to acceptance.

So when we stop trying to change

ourselves, we can end the war

within and find a new sense of

wholeness, ease and oneness.

As Pema Chodron once said,

"Meditation practice isn't about

trying to throw ourselves away

and become something better.

It's about befriending who we are already.

How loving, nourishing,

and reassuring is that."

As always, thank you for your

practice and your presence here.

And now let's settle in

for today's meditation.