Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to talk about

the possibility of carrying peace

with us through challenging times.

So we may hold the belief that

life should be smooth and that

we should always be happy.

But this is really just not

the nature of human life, as

you may have noticed, right?

Human life is beautiful sometimes.

Absolutely.

But human life is also messy,

challenging, and difficult sometimes too.

And the idea that it's not meant to be

is probably one of our greatest forms of

suffering and discontent in this life.

You know, we often have this sense that

something's gone terribly wrong when

things don't go the way that we want

them to, or we experience difficulty.

You know, in those times we often despair,

resist and rail against what's happening.

But here's the thing.

For all life forms, life is challenging.

Now you might be thinking, 'Well,

thanks for the inspirational talk

Melli.' But look, here's my point.

Challenges, yeah, they might not always

make us happy, but they do give us an

opportunity to grow, evolve and awaken.

Challenges not only kind of shake

us up and disrupt kind of our lives,

our equilibrium, but they also

wake us up and they open us up to

entire new ways of being and living.

This song of life is composed

with high notes and low notes.

And the truth is, is that to live a full

human life really means to experience

the full range of human experience and

emotions, the full symphony, if you will.

In knowing and accepting this simple

truth, we can discover a greater sense of

peace and acceptance in challenging times.

It's a little bit of a paradox, but when

we accept this truth, there's a deeper

sense of inner peace and contentment

that arises within us in those times.

And it's a form of peace that exists

beyond or beneath that emotion of

happiness that we're often chasing.

This background peace can be

there in the good times and the

bad, the high times and the low.

And it comes from having a state of

mind that's not resisting anything

and so is it ease with whatever

arises, both within and without.

So in times of challenge, instead

of resisting what's happening or

feeling that something went wrong

instead, just try waging peace with

it, courageously participating in it.

And the more you're able to do

that, the more you're able to find

that sense of inner contentment and

ease that you can carry with you no

matter what life throws your way.

So that's the invitation for today.

And as always, thank you for your

practice and your presence here with us.

And so now let's just settle

in for today's meditation.