Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today we're going to talk about what

it means to be in a state of grace.

I'd like to share a quote by spiritual

teacher Eckhart,Tolle to begin.

He says, "To offer know resistance

to life is to be in a state

of grace, ease and lightness."

So I'd like to unpack and explore

what he's talking about here.

First of all, what would he

mean by resistance to life?

Well, there's a very persistent

idea in the mind that the present

moment should be other than it is,

should be different than it is.

Often, we simply dislike a

part of what's showing up.

So we resist it.

Or we might have an idea of how

we want the moment to be better.

You know, there's this feeling

that the moment is not good enough.

We don't want it as it is.

That's resistance.

It's a basic nonacceptance of what is,

and because of resistance, we suffer.

By learning to accept life as it

is, we let go of resistance and we

can enter what Eckhart's talking

about here, this state of grace.

A state, basically of just being at

peace with what's happening, befriending

it and being fully open to it.

Now, this is quite a tricky topic to talk

about in one regard, because when we talk

about acceptance, often people immediately

start to think, well, if I just accept

things as they are in the moment, I'll

just be everybody's doormat and I'll lose

my sense of purpose and direction in life.

But that's not what I'm talking about

here, because from the state of grace,

you absolutely can take action to change

things where that's possible or needed.

And you can do that from a peaceful,

clear, and calm state of being.

In fact, you can take more effective

action to change things when

you're not caught up in emotional

reactivity and negativity that

often comes along with resistance.

In short, you can accept

what is, and then act.

And of course there's many things in

life that we tend to resist wish were

different or better, but actually

we have no control over them at all.

And a lot of the mental and emotional

tension that's caused by resisting those

things just causes a lot of stress and

sometimes actually very deep suffering

and exhaustion in the body and mind.

If we're able to practice noticing

when we're resisting something in the

present moment, we can acknowledge

that resistance and learn to let it go.

We can practice accepting and

befriending the moment as it is,

and entering that state of grace.

And in that state of grace, we have a

clear mind, a centered awareness and so

from there, you know, we can take action

to change things if we need to, or we can

be at peace with those things, we cannot.

And in this way, we flow with the

current of life instead of wasting

energy struggling against it.

Then we can carry peace of

mind with us wherever we go.

So as always, thank you for your practice

and for your presence here with us.

And let's settle in now

for today's meditation.