Mindfulness.com
Meditation
See all Meditation

Browse

Top articles

How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

Mindful LivingSleep
CommunityFor Work

00:00

00:00

Melli O'Brien

4.7

Duration

Scan the following QR code with your camera app to open it on your phone

Your Life Beyond the Story

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 talk

about seeing beyond the stories

we have about our lives.

So a good analogy for this is to

imagine your whole life as a book.

On every page of the book, there are

words describing all kinds of experiences.

The story could be a love story,

a tragedy, a comedy, an awakening

story, a sad story, or an epic,

or a little bit of all of them.

But behind the stories, whatever

they may be, there's the paper

that allows the story to exist.

So the paper doesn't usually

get our attention because

we're immersed in the words.

It's so obvious and so essential

and yet we overlook it.

Awareness, your true nature

is very much like that paper

behind the stories of life.

You are not the mental

stories about your life.

Your memories, your achievements, your

fears, your abilities, or lack thereof.

You know, your plans, your roles, your

titles, underneath all of that you

are awareness itself, that spacious

all embracing field in which all

of those storylines are unfolding.

You know, the stories keep changing.

Pleasant words, unpleasant words,

words about suffering, words about

love, stories, about struggle,

stories about peace, stories about

death and new life, stories about

trying to find completion, wholeness.

But through all of those stories, the

paper remains there ever present and

holding the stories in its embrace.

So from the perspective of our

mind, the story of our life

seems desperately important.

We spend enormous amount of mental

energy trying to figure out how to get

our story to work out on the external

level, how we're going to fix ourselves,

how we're going to change ourselves,

we're going to solve our problems, get

our life all neat and tidy and together.

Really, we try so hard

to complete ourselves.

We all want to get the story to work

out, you know, because we're thinking

when we finally get this story to

work out, we're going to feel whole.

But from the perspective of awareness,

the story doesn't matter too much

and nothing really needs resolving

or completing on that level.

The story is accepted just as it is,

and it's allowed to be told and unfold.

Resting as awareness where

already complete and whole.

So through mindfulness, we're not

learning to just sort of fix our stories

up or complete them, but rather we're

learning to let go of those storylines,

whatever they are and touchdown on the

place inside us that's already at peace.

As always, thank you for your

practice and your presence here.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.

Get Unlimited Access

Start your mindfulness journey today.

A Mindfulness Plus+ subscription gives you unlimited access to a world of premium mindfulness content.

  • Over 1,800 meditations, sleep, calm music, naturescapes and more
  • Daily mindfulness video meditations 365 days a year
  • 100s of courses and tools to help manage anxiety, sleep and stress

Get started today

Start your 7-day free trial
Or sign up with

Email Missing

We couldn’t detect your email with the SSO provider you have selected.
or

Mindfulness Guarantee

We are here to make a positive impact on the world. We never want to sell you something that hasn’t helped you live a better life. That’s why if you’re unhappy with any purchase from us, you have 30 days to get a full refund and your money back.

If you subscribed to Mindfulness Plus+ and are unhappy with your purchase, please get in contact with us within the 30-day period and we’ll refund your purchase.


Learn more about our Mindfulness Guarantee.

Mindfulness

Bring balance into your everyday life.

We believe in a world where everybody has access to the life-changing skills of mindfulness.

  • 2,000+ Guided Meditations
  • Daily Coaching
  • Sleep Content
  • Mindful Exercises
  • Mindful Radio
  • 10+ Courses from world-class teachers

Private Browsing

Added to your cart!

Checkout

Claim your free access

Create a mindfulness account and we’ll unlock this premium session in your account forever.

or continue with
By continuing, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Do you already have an account?

Start a free trial to play this session

7-Days free trial, cancel anytime.

Finish personalizing your account

Complete a few quick questions to make your own personalized mindfulness plan.