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You Do Not Have to Be Good

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about why you do not have to be good. And we'll start with a poem by Mary Oliver by the same name. "You do nothave to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours. And I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on. Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile, the wild geese high in the clean blue air are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely the world offers itself to your imagination. Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting. Over and over announcing your place in the family of things. I think we exert a lot of energy trying to be good, trying to be right, to fit in, to meet the status quo, trying to be good.

There's space for some of this, of course. But I think there's a lot more space for connecting to that soft animal of your body and starting to listen to what it's saying. What does it love? What does it want to connect you to? So today, see if you can spend some time stepping out of your ideas and striving toward "being good," and instead, just listen to your body, your heart, however you feel into that for yourself. And see what it wants to tell you, how it wants to help you guide your life. Thank you for your practice and we'll talk to you soon in the meditation.

Take care.

Cory Muscara

4.6

You Do Not Have to Be Good

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Duration

Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about why you do not have to be good. And we'll start with a poem by Mary Oliver by the same name. "You do nothave to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours. And I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on. Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile, the wild geese high in the clean blue air are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely the world offers itself to your imagination. Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting. Over and over announcing your place in the family of things. I think we exert a lot of energy trying to be good, trying to be right, to fit in, to meet the status quo, trying to be good.

There's space for some of this, of course. But I think there's a lot more space for connecting to that soft animal of your body and starting to listen to what it's saying. What does it love? What does it want to connect you to? So today, see if you can spend some time stepping out of your ideas and striving toward "being good," and instead, just listen to your body, your heart, however you feel into that for yourself. And see what it wants to tell you, how it wants to help you guide your life. Thank you for your practice and we'll talk to you soon in the meditation.

Take care.

Cory Muscara

4.6

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