Hey! Welcome back to your daily mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about cultivating peace in chaos. So during difficult times, things can feel inherently uncomfortable or uncertain or, yes, chaotic. And at least in my own experience with difficult events, there tends to be this feeling that I need to be tense as well. That I need to feel stress in order to meet what I perceive as the stress of my life.

Especially if things are really chaotic. There's a lot going on. There's upheaval, and things outside of my control. It often feels like, yeah, like I should be experiencing fear. I should be experiencing anxiety.

I need to take action. I need this energy moving through my body. And I don't want to totally dismiss that because there might be some truth to it, but I do want to challenge it because I, in my own assessment of this, we often don't need as much stress as we think we do in order to get things done, and in order to take proper action. So I want you to assess this for yourself. If you think of, let's say a number line, one to ten, where 10 is total anxiety, total, let's say, hot mess.

And one, is total ease. Total Zen total, just like complete peace. And you think of the event that's going on in your life, the action that you need to take in relationship to it, the phone calls you need to make the decisions you need to make, the adjustments that need to happen. When you consider all of that, and you look at this number line. Where on the number line do you feel like you need to be, to take quality action? Does it need to be at a seven.

Is it a three? Is it a five? And notice that I said, quality action. I want you to be productive in this moment and I don't think we should compromise on that. Right? So if, if the answer is I need to be at a 10, to do this well, to prepare, to take care of myself, to take care of my family. Then I say, give yourself permission to do that to be at a 10. But, in my experience, being at a 10, in these moments, actually just creates way more anxiety than I need to feel.

I can't focus, as well as I need to to get this thing done. And I'm less effective in doing what I want to do and for the people around me and consoling them and helping them. So if it's not 10, then what is it? Is it a seven? Is that still too much anxiety and stress? Can I do what I need to do at a five? Can I do it at a three? Can I do it at a one? What would happen if I dropped totally down into a one? I let my whole body relax. I let my mind be at ease. I gave myself permission to be totally calm.

Could I do what I need to do? Could I make the decisions I need to make? The calls I need to make, the adjustments I need to make. I don't know, that's up to you to decide, but doing this exercise will help you start to figure out what is the minimum effective dose of stress required to do what I need to do in these times of uncertainty. And I think what you'll start to experience is that you don't need as much tension as you might have subconsciously been presuming. So try this out. We'll talk more about this in our meditation and some practices to help navigate it, but as always, thank you for your practice.

I'll talk to you shortly and until then take care.