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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.
Today, we're going to explore a
story called The Trouble Tree.
So once upon a time, a young man
hired an elderly carpenter to
help him build his first home for
his wife and his growing family.
So on the very first day of
the job, the old carpenter
had a particularly rough day.
It seemed that everything that
could go wrong did go wrong.
On the way to work, he got a flat tire
which made him an hour late to work.
Then his electric saw broke down.
He had to use slower tools.
And after a series of misfortunes,
at the end of the day, his
truck refused to start.
As the young man drove the carpenter
home, carpenter sat in a gloomy silence.
When they arrived at the old
man's house, he invited the
young man in to meet his family.
And as they walked towards the front
door, the carpenter paused briefly at
a large tree, touched the trunk with
both hands with his eyes closed and
then walked to the front and opened it.
And at that moment, he seemed to
have a profound transformation.
He greeted his wife with a warm
smile and a hug and a kiss.
His children were there
and he embraced them.
He laughed and he joked.
He seemed fine.
The next day, the young man was
pondering that carpenter's quick
transformation in mood and asked him,
"What happened yesterday with that tree?
You were in a terrible mood and you
touched the tree and everything changed."
The old man explained, "Oh,
that's my trouble tree.
I know I can't help having problems
in life, having misfortunes,
having bad days and bad moods.
And sometimes it does all get me down.
But there's one thing that I've learned
in my life and that's that I don't have
to bring all these troubles home to my
family and then miss out on precious
time with my wife and my children.
So I just hand my troubles over to
the trouble tree every afternoon,
so that when I come home, I can be
present with the people I love."
He said then, "I try to pick them
up, the troubles the next morning
when I leave the house, but the funny
thing is whenever I come out in the
morning, some of them had disappeared
and the other ones never really so
big as they seem the day before."
So what's the moral of this story?
We have a lot more choice in carrying
around our troubles than we often realize.
We often keep our troubles alive by
continuing to ruminate on them over
and over and over again, unnecessarily.
When we give our worries and problems
so much access to our attention, it
really lowers our mood and helps us, or
holds us back, rather, from being truly
present, relaxed and enjoying our lives.
So what if like this carpenter, we set
up a time every day to set down our
troubles, just be present for a while.
It could be during our morning
walk or the commute home from work.
It could be during your
evening meal with your family.
If we find ourselves dwelling again on
our problems during that time, we can
give ourselves permission to drop it
again, just be present, knowing that if
we want to, we can pick it up afterwards.
But right now we give ourselves
some space to simply be.
So if this practice sounds like
it might have some value or some
resonance for you, my invitation is to
choose a time today to try this out.
If you find it valuable, then you can
repeat it again and see what effect
it has on the rest of your life.
As always, thank you for your
practice and your presence here.
Let's settle in for today's meditation.
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