Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to talk about how we can defeat fear. So I'd like to share an old Buddhist story about this. Once upon a time, there was a young warrior and her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear. She didn't want to do it.

It seemed too aggressive. It was scary. It seemed unfriendly. But the teacher said she had to do it and gave her instructions for the battle. And finally, the day arrived.

The student warrior stood on one side, fear stood on the other side. And the warrior was feeling really small and fear was looking really big and wrathful. They both had their weapons. The young warrior roused herself and went towards fear. And she prostrated three times and asked, may I have permission to go into battle with you? Fear said, Oh, thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission.

And then the young warrior said, how can I defeat you? Fear replied. Well, my weapons are that I talk fast. I get really close to your face. And then I get you completely unnerved so that you do whatever I say. If you don't do what I say, tell you I have no power.

You can listen to me. You can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me, but if you don't do what I say, I have no power. And in that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear. So most of us struggle with fear, right, in one way or another.

Becoming overwhelmed by it or trying to push it away is what we often do. But shifting our relationship with fear really is central to our mindfulness journey. While fear is a perfectly natural emotion, when it takes us over, it hijacks our ability to act with awareness, purpose and clarity. But if we can learn to attend to fear with mindfulness, with compassion, it loosens its grip on us and no longer takes us over. Then we can reconnect with awareness, wisdom, and love.

So one of the very best practices I know to meet fear with mindfulness and compassion is a very popular meditation called the RAIN practice. And I'm going to guide you through that in today's meditation. And I really encourage you to give this practice a try today so then you can take it with you into your day. Then for the rest of the day and maybe for the rest of the week, just whenever you notice fear arising, whether it's fear of what other people might think of you, fear that you're not enough or fear of failure, just keep training yourself to gently meet the fear with mindfulness and compassion. Because as Buddhist teacher and author, Pema Chodron says, "Being courageous and having a great life is all about being intimate with fear in a wise and graceful way.

Feel the fear and then do what needs to be done. Rather than being depressed by fear, lean into it and see it as an opportunity to learn and grow." As always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And inviting you now to settle in for today's meditation.