Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to talk about

self-awareness and self-care.

So there's an old story about this.

There was once a pair of

acrobats, a woman and a man.

These acrobats performed each day in

the streets in order to earn their key.

So they trying a clever new act which

involved the man balancing a tall

bamboo pole on his head while the woman

climbed slowly to the top of the bamboo

pole and then balanced there while

the man walked slowly down the street.

Both performers, to pull this

trick off, had to maintain complete

focus and balance in order to

prevent any injury from happening

and to complete this performance.

So one day the man suggested, "Listen,

when we're trying to do this trick,

I'll watch you and you watch me.

And that way we can help each other

maintain balance and concentration.

We'll prevent an accident."

But the woman was wise and well-trained,

and she answered, "My friend, I think it

would be much better for each of us to

watch ourself, to watch our own balance

and concentration because to look after

oneself means to look after both of

us, that way we'll create a beautiful

performance that will wow the crowd."

So this story illustrates the age old

truth that taking good care of yourself

first really is the most important thing

that you can do to take care of the

other people in your life and really

make a larger contribution to the world.

Because when you learn how to nourish

your own mind, body, and spirit

through practices like mindfulness,

you naturally begin to treat those

around you with more compassion, more

patience, more kindness, more generosity.

You just have more to give.

Hatred, reactivity, greed, and fear

gradually soften and subside a little

and love and peace and wisdom emerge

a little bit more when we self-care.

So each time you practice mindfulness,

you're both looking after yourself

and everybody else and as you

become more and more an Island of

sanity and peace in a frantic world.

But in daily life too, today and this

week, see if you can remember self-care as

a practice of also being more self-aware.

So as always thank you for your

practice and your presence here with us.

And now let's settle in

for today's meditation.