Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. So today I'm going to start out by sharing a poem with you. And it's a poem by Lao Tzu called Always We Hope. Always we hope someone else has the answer. Some other the place will be better, some other time it will all turn out.

But this is it. No one else has the answer. No other place will be better, and it's already turned out. At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. There's no need to run outside for better seeing.

Nor to peer from a window. Rather abide at the center of your being; for the more you leave it the less you learn. Search your heart and see that the way to do is to be. I love this poem and I think most of us can probably relate to something in this poem that he speaks about. This urge to run outside of ourselves to find the answers.

I know I can surely relate to this. I think one of the reasons that we do this is because we, humans evolved as tribal creatures. The way our minds evolved means that we're always going to feel quite a strong pull to fit in and be part of the pack. We feel drawn as well to conform rather than risk rejection. So we tend to look outside of ourselves constantly and just kind of see what everybody else thinks and what they're doing.

But that internal pressure to fit in sometimes means that we'll deny or ignore our own feelings, intuitions, and instincts instead of listening to them. It means that we might end up doing something that really doesn't feel right to us. Sometimes we might make decisions and take actions with little reason other than the fact that other people are doing it. You know, we can kind of end up going along with the status quo sometimes even when it doesn't make us happy. Mindfulness helps us reconnect with ourselves and our own authenticity.

It teaches us to trust our own authority and our direct experience rather than solely relying on the opinions, the expectations and the experiences of others. Now, of course, you know, for some things in life, it's really great to be able to Google some answers, read a book, chat to an expert, but when it comes to the kind of questions that center around what's right for us, and what's not, what we want and what we don't, what's good for us and what's not, it's important in those time to trust ourselves to have the answers. The more you cultivate this ability to listen to yourself and trust in your own being, the more, you quite naturally become more of your authentic self and create a life of genuine happiness, connection and contentment. So today just inviting you to make an intention to start listening to your own feelings more and trusting them to guide you, because no matter what anyone else thinks, no matter what they want or what they say, the ultimate authority in your life is you. So as always thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.

And now let's settle in for today's meditation.