Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session.

We're going to talk about the

difference between fighting

the old and building the new.

So let's start with a quote by Socrates.

He said, "The secret of change is to

focus all of your energy, not on fighting

the old, but on building the new."

Now as a general prescription for

our growth, I do think there is

a lot of wisdom in this quote.

I also think it could be misinterpreted

because one of the key things about

this quote, as it relates to relating

to the old stuff, is he's talking about

not putting energy on fighting the old.

It's not saying not to address the old.

And there's a difference between fighting

the old versus going into the old with

a curiosity, a spaciousness, and an

interest in, you know, where's this coming

from, how might I work to heal this,

what sort of attention does this need?

That's very different than feeling

the old and trying to overcome,

it power through it, resent it,

create an enemy in relationship to.

However, I do think though what Socrates

is pointing to is that if we want to

change and we want to create a future that

we're excited to live into, we need to

put a lot of our energy in that direction.

What are we trying to build?

Get our thoughts aligned with

that, our emotions lined with that,

our actions aligned with that.

So my personal prescription

is, is that there's a balance.

If we're on that path to building

something, but we feel like we're caught

up in self-sabotage and it's like, we

get closer to it, but then something

in a stops or we turn around or we

actually destruct the whole thing, which

is a common experience, then we might

want to look at what's going on in our

past that may be leading to this, that

maybe has some subconscious fear of

actually having a certain kind of life.

And if that's the case, then, you

know, therapy can be really useful

and even just holding space for

those difficult emotions so that they

can process integrate and be seen.

The main thing I want you to ask following

this Daily Mindfulness is just, where

do you direct most of your energy?

Do you direct it toward

fighting the old stuff?

Or do you direct it toward

building the new and an excitement

of who you're growing into?

And if you are primarily in the former

category of fighting the old, then what

would it look like for you to invest more

time and energy toward getting excited

about the life you're excited to live and

you want to live and is compelling to you?

And how could you align your energy,

your thoughts, your behaviors, your

emotions in that direction, rather than

just focusing on, I need to fix all of

this stuff or overcome all this stuff

before I can start living that life?

It may be the case that a lot of

that stuff takes care of itself as

you start walking this new journey.

Something to consider.

Thank you for your practice.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.