Hi, and welcome to your daily mindfulness.

My name is Cory Muscara, and I'll be

guiding you through this seven day series.

Each day, I'll share a short video

in meditation with the new theme,

designed to help you cultivate more

happiness and wellbeing in your life.

It will take less than 15 minutes

a day, but if you stick with it,

you'll gradually start to notice

your quality of life improving.

I'm excited to begin this series with you.

So let's get started.

In today's session, we're going to

discuss the happiness of presence.

To begin this discussion,

I want us to try something.

I brought these bells with me.

You know, sometimes we can look at

these bells and think, "all right, it

looks a little mystical", but the main

reason I bring them is because they

make a very pleasant ringing sound.

What I'm going to do is ring the bells,

and all you need to do is bring your

full focus and presence to the sound of

the bell all the way until that moment,

when it dissolves back into silence.

Okay.

If you'd like to close your eyes,

you're welcome to, and we'll begin now.

Great job.

So, I'm curious what

that was like for you.

When I do this exercise in

workshops or on retreats, many

people say they feel a little more

calm, settled, and even peaceful.

And I think that has a lot to do

with our attention stabilizing

more into the present moment.

So often, our attention isn't actually

here, we're caught up in ideas about

the future, thoughts about the past, or

even judgments about the present moment.

But when we bring our full attention

to the sound of the bell.....

Much of that mental chatter

that we're often consumed by,

starts to fall to the wayside.

And there's a natural piece that arises.

So, what does this mean?

Does it mean that we have to

carry bells with us wherever we

go in order to calm our minds?

No.

As pleasant as these bells are, the

peace we experience has less to do

with the sound and more to do with the

quality of awareness and presence we're

bringing to the sound of the bell.

What would it be like to

bring that quality of presence

into your day to day life?

During a conversation with your

child, while walking in nature,

or even while eating a good meal.

You might even be able to start to

sense what that's like right now, when

you drop in and bring that quality of

attention and presence to this moment.

When we step out of the story of our

minds and more intimately into the

'here and now' we get to experience a

different kind of richness in our lives.

So in today's meditation, we're going

to continue practicing, stabilizing

our attention in the present

moment so that we can experience

a more natural joy and peace.

I'm excited for this

first meditation together.

I'll see you there.