Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to talk about how to cling less and love more. So you can't truly enjoy a sunset if you're wishing night would never come. You can't truly savor a kiss if you're worrying about whether the other person's going to leave you. You can't really relax and appreciate a day off if you're already wishing you didn't have to go back to work.

If you watch your mind, you'll see that it clings to lots of things. It wants the pleasurable to stay. And while it's totally natural to like what's pleasant and to dislike what's unpleasant, clinging is distinctly different. It has a quality of grabbing, forcing, resisting, or gripping on. And that clinging brings with it, tension, stress, and heartache.

And all too often, it actually prohibits us from fully experiencing the thing that's right there to be enjoyed. So I invite you right now to pick something in your life you really like or want. It could be financial, it could be a relationship of friendship or someone you don't want to leave you, it could be a big goal. So just bringing something to mind now. And imagine really clinging to it like insist in your mind that it has to stay the way that you want.

You must have it. And while you're doing that, just notice what the clinging feels like in your body and mind. Like for me right now when I do this, it feels tense. I feel this kind of anguish feeling, this desperation. But notice what it's like for you to bring that feeling to mind of clinging.

And now just relaxing the clinging, relaxing the body and mind again. So just noticing that clinging is really different from healthy desire. With healthy desire, we can still passionately pursue goals, enjoy a relationship or appreciate wonderful experiences. But because there's no clinging deep down, we're at peace with whatever happens. We, of course still might feel a little disappointed or sad if things change or we don't get what we want.

But there's an acceptance of and a flowing with the current of life instead of against it. There's a feeling of being moved by passion instead of pushing or pulling. So my invitation for all of us today and going forward is to cling less and love more. So when you notice that tension of a clinging, beginning to arise in the flow of your life, see if you can take a deep breath, And then let the clinging soften and switch your focus to love. So loving and appreciating what's there right in front of you in the present moment, whether it's a kiss or a sunrise or a moment of peace or a person, and remind yourself that you're going to be fundamentally okay no matter what the outcome is and that loving what is will bring you a greater happiness than controlling or clinging to it.

So I hope you really enjoy this practice today. And thank you for engaging in this work. Now let's settle in for today's meditation.