You know the saying,
Take your own medicine?
Well,
Sometimes I need that reminder too.
It's funny,
I talk about mindfulness,
I record meditations,
I encourage others to breathe through the hard stuff,
And yet I and really every other meditation teacher out there,
We're not immune to the chaos.
We still have days when everything piles up.
Deadlines,
Messages,
Frustrations.
I start spinning stories about how terrible things are,
And it's almost like I forget what I know.
And then eventually I remember,
Oh yeah,
The tools they're right here.
So if you feel that way,
You're not alone.
So let's slow down together.
Wherever you are,
Take a gentle breath in through the nose,
Let it out through the mouth,
And now see if you can notice the way one small breath can shift something in your chest.
Maybe your shoulders soften a little,
Maybe you notice your jaw unclenching.
This is the part that sometimes I tend to forget,
That I don't have to fix anything right away.
I can just pause,
Take another breath in,
Let it go.
I doubt that I'm much different than you.
Sometimes I catch myself mid-spiral,
Complaining in my head about how busy I am,
How tired I feel.
And then I realize that I'm building a story bigger than it needs to be.
And that's when I remember this simple truth.
I already have the tools,
I just need to use them.
And maybe you do too.
Let's just take another slow breath,
Let it remind you of something that you've known all along.
That calm isn't something to create,
It's something that you can return to.
It's right here,
Waiting underneath the noise.
And maybe you've been giving advice to others lately,
Maybe you've been reminding a friend to rest,
To take care of themselves.
Well maybe friend,
This is your turn to listen to your own voice,
To take your own medicine.
Let's just sit with that for a moment,
And no pressure to be the perfect meditator,
Or even to feel better right away.
Just sit with a few quiet breaths.
You know if you like you could place a hand on your chest,
Not to make anything happen,
Just to notice that you're here,
Breathing,
Alive,
Capable of awareness.
As I sit like this I can feel the difference between reacting and remembering,
Between getting lost in thought and gently coming back.
And that is the medicine.
It's not fancy,
It's not something that you have to buy,
Or to earn,
Or to schedule in a busy day.
It is simply as close as the next breath.
When life feels heavy,
I try to recall this.
The breath is the reset button,
That I always seem to forget about in the moment.
And every time I press it,
I remember that the stories in my head aren't the whole truth.
They're just a reaction to the moment,
But there's space underneath them.
And in that space,
Things often don't feel so impossible anymore.
As Sharon Salzberg reminds us,
Mindfulness isn't difficult.
We just need to remember to do it.
That line always makes me smile because that's really what this practice is all about.
Remembering.
We don't lose the ability to be mindful.
We just sometimes forget.
And every time we come back,
Every time we breathe,
Or soften,
Or notice,
We're remembering again.
We're coming home again.
So as you move through the rest of your day,
Try to notice when you start to forget.
When the mind rushes ahead,
Or gets caught in a loop.
And instead of judging yourself,
Maybe just see if you can smile and think to yourself,
Oh right,
It's just time to take my own medicine.
Let's take one deep breath in.
Let it go.
And remember that the tools are right here.
They always have been.
It's just a matter of remembering to use them.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
And may you be at peace.
Thank you so much for joining me.
