Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to talk about ending

the struggle with our thoughts.

So, you know, perhaps one of the most

common misperceptions about meditation is

this idea that we are supposed to clear

our minds of all thoughts and emotions.

But that's really not

what we're aiming to do.

What we're learning instead is to change

the way that we relate to thoughts

and emotions when they do arise.

We're learning not to struggle

with them and we're learning also

not to be taken over by them.

So one of my favorite analogies for this

is the analogy of, you know, imagining

yourself, sitting on a park bench on

the side of the street and there's all

these people that are passing by you.

The people in this analogy represent

your thoughts and feelings.

The park bench that you're sitting

on represents your seat in awareness.

So in meditation ,in this scenario,

all you have to do is sit there

relaxed and easy on the park bench

and just let these people, let these

strangers just walk on by, without

leaving your seat of awareness.

Just let them come, go or stay

as they please, as you just sit

there, resting on the bench.

So, this is pretty simple, right?

But it's not always that easy in

meditation because we often get

caught up in engaging with the

passers-by, engaging with the thoughts.

We get caught up in the stories,

the dramas, the plans, and we keep

getting up and leaving our seat.

We also sometimes get irritated

because we wish these passers by

would go away and leave us alone.

But the truth is is that we don't

need the crowd to change or go away.

We can just accept that these passers

by will be coming and going as we just

sit there, relaxed entities in our seat.

It's also important to think about

having a warm attitude to these passing

strangers, knowing that they're there, but

not engaging with them or following them.

So, and if someone does catch your eye,

in other words, if a thought catches your

attention, you can just gently nod your

head, acknowledging their presence and

just stay calmly resting on the bench.

So we can do this in meditation to have

this sense of just kind of acknowledging

the thought and letting it pass.

So training the mind isn't about

getting rid of thoughts and

feelings or trying to control them.

It's just changing our

relationship with them.

And by learning to have a less reactive

and more skillful relationship with

our thoughts, we naturally find a place

of ease and rest within ourselves.

In today's meditation, I'm going

to guide you through a practice

of mental noting, to again, get

a sense of gently acknowledging

thoughts and feelings, letting them

pass while we stay in our seat of

awareness and in the present moment.

So I invite you to settle in for

that practice now and as always

thank you for your practice

and your presence here with us.