Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to talk about moving from

transactional ways of relating to more

mindful and heartful ways of relating.

So it's often the case that as

we go through our lives, a lot of

our interactions with other people

have this kind of unintentional

quality to them, where we're just

going through the motions, a bit

of a transactional quality to them.

So whether it's a person at the checkout

at the store, a delivery guy, or

maybe a person in a meeting at work,

or even a family member, a lot of the

time we just kind of bump into people

throughout the day and we have these

small exchanges of time with them.

But in that process, how often do we

pause for a few moments just to be

truly present with that person, to look

them in the eye, to meet them in the

moment, to acknowledge a sense of the

value, the goodness of the exchange?

And what I mean by valuing the goodness

of the exchange is, you know, the checkout

person is actually providing a really

valuable service to you in that moment.

And hopefully they're

being, you know, friendly.

The delivery guy has brought you

something you needed, et cetera.

Or maybe you're talking to a family

member and organizing something.

So here's a little practice for you today,

if this resonates with you to try it.

In every little interaction with

someone else, whether it's an email,

a conversation at the checkout,

or even in traffic, just try

not to be totally transactional.

That is, see if you can let go of being

in a mindset of just barely seeing or

being with this other person and just kind

of getting your stuff done through them.

See if instead you can use all of

those little moments of interaction

as opportunities to be really present.

Just aiming to be fully there with this

person, to listen to them, to see them, to

let them feel your total presence there.

And of course, you know, having an

attitude of being warm and kind to them.

This doesn't have to be a

huge change in your behavior.

It's really more of just a

shift in attitude and the

order of importance of things.

So let the most important thing in those

moments become just being fully present.

So that's the invitation for today.

Practice letting go of being

transactional and opening to

being more heartful, more mindful.

I think you'll find that when you

do this practice, there'll be more

little moments of true connection,

fulfillment and meaning getting

sprinkled all throughout your day.

So wishing you well with this practice.

And as always thank you for

your practice and for your

presence here in this community.

And now let's settle in

for today's meditation.