Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about when our stories can hold us back and how we can change that. So an often overlooked fact about the human mind is that it often misrepresents the truth or as my best friend's little girl likes to say, it can be a liar, liar, pants on fire. Our minds like to convince us that they are just objectively observing the world and reporting it back to us. But the reality is is that our minds are not very good objective observers of the world.

In fact, they're actually constantly interpreting the world. The mind is making up stories about everything that's going on around you all the time. So it takes in the information perceived with your senses and then your mind decides what to tell you about what you're perceiving. So example, you know, you, you see your boss walk by and your boss looks at you briefly without smiling. And your mind says, your boss secretly thinks you're an idiot.

He's probably waiting to fire you. You wake up one morning and you feel a little bit lower on energy than you did the day before. And your mind says, oh my gosh, you probably have cancer. You know what this is like, right? You see the mind has been programmed by evolution to be constantly on the lookout for threats, food, opportunities to reproduce. And part of your mind's job is that it's constantly making all these snap judgements about what things are and what they mean, and also what you should do in response.

That's why it's always analyzing, judging, making up stories, commentating, reacting, jumping to conclusions. Now, this was great for surviving in the world for our ancestors. Not so good for keeping you a happy, objective, contented human being in the modern world. The problem is, is that our minds do not interpret these things with perfect logic, wisdom. And self-compassion.

You might've noticed. You know, how many times, for instance, have you judged someone and found out later you were completely wrong about them or the situation. So listening to and just believing in all the stories your mind is telling you can leave you feeling unworthy, negative, angry, reactive, or anxious, depending on what it's getting up to in there. Our stories can hold us back and pull us into suffering, but they don't have to. Here's my simple invitation for you today.

It's really just to contemplate the fact that your thoughts are not reality. They're not the truth. And therefore you don't have to believe in them, obey them or play them out. You can decide whether to stay with a thought and engage with it if it's helpful or useful, or to let go of the thought if it's not. Now, how do you do that? How do you let go of a thought? One way is just to have a sense of smiling at the mind and saying, thanks mind, thanks for sharing your story.

And then just let the thought go and bring your attention to the present moment. You have the power to choose whether to buy into your mind's narrative. Your stories don't have to hold you back. As Eckhart Tolle said, "Observe your thoughts, but don't believe them." And in that you'll find more inner freedom. As always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.

And now inviting you to begin to settle in for today's meditation.