Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about the importance of friendship and community on the path of personal growth. I'd like to start by sharing a short Buddhist story, and it goes that the Buddhist cousin named Ananda one said to the Buddha, "I think friendship is, is half of the spiritual path. It's so important to our journey." And the Buddha smiled and replied, "Ananda, friendship is not half of the path. It's the whole way." Not half of the path, but the whole way.

And I was always struck by that, especially when you think of like the Buddha and emphasizes so much stillness and meditation, which can often feel like a more isolated practice where we're renouncing some of the world, including maybe relationships. But the argument there is that good friends and the community we surround ourselves with and the mentors that we have are what keep us on track and support our growth, whatever that growth may be. There's that common phrase you hear in the personal development world, that you're the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Who knows if, if that's actually true. But I have seen in my own life that the various circles of people that I do surround myself with do influence how I think and, and where I'm stretched and what I'm challenged to explore.

And also just how I feel about myself. And sometimes when I've been in more toxic circles of friends, I've, I've felt more inferior. I haven't felt good about myself or I've just sort of hung out in the same ideas. And then sometimes in other groups of people and especially where I feel like I'm at right now in my life. I've built and developed a community of, of friends and mentors who, who reassure me, who make me feel good about who I am, but also stretch me to think in new ways.

And they'll, they'll challenge areas of my life, where I might have some blind spots. So this can be tough because sometimes we're in a place where we're transitioning, where we had certain friend groups that served us at a certain time point in our life, but the direction that we're going, the, the new ideas we're, we're exploring, the person we feel like we're trying to become is no longer supported by that friend group. And I went through that as well. And I found for me that there was actually a period of time where I needed to walk alone, where I needed to trust that the direction I was going in was going to have a new community for me at the other end. I didn't know what that would be yet, but I trusted it was there.

And I was fortunate enough that that was the case, but it did require stepping into some, some unknown spaces for a period of time and not having a rich sense of community like I did before. This is to me, the process of growth. My encouragement to you is to look at the people in your life right now, and assess are these people supporting who I'm trying to grow into? Are they challenging my ideas with love, but also holding me to a high standard of, of the person that they know I can become and that I know I can become. That's something that we can develop if we make the intention. And part of it is really getting aligned with what is the journey that I want to be on.

What are the qualities that I want to develop? What are the ideas that I want to surround myself with? What are some new ideas that I'm not as familiar with, but feel important to explore. And when we have good friends, good community, even if it's just one or two people who can help us steer in that direction, or also walking a similar journey, it makes the journey that much more rewarding and it keeps us on the right path. So I hope this gives you something to think about in your journey, recognizing that while meditation can feel like an isolated practice, it's, it's something that we do need support on. And we're here for you at Mindfulness.com as well. Especially if you are in this state of limbo or transition where you're still building out the community around you.

Know that we're here. We're here to support you. And here to hold you with a lot of love and also hold you to the standard of person that, that we know you can become. So thanks for walking that journey with us. Thank you for your practice and let's settle in for today's meditation.