Hey, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to be talking about shifting gears. So I sometimes like to think of being human as being a car that has different gears. We have park, which might be when we're sleeping or doing nothing. There's first gear where we're moving up there.

Second gear, third gear, fourth gear. And then fifth gear where we're really in the throes of our life, really moving quickly, really doing a lot. I think a lot of times as when we come to a meditation practice or even we start to get interested in mindful living, there's often a sense that we're supposed to be totally zenned out or in first gear all the time, very calm, not running for bus, always at peace and always at ease. Maybe that's the case, but it hasn't been my experience. And most of the meditation teachers I know spend a lot of time in third gear, fourth gear and fifth gear.

It's a natural part of being a human being. And part of developing a mindfulness practice is not being in first gear all the time, but it's being able to assess the moment and see what gear do I need to be in. Is this a first gear kind of moment? Do I have some time where I can take a break, where I'm just sitting in my car, not going anywhere, not needing to do anything, just having the time to relax? And can I give myself permission to be in first gear? Or am I at work and I have a lot of emails to take care of and there's a lot that needs to get done, a lot that I'm excited about. I'm feeling that energy moving in that direction. Is that a fourth gear moment, a fifth gear moment? And can I give myself permission to be in those gears? A lot of times, we don't give ourselves permission to be in the gear that we need to be.

And it often creates a lot of extra tension. It makes me think of the Zen poem, uh, that says, "When running, just run, when walking, just walk. Above all, don't wobble." A lot of times we tend to wobble. We're on vacation, but we're guilty because we think we need to be working more or at work, but we're frustrated because we want to be on vacation. We don't actually give ourselves to be in the experience that we're in, um, the permission.

And we don't allow ourselves to be in the gear that we need to be in, in those moments. So as you go about your day, see if you can start to assess with mindfulness, what does this moment ask of me? What gear do I need to be in? And can you start to give yourself permission to be in that gear? And then when it's a different gear, permission to drop into that as well. That's a mindfulness practice and that's bringing mindfulness into your daily life. We'll practice more of this in the meditation. So stay tuned.

I'll talk to you soon and take care.