The Illusion of Imperfection

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to talk about the illusion of imperfection. So most of us spend an enormous amount of time and energy, trying to be somebody better, trying to be something more or to fix ourselves. But what would happen if we were to change the focus from always trying to fix and change ourselves to learning, to love and accept ourselves just as we are, right now? So, of course, to be clear, what I'm not saying is that we should give up all attempts to improve our quality of life. It's wonderful to have this ability to create goals and move towards them.

What I'm really talking about here is our mental dialogue and our kind of way of relating to ourselves in general. So, if we're always criticizing ourselves, putting ourselves down, wishing we were different or better, if we're always whipping ourselves into shape and pushing ourselves, then when do we ever get to feel that we're enough just as we are. You know, there's often this constant feeling that we're not measuring up, of deficiency, lack or unworthiness. So this kind of thinking is obviously very stressful. It can often actually push us into very unhelpful habits, too, like overworking, pushing ourselves in order to prove ourselves.

It can affect our confidence and create a whole lot of tension and suffering within. Maybe you know about this. I certainly do. You know, what we often do in our minds is we compare ourselves to a mental image of who we wish we were, who we think we should be. And then we compare our current self to that mental image and the space between the two, that's the area of struggle, disappointment and unworthiness.

But we can learn to unwind this habit of always wanting to be someone different than we are. Instead, we can learn to appreciate and who we are in this moment. We can train ourselves to feel totally at home within our own skin within our own mind, mind, and ultimately within our own lives. When you say mindfulness, of course, it was never about throwing yourself away and becoming something different. And it's always about knowing yourself deeply and being yourself fully.

So as always thank you for your practice and for your presence here. And I invite you now to settle in for today's meditation.