Hey, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about the phrase, just be present. I'm not a big fan of this phrase. I like the idea of being present, but the idea of just be present as in this simple thing that we can do, really doesn't honor the depth, difficulty, and the vulnerability of true presence. You can spend an entire lifetime trying to "just be present." The thing about presence, real presence, the depth of presence we can access, it requires deep surrender, trust, and the vulnerability of being seen.

And when you consider the lifetime of protective walls we put up to keep ourselves safe, and often for very good reason, it becomes clear just how massive of a journey presence is. And maybe you've experienced this already in your own life. The idea of being present seems compelling. You know, you read it in Time Magazine. Everyone's doing mindfulness these days.

No, I should do some of that. And then you start going on the journey. You get the Mindfulness.com app and you're going through the meditations and you're like, Whoa, you know, this, this is big. One, just the capacity to, to focus and sustain awareness in the present moment is a substantial task that we could spend our whole lives doing. But also as we drop in more deeply, we start to feel some more.

We get access to our emotional landscape and that can come with a lot of joy, gratitude, excitement, goodness. But it can also come with feeling some pain, discomfort and grief that we've skillfully compartmentalized, but has prevented us from living a full, integrated life. So the takeaway for today's mindfulness is just a recognition that what you're doing here is not "just being present." It's some of the biggest work in the world. And anyone that says something like, just be present, well, you don't have to argue with them, but maybe invite them into an understanding of just how significant this is, the bigness of this work and what we're asking of ourselves and others when we say something like, try to be present. So thank you for walking this journey.

Thank you for your practice. And we'll continue now by settling in for our meditation. Talk to you soon.