Falling in Love With Life Again

Hi, welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. So just inviting you to take a moment to settle in here and just become present to where you are. And if you care to, you might want to close your eyes now. Just notice the contact points between your body and the surface below or beneath you. Feeling the movement of your breathing.

And now just take a moment to reflect, to recollect the times in your life where you were the most absorbed, concentrated, and fully present. So they may have been when you were walking in nature or watching a sunrise, maybe you were listening to some music, gardening, skiing, surfing, maybe you were making love or creating art or traveling. Whatever it was that you were doing, just remember now how it feels in your body when you let go of distractions and worries, when you let the past and future times and places fade into the background and you're just fully present way you are. So just sensing the wholeness, the pleasure of that kind of absorption in the moment. And notice how satisfying it is to the heart and the mind.

And just remember if there was a natural sense of upliftment, a natural happiness and ease as you experienced that kind of relaxation into flow with the present moment. Now imagine developing and enjoying the same kind of quality of absorption, ease, focus, and flow in your mindfulness practice, both on and off the cushion. So one of the ways you can do this is by remembering to bring the quality of joy into your practice. So how do we do that? So I'm going to pass on to you something a wise teacher once said to me that really changed my meditation practice. He said that true meditation, the state of true meditation is actually quite a lot like falling in love.

Because when you fall in love with something, you give it your complete undivided attention. You accept it fully as it is, and you take joy in it. You don't want it to be different. You don't want it to be anything more than what it is. You just lose yourself in it.

You love it, and you're just fully present there. So this is my invitation for your practice this week. Bring that kind of attentiveness, joy, lightness, and ease in. For instance in your meditation, can you follow the breath with a similar attitude just like you woke up on a Sunday morning with no where you have to get to, and you could just lay there and luxuriate in the feeling of your breath. Or could you listen to the sounds as you go about your day in the way that you might listen to a beautiful piece of music? Just let yourself fall in love with the little moments of your life again.

You know, a lot of the time we tend to take life so seriously, but in the words of Zen master, Thich Nhat Hahn, "The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. And if you're attentive, you will see it."