Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about a question that I've often heard from participants on retreats and courses. And that question is: why have I not found peace yet? There's different versions of this, but underneath it, there's this sense of, you know, Hey, I've been working on my personal growth for years now. I've been meditating, healing, doing everything I can to become mindful. So why am I still experiencing sadness, fear, stress, struggles? Why am I not healed yet? You know, I want to be free.

So the kind of subtext under this inquiry is this feeling of I'm here, but I want to be there. There's a sense too, that the difficult emotions are wrong. They shouldn't be happening. They should be gone by now. And so I want to speak to this because that's the real suffering right there.

It's in the word 'still.' So instead of, you know, I'm really hurting right now, I'm struggling. It's, why am I still hurting? So there's a sense of unkindness, almost a hostility towards the pain or the sorrow or the unhealed parts of a person's self. You know, a resistance to them. So like imagine if you were in a house and you said to someone that was there, why are you still here? Why are you not gone yet? You know, that's the kind of relationship we're having with ourselves in this scenario. When we think, you know, why these emotions, these scars, these doubts, these imperfections, these longings, these fearful thoughts, whatever it is, why are they still here? We're really being very unkind to our pains and to our most tender and wounded parts.

But your pain and your wounds are not wrong. They're not mistakes. They're not a sign of your failure in any way. They are perfectly natural part of you. They're perfectly natural part of being human and having lived the life that you've lived.

And to quote Jeff Foster here, you know, "Your pain and your fears, they're not asking you to be healed when they arise. They're they're asking to be held. Just held in the loving embrace of your awareness." So, you know, to go back to that analogy of being in a house with someone, instead of why are you still here, treating your pains and your wounds like children that you love. You welcome them into your house and you give them a safe and loving space to exist. So it's not why are you still here.

It's darling, you're welcome here for as long as you need to be here. I'm here for you. I love you just as you are. I'm not trying to fix or change you. You belong here, at one with me.

So when you feel anxious, scared, or sad or wounded, just know that your pain isn't wrong. See if you can let go of the need to be free of it or solve it. And instead, see if you can make an intention to meet it with your loving awareness. Just softening around it. Giving it some room to breathe and belong with you.

If it wants to stay, let it stay. If it wants to go, let it go. If it wants to come back again, letting it come back again. Treating your pain and your messy parts with love and acceptance. That is the true task of awakening.

It's not to fix or perfect ourselves, but to meet all of ourselves with awareness, kindness, patience and acceptance. As always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And let's settle in now for today's meditation.