Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today, I'm going to talk

about a mindfulness practice

I call minding the gap.

So in between every song note,

there's a bit of silence.

Between every written

word, there's a space.

In between the movement of the

out-breath and the in-breath,

there's a moment of stillness.

In between every thought, there's

a moment of pure awareness.

And when we start to pay attention to

those moments, the little gaps that lie in

between things, we can find opportunities

to pause, to be present, and ground

ourselves in the calm, wisdom and strength

that lies at the heart of who we are.

So how can we actually

practice minding the gaps?

In meditation, one way is to become really

aware of the gap in between the breaths

and to make that the focus of meditation.

Perhaps even following the out breath

all the way to the last moment of

the exhale, and then really leaning

into that moment of stillness

just before the new breath begins.

It may be only half a second.

But it's a really wonderful practice.

And I'm going to guide you through a

practice of this in today's meditation.

But you can also mind the

gap in everyday life, too.

There's moments when you finish a task

and you really don't have anything

that you have to rush to next.

There are moments when the house is quiet,

moments when you're in relative peace.

Now most of the time when these

little gaps come, we tend to fill

them up and quickly start doing again.

But my invitation for today and for the

rest of this week, if you care to, is

to relish those moments of stillness.

Open yourself to them fully.

Just take a pause from the

momentum of your life to simply be.

Lean into the gaps.

So see if you can invite more

moments of pause, more moments of

stillness and presence into your day.

A one minute pause in between tasks,

a two minute rest under a tree, a

short pause, or maybe even one deep

breath before sending an email.

That's the invitation to

practice today and ongoing.

Give yourself permission to mind

the gaps, to enjoy moments of

stillness and be nourished by them.

Let them fill you up and anchor you

in the calm depths of mindfulness.

As Jared Brock once said, "Inner

stillness is the key to outer strength."

So as always, thank you for your

practice and your presence here with us.

And let's settle in now

for today's meditation.