Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to discuss the fear of not being busy. I'll start by reading a poem by Kaveri Patel. It's called Dear You. Dear you, You who always have so many things to do so many places to be your mind spinning like fan blades at high speed each moment always a blur because you're never still.

I know you're tired. I also know it's not your fault. The constant brain buzz is like a swarm of bees threatening to sting if you close your eyes. You've forgotten something again. You need to prepare for that or else.

You should have done that differently. What if you closed your eyes? Would the world fall apart without you? Or would your mind become the open sky flock of thoughts flying across the sunrise as you just watched and smiled. So notice how this poem lands for you. Many of us use our busy-ness as a way to have something to work on, a problem to solve, a sense of accomplishment that might be right around the corner, a sense of meaning or purpose for our life. We say we hate it.

We hate the stress of being busy, everything going on, the drama of the news, this and that that we need to worry about. We say we hate it, but deep down, I think we like it. It's the stuff that gives us the feeling that it's just one more thing, one more checkbox before we arrive, or the stuff that gives us an excuse to not have to face something deeper, or have that important conversation, or do that creative work that is most aligned with our heart, but scares us. We say, if we're still, we won't be getting anything done, we'll be useless. It's selfish to be still or to stop, but that's all a narrative.

The narrative of the ego, that we must be worried or else things will fall apart. Perhaps there's some truth, but what would happen if you did let go, if you did stop, what would you have to face? What would you need to feel? What reality would you have to come to terms with? And who within yourself would you have to meet? It doesn't mean we stopped doing, but we, when we connect to ourselves from a deeper place of stillness, the doing is inspired by a truer sense of who we are, rather than the fear of protecting a smaller version of who we perceive ourselves to be. Thank you for your practice. I'll talk to you soon in the meditation.