Hi!

Welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

So I'm going to share a story

with you, or a metaphor.

Imagine that you're hosting a

party, and the sounds of laughter

and music are filling your home.

And then you hear the doorbell ring.

You go to the front door and you open it.

And it's this really annoying

guy from your work, Doug.

So, you find Doug to be

quite rude and arrogant.

You don't like him.

And on top of that, he has

bad personal hygiene and a

really disheveled appearance.

It's embarrassing that he's there

and you certainly didn't invite him.

So, you say to Doug that he can't come

in, he's not allowed in the party.

You go back to your party, but then

Doug starts ringing the doorbell again.

And as you're talking to your

guests, you keep hearing that

doorbell ringing in the background.

You try different ways to ignore

the sound, to distract yourself,

but it just keeps on ringing and

getting more and more annoying.

Now then, as another person tries

to come into the party, Doug starts

pushing through the door and you

really don't want him to come in.

He's rude, frustrating, and embarrassing.

You feel like he's just

going to ruin the party.

So you decided to stand there

at the door and keep Doug out.

So you're there pushing the door

closed and trying to hold that

door closed as much as you can,

but Doug just keeps pushing back.

In fact, it seems the more you push

that door, the more you try to keep

him out, the more he pushes back.

Now, while all this is happening,

your friends are having a

great time at the party.

They're dancing, they're chatting,

they're enjoying the day and having fun.

But the unwelcome guest is at the door.

So you decided to stay there and

just keep pushing that door closed.

You keep doing this for a while, but

then you realize something —you're

missing out on your own party.

So you make a decision to stop

pushing the door and see what happens.

Well, you're unwanted guest comes

right in and just like you thought

it would be, he's, he's annoying,

he's rude, he smelly, he's arrogant.

He goes right into the party and

starts hanging out with your friends.

And, at first, it's really uncomfortable.

You don't know how to

handle him being there.

But over time you start to relax

and you notice that some of your

guests actually seem to like him.

They're laughing at his

quirky sense of humor.

And so you start to relax a

little bit more and start to

see him in a different light.

He's still unpleasant, but you realize

he's maybe not as awful as you thought.

And you can even learn

some things from him.

And the main thing is that now

that you've let him in, you're

free to relax and enjoy your party.

So, this story, this metaphor, um,

offers us an insight into new ways

we can work with difficult feelings.

So the unwanted guest in this story

represents your difficult feelings, like

anxiety, anger, fear, and negativity.

When these unwelcome guests come to visit

us, we usually try not to let them in.

Sometimes we try to push

them away or drown them out.

Sometimes we deny them or fight with them.

We often do anything we can to

not let them into our awareness.

But when we do that, we often

become so fixated at keeping

those difficult feelings at bay.

We miss out on the being present for the

people, events and moments of our lives.

We, we miss the party.

So in today's meditation, we'll

train in putting the welcome

mat out for all the guests.

So we can soften the struggle inside

ourselves and live a much more

rich, full and meaningful life.