Letting Go of Labels

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. So today we're going to talk about letting go of the labels that we have for ourselves and learning to abide in a deeper sense of self. So what do I mean by letting go of labels? Well, we often define ourselves by a whole bunch of mental concepts and ideas about who we are and what that means. You know, we have a name, a personal history and a story that we often relate to ourselves through. We might see ourselves as a success or a failure.

We might see ourselves as confident or shy, lucky, or unlucky, boring, easygoing, or fun. We might judge ourselves to be a smart person, a poor person, a member of a certain religion country or sex. And we have concepts about the roles we play. We're a mother, a brother, a provider, a partner or so on. And we have this conditioning about what we're supposed to do in those roles, what are the expectations and such.

So we create this conceptual sense of self, this identity ongoing. And even when we start to meditate, we might start to create a new identity around this idea of being a meditator and you know what that's supposed to look like or mean. But mindfulness is not about creating a new identity on that level. Through mindfulness, we gradually unwind the habit of only defining ourselves through this conceptual sense of identity. You know, through the labels we wear our - job titles, our achievements.

In meditation, we let go of all of that and we learn to abide in the direct felt sense of who we are. We become curious about it. We open to it. And we learn to know our deeper nature that's there prior to concepts and ideas. And we're learning to gradually take up residence in that deeper sense of self and the qualities that come with it, like calm wisdom and inner strength.

And in this way, we live with a greater sense of inner freedom, lightness and ease. So as much as possible we're aiming not to get fixated on ideas of who we should be, must be, want to be or who anybody else wants us to be. But instead it is quietly and confidently abiding in who we really are. So thank you for your practice and your presence here today. And so now I'm just inviting you to settle in for today's meditation.