You'll notice this meditation is heavily guided — and that's intentional.
The guidance is meant to be listened to repetitively, in a contemplative and meditative way, to help integrate some of the deeper intentions of the practice that are often overlooked or difficult to hear.
I'd invite you to return to this recording every day — not to learn something new each time, but to let it land more fully. A phrase that doesn't quite reach you today may catch you differently on the fifth listen, or the tenth. That's not because you missed something — it's because the practice is opening you to hear it.
Please practice every day.
Mindfulness is a profound medicine — but just like all medicines, we have to take it. Informal meditation practice and mindful living practices are designed for us to do, to participate in.
It's a little like baking a really good cake: we can mix the ingredients together and even put it in the oven — but we have to turn it on, at the right temperature, for the right duration, in order to enjoy our cake.
Let this recording be your formal practice each day of the week.
In addition to the daily meditation, here are two simple contemplations and practices to try out in your day.
In the morning, before you start to get caught up in all of your patterns of doing and activity — from the authenticity of your own care, pause and ask yourself:
How am I? How am I, really? What is needed? What is really needed in relationship to how I am at this point in my life?
See if you can tune in to what your greater intentions are — the way you live, the way you see. And see if you can hold this greater intentionality to help in the small moments that aren't really that small — to bring your greater intentions into greater alignment with your immediate moments.
Not with perfection, of course — that would be asking too much. But see if you can bring intention, purpose, and meaning to the moments that make up your life.
There is a special kind of unease related to living in a way that isn't authentically true to what is most important to us. This isn't a personal fault — but it is something that mindfulness and mindful living practice can help you realize and embody.
Throughout your day, try tuning into the spectrum of calm and agitation — not as a form of judgment or comparison, but as a way to see how you are today.
Notice agitation: See if you can identify obvious — and eventually more subtle — forms of agitation. When your nervous system is a little too aroused. When you're caught in patterns of worry and stress. Or simply the momentum of the pressures of doing.
Notice calm: Also tune into those moments where you're noticing greater calm, greater peace, greater ease. When do they arise? What conditions seem to support them?
Like I said, this is simply a way to see how you are in relationship to life right now, and what might be arising in the conditions of relative calm or its opposite.
RIM is a small and dedicated community that continues the tradition of offering authentic teachings and practices freely — to all who may benefit. In turn, contributions from people like you support these offerings, our teachers, and a community of people who aspire to co-create a wise, compassionate, and healthy world.
♥ Donate to RIM — Your generosity is appreciated and makes a real impact.
RIM is a 501(c3) non-profit organization.
