Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, we're going to explore authenticity. So we live in a world that can make it really hard to be in touch with and express who we are deep down inside. As we grow up, we're constantly being pressured and pulled at by the expectations and opinions of our family, our peer group, our culture, and just the world around us. We hear about what we should do, what we should not do, what is good, and what is bad.

And on top of this, we're also exposed to a huge amount of marketing messages across all different forms of media designed specifically to influence our thinking and our behaviors. All of these external influences can sometimes stifle our ability to hear our own inner voice and express what's deepest and truest in us. So one of the most transformative things about mindfulness practice and one of the reasons I hold it so dear to my own heart is because it brings us closer to who we are. In our practice, we leave the noise of the world behind. We listen within, and it helps us shed the layers of conditioning that may have been stifling and more authentic expression of who we are.

So with every mindfulness practice, we really strengthen our capacity to know ourselves more deeply and be ourselves more fully in the world. So of course, I always encourage mindfulness as this foundational practice to help us be more authentic, but as well as that, I'm just going to invite you today to take a moment here with me to ponder one question. And the question is this. What could it look like for you for more of your deeper truer self to take greater expression in your life? So just thinking about how some of your behavior might change in some small way. Maybe moving more into alignment with your values, with your heart's true desires.

And what would you maybe say no to or yes to? What might you stop doing or start doing? If you really kind of laid aside what others might think of you, what they want from you, how might things change a little for you? So just taking a moment now just to see what comes up for you here. And as we close this contemplation, get ready to now settle in for today's meditation, you might like to just make an intention, if this is resonating with you, that as you go about your daily life to keep listening into an expressing that deeper truer you. Because as Oprah Winfrey said, "What I know for sure is that you feel real joy in direct proportion to how connected you are to living your own truth." So as always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And let's settle in now for meditation.