Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session we're going to talk about silence, specifically, your inner silence. Now a lot of times when we think of silence, we often think of external silence, or even when we think of cultivating an inner silence silence within us, we think of needing to have external silence around us. No screaming kids, no noise, no traffic in the background. And it's true that this external silence, you know, going away into nature or taking time to meditate in your closet rather than, you know, on a sidewalk next to a busy street, can really facilitate connecting to an internal silence within you.

But what's interesting is the more we use external silence to drop into this internal silence, the more we can bring that internal silence into external conditions, even when it's not silent. And that's one of the powers of meditation. It, you know, if we take this period of time to practice while it's quiet, while we're still, while there isn't much distraction, it connects us to a part of us that is beneath the story and the noise and the conditioning of our minds. And I'm sure you're familiar with them. It's the story of who you are, where you're going, where you need to get, what's good, what's bad, what's right, what's wrong.

We all have that and it's often the primary noise in our life. But when the external world gets quiet, it allows us to see some of that internal noise and then drop beneath it. And as we drop beneath that, we connect to this place within us. That is much more still, much more spacious and much more quiet. Our practice then is to bring that into our day when the kids are screaming, when there is traffic, when you are taking care of emails.

That's the big task. And that's one of the reasons I didn't just spend my life in a monastery. I was really interested in bringing that quality of peace and groundedness, stillness, and silence into my life where I thought it really mattered. So as you continue on with your meditation practice, see if you can connect to that place within you that, that is still, that is, is silent that's not the noise of your mind. And then as you transition from your meditation practice, see what it's like to, to try to bring that into your day.

When you're standing in line at the grocery store or when there is a lot going on around you or when you're walking outside and there's a lot of noise, just see if you can feel into that place within you that remains silent, even when there's a lot going on. Thank you for your practice. Let's settle in for today's meditation.