Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about exploring where our conditioning might be holding us back. So there's a really interesting story about this. A successful Western businessman was visiting a small Mexican village. So he was relaxing on the pier one day and there he met a fisherman.

The businessmen complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and said, "Hey, how long did it take you to catch these? he asked. "Just a little while," the Mexican replied. "Well, the day is young. Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" the businessman asked. "Well, I have enough here to support my family's immediate needs," said the fisherman.

"But what are you going to do with the rest of your time?" said the businessmen. "Oh," the fishermen said. "Well, I sleep in each day. I enjoy cuddles with my wife before the kids wake up. Then I eat.

Then I play with the kids. And then I come fishing for awhile. And then when I come home, I stroll into the village. I meet some friends. I play guitar and I sing and dance.

I have a very full and busy life." The American rolled his eyes and said, 'Listen, I'm a Harvard MBA. I can help you. You need to spend more time fishing. And then with the extra profit, you could buy a better boat and then you can get bigger yields of fish and bigger profits. And as your profits grow, then you can buy a fleet of boats.

After that, you can leave this small Mexican village and move to Mexico City. You could expand your operation and achieve your maximum potential." So after pausing thoughtfully, the Mexican asked, "Okay. And then what?" The businessman said, "This is the best part. When the time is right, you can sell your company, become rich." "Ah," said the Mexican. "Then what?" The businessman paused at that point, and then slowly replied, "Oh, well, then you could retire to a small coastal village where you would sleep in every day, spend quality time with your wife and kids, fish a little and go to the village in the evenings where you could hang with your friends and play guitar." So what's the moral of this story? Sometimes we really need to stop and investigate our own conditioning, our own assumptions, right? Just like the fisherman who questioned the businessman, sometimes it pays to stop and question ourselves because as we go through life, we pick up beliefs and thoughts and opinions from the world around us that aren't always bringing us closer to the things we most value, like happiness, inner peace, health, and love.

So we can question ourselves by pausing each day to simply take stock. Asking ourselves questions like: Am I living in alignment with my values? Am I doing the kinds of things that genuinely make me happy in my day-to-day life? Am I focused on what matters to me deep down in my heart? So by questioning ourselves like this, we can start to free ourselves of our old conditioning, live much more intentionally and authentically, and of course, also more mindfully. So I encourage you to ask yourself some of these questions . And as always, thank you for your practice and your presence. Let's settle in for meditation.