Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to talk about finding your querencia. So what is a querencia? In the dictionary, there are two different meanings for this Spanish word. And forgive me if my Spanish pronunciation is not so good. The first definition is that your querencia is a place from which your strength is drawn.

It's a place where you feel safe and strong, where you're your most authentic self. But the other meaning of querencia, where it's most commonly used, is actually in reference to bull fighting. So in bull fighting, it's believed that in the midst of a fight, a bull can find his own particular area of safety in the arena and this is his querencia. Once he's there, he can reclaim his wits, find his strength and his power. And he may only be there for a few seconds, but those seconds make all the difference.

So in bullfighting, as long as the matador can keep the bull angry and reactive continuously, he's in control. But when that bull finds its querencia and gathers his strength again, from the matador's perspective, he's in real trouble now because the bull is really dangerous. He's taken his power back and the matador is no longer in control. Now in the same way a bull takes back his power when he takes a pause to gather himself, so can we. If we can learn to recognize and interrupt our reactivity by taking a mindful pause, then we tap back into presence and all the qualities that come with it, calm, clarity, wisdom, compassion.

At that point, we can break out about old conditioning, let go of emotional reactivity. And then once we stabilize ourselves in presence, then we can respond to the situation in front of us with all of our strength, wisdom, and power. So if we get caught in an emotionally charged situation, or we're just feeling erratic, we're feeling kind of overwhelmed, a good way to find our querencia is just by taking a couple of deep mindful breaths. This calms the body and mind and helps us become more present. And if you're feeling really triggered and reactive, it can be really helpful to just take a time out.

Find a quiet, comfortable, safe place where you can gather yourself and center yourself in awareness. Once you have done that, once you become present, you can reflect on how you want to respond to the situation at hand. So this is the invitation to practice today and ongoing. Find your querencia. Find your presence in the moments when you need it.

And in this way, you reclaim your power to live with intention, authenticity and awareness. As always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And now let's settle in for today's meditation.