Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today, I'm going to talk

about honoring our emotions.

So many of us have grown up with

this idea that some emotions are

good and other emotions are bad.

For example, anger is bad.

Sadness is embarrassing and

we should hide it when we cry.

So when we believe any kind of emotion is

bad, we start to push them away often, or

we start to fight them when they arise.

And the challenge with that is that

that resistance only prolongs the

emotions and makes them bigger.

But as our mindfulness practice develops,

we learn to cultivate self-acceptance.

We discover that there's no good and

bad emotions, that they're all a natural

part of what it means to be human.

And we learn to allow them all to

arise and pass without judgement.

We learn to experience our emotions

from a greater perspective.

And we can think of our emotions

a little bit like being like

clouds that move through the sky.

And some clouds are billowing and dark.

Some are fluffy and wispy.

All coming and going in the sky

in different shapes and sizes.

And awareness is a bit like the

sky, untouched by anything that

passes through it, at peace and just

welcoming everything that arises,

letting it come and go in its own way.

So in the same way, see if it's possible

to be aware of your emotions without

labeling them or reacting to them.

Allowing them to pass through you

in their own time, in their own way.

And when you meet your emotions with

this kind of acceptance and compassion,

you really honor your emotions.

You create the inner space to make

clear headed and constructive choices

about what to do with those feelings and

how to respond to things in your life.

So I invite you to make that

a little bit of a focus today.

Just see if you can bring more acceptance

and compassion to your emotions and

experiment with how that might help you

live with more awareness and intention.

So we'll explore this

more in today's practice.

And as always, thank you for your

practice and your presence here with us.

Let's settle in for meditation.