Hi, and welcome to your daily mindfulness.

So yesterday I spoke about

listening to ourselves.

And today, I'm going to follow

on with this theme and talk

about knowing ourselves.

So don't worry if you didn't tune in

yesterday, you can pick up here just fine.

So I think one of the big misconceptions

that goes around about mindfulness is

that we're going to be able to, I guess,

kind of escape ourselves in some way.

We might want to escape certain emotions

or certain parts of ourselves, you know.

But mindfulness really is not

about getting rid of any part

of ourselves or our experience.

It's about looking deeply into

who we already are and how life

already is and befriending it.

So it's really not about

escaping ourselves.

It's about knowing ourselves and

then being ourselves more fully.

So when we learn this skill of really

genuinely becoming comfortable in the

present moment and abiding in it with

clarity, compassion, and curiosity, we

often discover inner peace in the process.

So you might think that when you're

meditating and we're focusing on the

breath or the sensations in the body

that we're doing that to get away from

ourselves, but actually we're doing

that and moving closer to ourselves.

We're becoming more intimate with

our experience of who we are.

We're becoming more familiar with how our

mind is, how our emotions are and we're

coming into contact with deeper dimensions

of ourselves, with awareness itself.

And so in this way, we're

seeing ourselves more clearly.

We're learning not to run away

from ourselves or escape ourselves

anymore, but truly we're practicing

this art of befriending ourselves.

And that means all of ourselves, not

just the pleasant stuff, but also the

unpleasant or difficult stuff to see.

So you might be thinking, why

would we want to befriend the

unpleasant when it shows up?

Well, simply because it's

part of the present moment.

It's part of our humanity.

And so we want to wage peace with

ourselves and with the nature of the mind.

Unless we know how to accept ourselves,

there's always going to be this

sense of being locked in battle with

ourselves, a sense of tension within.

The other reality is, is that unless we

spend time getting to know these parts

of ourselves that are a little more

difficult to see and start to understand

them, we tend to get caught up in them.

So by bringing the hard stuff into the

light of awareness, we make it less likely

that it's going to catch us in its grip.

So just remembering that mindfulness

is an opportunity to simply relax and

let thoughts and emotions be as they

are, and to let yourself be as you are.

And in doing so you can gradually create

more calm and contentment in the mind.

So as always thank you for your

practice and your presence here with us.

And let's settle in

for today's meditation.