Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're going to talk

about creating a friendship with yourself.

Now, an interesting thing happens

when you start to like yourself,

you no longer need everything you

thought you needed to be happy.

Of course, there are still many

things that we derive joy and

fulfillment from ranging, from

material things to relationships.

So this is not to dismiss the role

these things can play in bringing

us fulfillment, but a lot of how

we navigate life is subconsciously

moving toward a sense of being whole

complete, settled and at peace.

And most of the way we go about doing

this is by trying to arrange our life

in a way that gives us what we want.

Now we typically don't identify

this as a feeling of, Oh, now

I'm whole, or now I'm complete.

Instead it makes us think, well, when

that happens, then I'll be able to relax.

Or now I'm a little bit more

at peace or now I'm happier.

We have a blueprint in our mind of

having arrived, what that will look like.

And when all of the puzzle pieces come

together, then we'll have X, Y, or Z.

And most of that simply reduces to

feeling a little bit more okay with

your life, a little bit more settled.

And we can get that feeling

by manipulating the external

variables, but it tends to be

a more transient satisfaction.

There's a different sort of fulfillment

that comes when we make peace with

the many dimensions of who we are,

thoughts, emotions, internal experiences,

because this is what we take with

us through all of our circumstances.

And if we haven't trained an ability

to actually like ourselves, it doesn't

matter what's happening around us.

What I've found in my own practice

is the more I've trained my mind to

be with and relax into and appreciate

the different aspects of who I am, my

internal experience, it gives me the

feeling that I think I'm going to get

once I arrange all those puzzle pieces.

And there's never been a time where I've

got what I thought I wanted externally

and then was perfectly contained.

But I have found that I've significantly

chipped away at a much more sustainable

contentment by doing this inner work.

And for me, it's reduced

to befriending myself.

So continue to do the things

you're doing in the external world.

Have goals, make money, build

good relationships, but remember

to simultaneously develop your

relationship with yourself.

We'll talk more about

this in the meditation.

Um, As always, I just want to

say thank you for your practice.

You're doing great.

And I'll talk to you soon.

Take care.