Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're going

to talk about the relationship

between mindfulness and surrender.

So I'm sure you've heard the different

definitions there are of mindfulness.

Paying attention on purpose in the present

moment non-judgmentally, and many others.

I've often found that the truest

expression of mindfulness is a

deep surrender to what is here now.

A deep surrender to what is here now.

And there's something about that

word surrender that can bring up

different things for different people.

For some, it feels like weakness.

For some, it feels like passively

resigning to what is here.

For me, I've always perceived it

as a really profound strength.

Oh, I don't know if I've always

perceived it that way, but I've learned

to appreciate it as a deep strength.

When I think of surrender, I

think of the ego letting go.

I think of the ego recognizing that

it doesn't have all the answers.

It doesn't have all the resources.

It can't control everything.

And when we come to the, that

recognition and we release that form

of relating to our life, something

in us softens, relaxes, expands.

And to me, that's the surrender

that I'm talking about here.

A deep surrender to what is here now,

the truth of what is here right now,

the reality of what is here right now.

Even if we don't like it.

We don't endorse it.

We don't want it to be here.

There's this recognition of this,

this is a moment of my life.

This is the reality of my life right now.

I can't control.

It's already here and there's only

so much I can do to constantly

manipulate my environment to

make it the way I want it to be.

And so what would it be like for something

in me to just truly surrender to this

moment of my life, this emotion, this

thought moving through my mind, this

sensation I'm experiencing this confusion?

The mind and the heart are big enough

and vast enough to hold it all.

It's the ego, the part of us that

wants to control to make everything

predictable, to make it all make sense.

That's the part of us that is, that

is small that kind of refuses to be

in this moment, that will only like

it if it goes according to its plan.

Those are the moments that the ego likes.

But unpredictability, uncertainty,

confusion, that's not the ego's game.

And that's when we'll feel constriction.

Which is why mindfulness or the

truest expression of mindfulness, I

always perceive as this deep surrender

into just what is here right now.

We let go of the ego mind and we expand.

We rest in our expansiveness to hold

the depth, the nuance, the bigness

of this moment of being human.

So maybe this gives you something to

think about and hopefully something to

practice while we go into our meditation.

So thank you for your practice and

let's settle in for our meditation now.