Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, I want to talk

about why we often distract ourselves.

Now, a lot of the distractions,

"distractions" that we have, which we

could just look at as various forms

of stimulation, don't really have

much to do with what's in our control.

I mean, there's just so much coming

at us on a daily basis that we're

just trying to navigate it all.

But a lot of times, we can use

different forms of stimulation and

what we could perceive as distraction

to cover up something for us,

something that we don't want to face.

And I think one of the reasons we

get addicted to distraction or we

intentionally distract ourselves

is that it helps us float above the

pain and confusion that lurks in

the shadowy depths of our being.

We all have this to some extent.

I mean, part of being human

is to try to make meaning in a

world that is very confusing.

And one of the ways we can avoid

looking at some of that confusion

or pain, maybe decisions we've made

from a long time ago that we regret

is to keep ourselves distracted.

This is why we can get addicted

to busyness or our work or

climbing the ladder of success.

It gives us a carrot to chase.

It gives us another rung of the

ladder to climb, some sort of goal

in the future that we can move toward

that keeps us active, that keeps

us busy, not having to be still.

And maybe you've experienced this,

but sometimes when you've stepped

out of that, busy-ness and drop into

the stillness, there's some painful

things there that have been waiting.

The thing is there's no amount

of floating about above our

pain that's going to resolve it.

And if you want to transcend so to

speak, you first need to descend.

You need to drop into and make

space for the experiences that

are there that are asking for

attention that we haven't addressed.

This doesn't mean you have to go into all

aspects of your psyche and everything that

you've, or, or dig for something that it's

like, okay, I want to find all my pain.

Right?

That's, unless you are really inspired

to do that, that's unnecessary.

This stuff will arise as you deepen

your own journey of growth and presence.

And so when it arises organically, that's

when we start to hold space for it.

And we look at it and we go, oh

wow, this is what's here now.

How do I want to relate to it and

help to heal and integrate it?

But a lot of times when that does

happen, it feels uncomfortable.

It feels more confusing.

And our way around it is just to bring

in more distractions, caffeinate and go,

give myself another goal to work toward.

And you can do that.

You could go another year, three

years, five years doing that, but it's

still lurking beneath the surface.

And this is why people can get

burnt out or exhausted in their work

because they're running, running,

running, trying not to feel something.

Now the cool thing is once you do drop

in and you make space in that's stillness

and you do start to do that deeper

healing work, well, then you can engage

with your life in a way that is inspired

and exciting and compassionate and, and

coming from the part of you that is most

aligned, rather than being driven by

fear of being still, rather than being

driven by a need to distract yourself.

So there is a light on

the other side of it.

And if we can take that orientation

to our healing work, it becomes

opportunities for excitement.

It's like, Ooh, there's a door there

that I can feel there's something

on the other side, but it requires

me walking through some discomfort.

But know that on the other side of

that discomfort is a whole new, a

whole new experience of opening and

depth that we get to touch into.

Of course, if there's some deep things

there, you want to have some support

and that's where therapists can come in.

But you are doing this work in a

big way through the meditations

here at Mindfulness.com.

So as always thank you for

your practice and let's settle

in for today's meditation.