Hey friends, welcome to

your Daily Mindfulness.

You know, mindfulness

helps us to tame the mind.

But when I speak about taming,

I don't mean trying to suppress.

Subdue or kind of like

get control of our mind.

To me, taming the mind means having a more

wise and skillful relationship with it

and learning to harness its awesome power.

So taming a mind in some ways

is similar to taming a horse.

And when I grew up, I saw

my Uncle Jeff taming horses.

He was quite actually renowned

for his ability to do this work.

And the reason he was good at it is

because of the way he tamed those horses.

He was always patient and

respectful to each horse.

He never saw himself as superior

to them or, or them as some kind

of like energy, enemy that he

needed to kind of bring into line.

He saw every animal as a friend/

he considered his relationship

with them a relationship of equals.

He seemed to really enjoy helping

each horse to unlock its potential.

So he always took the time to

approach slowly, speak gently and

build mutual respect and trust.

He got to really know them, you know,

their behaviors, their patterns, their

personality, and, and in that way, he

kind of gained insight into the nature

of each horse because he knew that

what you can understand really well,

you can train, transform and change.

Now some people, when they break into

horses, they do it with aggression.

They like whipping them

and punishing them.

And as they do that, inevitably, the horse

becomes more tense and scared, right?

And the whole process becomes one of

frustration and resistance on both sides.

This may leave you with a horse that will

do what it's told for a while, but the

horese will eventually end up miserable

and neurotic and it will misbehave.

Now just like being unkind, aggressive or

impatient when taming a horse is really

unhelpful, the same is true for your mind.

So in meditation, sometimes

you become frustrated or

disappointed when the mind wanders.

And in life, we can be really harsh

with ourselves when we make a mistake

or perhaps fall into old patterns.

But if we can learn to be patient,

respectful and kind with ourselves as we

learn and grow, we can stop being at war

with ourselves and bring more lightness,

compassion, and ease back into our lives.

By befriending ourselves in

this way, we also begin to gain

insight into our own nature.

And remember what you can understand,

you can train, transform and change.

So in your meditation practice and in

your life this week, watch out for any

signs of aggression towards yourself.

And in those moments, may you remember

to give yourself the qualities of

patience, compassion, and kindness.