Browse
Top articles
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
00:00
00:00
Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, I want to talk about befriending all the parts of you. In my experience as a teacher and as a practitioner who has spent thousands of hours paying careful attention to my internal experience through meditation, I still can't find an example of a time when it's actually beneficial to create an oppositional relationship to one's experience, including the parts of you that you might feel are destructive or problematic. In fact, those are often the parts that need the most love, compassion and care in order to not be destructive and problematic. This doesn't mean you give those parts free reign to act how that, however they wish to act.
We all know how that can be problematic. But it does mean we take the time to learn about and understand the positive intention of these parts, fear, anger, and create an internal space where all of our parts can collaborate as a team to respond most appropriately to what's arising in this moment. I want to acknowledge that it can be true that suppression of these seemingly problematic and destructive parts, like the part that might say I'm a failure, or I shouldn't even try, or I hate this person. I need to yell at them. This can be useful, perhaps as an in the moment strategy for reducing the negative impact of these parts on yourself and others around you, but it also seems to be the case that you can manage these parts in a similar, if not more effective and often more effective way in the moment through compassion and internal conversation.
And meeting these parts with a loving attitude of, oh, you know, what's coming up for you right now. Is there a different way that we can respond? What are you trying to accomplish with this? And when we do this, it doesn't come with the longterm consequences of suppression of our internal experience and all this internal opposition that we end up feeling when we're trying to fight our experience, which often leads us to do a lot of projection onto other people, leads to spontaneous outbursts of destructive energy and it leads to this feeling of being internally fractured, that there's parts of me that are okay to experience and other parts that are not okay that I have to push aside. That's not the experience of wholeness. And when we're talking about mindfulness and meditation and also internal freedom, we're talking about creating a space where the fullness of you can exist within awareness so that we're not creating this external tension. Again, it doesn't mean that all those parts have to come through in every moment.
It just means that we're developing a friendship with those parts, talking with them honestly and compassionately, and seeing how they can be used effectively in moments where they are needed and how they might be able to take a back seat when they're not needed. That can be done with kindness, with love rather than fear and hatred. So hope you can continue to integrate that into your practice and especially in your day to day relationship with yourself. It's very important in my opinion. Thank you for your practice.
Let's settle in for today's meditation.
Befriending Your Internal World
Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Duration
Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.
Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, I want to talk about befriending all the parts of you. In my experience as a teacher and as a practitioner who has spent thousands of hours paying careful attention to my internal experience through meditation, I still can't find an example of a time when it's actually beneficial to create an oppositional relationship to one's experience, including the parts of you that you might feel are destructive or problematic. In fact, those are often the parts that need the most love, compassion and care in order to not be destructive and problematic. This doesn't mean you give those parts free reign to act how that, however they wish to act.
We all know how that can be problematic. But it does mean we take the time to learn about and understand the positive intention of these parts, fear, anger, and create an internal space where all of our parts can collaborate as a team to respond most appropriately to what's arising in this moment. I want to acknowledge that it can be true that suppression of these seemingly problematic and destructive parts, like the part that might say I'm a failure, or I shouldn't even try, or I hate this person. I need to yell at them. This can be useful, perhaps as an in the moment strategy for reducing the negative impact of these parts on yourself and others around you, but it also seems to be the case that you can manage these parts in a similar, if not more effective and often more effective way in the moment through compassion and internal conversation.
And meeting these parts with a loving attitude of, oh, you know, what's coming up for you right now. Is there a different way that we can respond? What are you trying to accomplish with this? And when we do this, it doesn't come with the longterm consequences of suppression of our internal experience and all this internal opposition that we end up feeling when we're trying to fight our experience, which often leads us to do a lot of projection onto other people, leads to spontaneous outbursts of destructive energy and it leads to this feeling of being internally fractured, that there's parts of me that are okay to experience and other parts that are not okay that I have to push aside. That's not the experience of wholeness. And when we're talking about mindfulness and meditation and also internal freedom, we're talking about creating a space where the fullness of you can exist within awareness so that we're not creating this external tension. Again, it doesn't mean that all those parts have to come through in every moment.
It just means that we're developing a friendship with those parts, talking with them honestly and compassionately, and seeing how they can be used effectively in moments where they are needed and how they might be able to take a back seat when they're not needed. That can be done with kindness, with love rather than fear and hatred. So hope you can continue to integrate that into your practice and especially in your day to day relationship with yourself. It's very important in my opinion. Thank you for your practice.
Let's settle in for today's meditation.
Available everywhere.
Access on the web or in our mobile app.
Duration
Available everywhere.
Access on the web or in our mobile app.
Play in-app
Scan the following QR code with your camera app to open it on our mobile app
Already purchased?
Get Unlimited Access
A Mindfulness Plus+ subscription gives you unlimited access to a world of premium mindfulness content.
Email Missing
We couldn’t detect your email with the SSO provider you have selected.We are here to make a positive impact on the world. We never want to sell you something that hasn’t helped you live a better life. That’s why if you’re unhappy with any purchase from us, you have 30 days to get a full refund and your money back.
If you subscribed to Mindfulness Plus+ and are unhappy with your purchase, please get in contact with us within the 30-day period and we’ll refund your purchase.
Learn more about our Mindfulness Guarantee.
Mindfulness
We believe in a world where everybody has access to the life-changing skills of mindfulness.
Private Browsing
Congratulations on taking the first step towards a more mindful life! As a token of our appreciation, we want to offer you an exclusive opportunity to upgrade to Mindfulness Plus+ for a price you won't find anywhere else.
Mindfulness Plus+ is our premium membership that includes everything you need to learn mindfulness and keep practicing throughout all stages of life.
Take this exclusive offer to further your mindfulness skills and experience deeper levels of well-being.
Annual membership
$0
Just a small sample of the life-changing 5-star reviews we get on a daily basis.
Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
Claim your free access
Create a mindfulness account and we’ll unlock this premium session in your account forever.
7-Days free trial, cancel anytime.
Complete a few quick questions to make your own personalized mindfulness plan.