 Hello and good welcome, good welcome. Hello, good morning, good welcome. That's a good start, never edit it, so we're just gonna roll with it. Hello and welcome. Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world. And welcome to day 95 of the Mindfulness Challenge. I hope you're well, it's the beginning of a new week. And I wanna really today go back to some basics, okay? Go back to understanding the key fundamentals of mindfulness. You know, we've talked before and I think I might have done something and I've done so much content, I can't remember. And we're talking about some of the myths of mindfulness. And some of those myths and mindfulness are things like, but I can't stop my mind. Do I have to meditate for ages? Will this be a quick result? Is a meditation something to do with religion? And all of those questions that pop into our mind, and there's no way in the world, you know, it's quiet in my mind, not to have any thoughts. And all those things we put together. And a lot of it is rolled into one for us to be able to deflect from the ability to really dig deep inside ourselves. Because that worries some of us. And it worries us because we're scared of what we're gonna find. Or again, what we're gonna reveal or what we're gonna go through or what we're gonna live in or any of those scenarios. And a lot of the reason for that is because we worry about failure. We worry about all of the mistakes that we've made. We worry about self-criticism. There's so much wrapped inside you that is strung together, pulled together, molded, whatever terminology you like to use. And we're really worried about being worried. And we really think about, I'm a failure. I'm not good enough. I do a lot of teaching, both in a spirituality style, this, and spiritualism, which is more of a belief system of working with spirit. And whenever I see anything that people really struggle from is self-belief, self-doubt. We talked about yesterday being that beacon of light and being able to accept compliments. Being able to accept somebody paying you something nice. You look beautiful today. What a lovely gesture. But some of us will take that, you look beautiful today and we'll sit down with it and we'll go, did they say I didn't look beautiful yesterday? What about the day before? What did I do the day before? I'm sure I'd done my hair the day before. Did I have a shave? I can't remember. And we put ourselves to this sort of self-analysis because we really get it up about being perfect and it's hard today in many ways. And I'm probably preaching to the converted on some of this is everything's airbrushed. Everything. And for me, life is more about the warts and all and learning from some of the failures and mistakes we've made. And I'm not going to get into a political broadcast but a lot of the stuff with Black Lives Matter at the moment and those things is taking down some of these statues and I agree with them but we shouldn't get rid of them. We should put them in a museum. We should put them somewhere and say we learned from these mistakes. We can't airbrush our history. It is what it is. What we can do is we can use those mistakes of the past to actually build a positive future with unconditional love and unconditional equality. And you see, that's what we do with ourselves. We try and airbrush a lot of our mistakes and failures and traumas and shadows and all we try and airbrush them out of our history and we shouldn't. Just like I don't think we should chuck all of these statues away. We should have them somewhere so people can go and see them to see that some of these things that these people did was wrong. We don't airbrush it. We learn from it. We move forward. We move forward trying to create this inner oneness and the oneness with ourselves. You know, be love and give love is the terminology that I use a lot of. So giving yourself compassion for some of the failures and the mistakes you have really is designed to help you understand that we are an imperfect being. I'll say that again. We are an imperfect being. We're not here to live the perfect life. It doesn't exist. We can live our best life. We can be our best selves and give ourselves to have the best life we possibly can but it ain't gonna be perfect. Now that might be breaking news to some of you. But the reality is that's where we're at and we've all made mistakes. We've all had failures but we're all sat here today and the opportunity to cultivate self-compassion through loving-kindness, through meditation, through understanding that our failures and mistakes are all part of us. They're part of our scars. They're part of our, you know, I've said this a few times recently, you know, you see Julian Jenkins here but inside there's so much that has gone on in my life but I'm working every day, studying. Just finished a 30-minute meditation in the garden. Just a silent focus on my breath of meditation sat in the energy of the beautiful day that's gonna be here. It's gonna be quite sunny and warm today. It was beautiful. Didn't wanna come out, lovely, enjoyed it. Makes me just that little bit more focused and clarity to be able to come and speak to you this morning. So I want you to realize that we can forgive ourselves so I'm gonna say the word failure but who actually says it's a failure, ourselves? You know, where do we benchmark some of this from? Mistakes, yeah, they're probably a little bit more quantifiable but we never make a mistake. If we learn from it, because it was an experience, it's something that we say, wouldn't do that again. There's no way in the world I'm getting burnt twice. And all of those words and terminologies that you use and hear, you know, or point to the fact that let's learn from those. You know, today is the final day when I said on Saturday about making your journal. So all the things that have been good, all the things we're blessed for and even the things that have gone wrong, who says they're going wrong is another matter, but just even picking the good bits out of that and writing it down in a journal. So no matter what happens, we're always looking, trying to look at the positive spin on it. So we're gonna do a meditation now. Gonna bring a picture up. And this is, again, this is a guided meditation and it's a bit of a variant on the classic loving kindness practices which we did a lot of at the early stages. And just sit there with your eyes closed. And make sure, as I always say, that you're in a comfortable position. But this one really, I want you to sit upright and get relaxed, but sitting upright and just, we talk about falling awake and settle into your posture and notice how your body feels. The sensation of your feet touching the floor, your bottom touching the cushion of the chair, the weight of your arms and your head. And just for a moment, just be in your body right here, right now. Fully inhabitating it. Living your experiences of yourself. Then allow your attention to move outwards to sounds. What sounds are around you and arising right now? Are there noises outside your window? Do you have a conditioner, a fan, or do you hear the wind just rustling outside or any noise really? What sounds do you hear? And try not to reach out to the sounds, but just let the sounds arrive. The sound waves just enter in your mind and body and let it all come to you and focus on your breathing and the sense of the inhaling and the exhaling. Whether you feel the breath most strongly at your nostrils or perhaps that your chest rises and falls. And we just take a few moments just to rest with our breath and simple and easy. Just notice the absolute wonderment of the peacefulness of being quiet, of resting as you gently breathe. And now it's like you just to bring to mind some aspect of your personality or perhaps a mistake you made or a failure you perceive. Something that may have been bothering you lately, something that perhaps you've been criticising yourself for or that's made you feel, I don't know, inadequate in some way. And whatever this trait or action is, try to get in touch with it. Try and get in touch with your feelings about it. And what does it make you feel? Sad, frightened, isolated, inadequate? How have you felt when you thought about this inadequacy? And see if you can locate the sentient sensations of the emotions in your body. Perhaps when you think of this, it brings a tightness to your throat, a heaviness in your heart, tension in your shoulders. And what emotions do you feel when you think about this mistake or inadequacy? And where do these emotions fell to the body? And importantly, just actually allow them to be there. Instead of resisting feeling, let these feelings be natural and they arise when we judge ourselves. Just notice them. What am I feeling? Where are the emotions in my body? And get in touch with how much suffering is caused by our own self-judgment or fears of not being worthy or not being good enough. And realise at this moment that some of our greatest suffering is caused at our own hands. By the belief that somehow we should be perfect. Just follow that lovely breath with your eyes closed and just take your hand or both hands if you prefer and place it gently over your heart in a calm, soft, comforting manner. You might even want to rub a little soothing reassuring circle and see if you can sense your heart right now. See if you can let your heart be moved by how difficult your emotional experience is when you think about this. Think about that, what makes you feel bad about yourself? And in doing so, I just want to repeat some phrases, loving kindness phrases designed to help you feel compassion for the fact that you are, as we all are, in perfect beings. Just think of and take on board these mantras and say to yourself, you try your best, but no one, no one on this planet is perfect. We are all inadequate in some way. We all make mistakes. We all fail. And this is the human experience and it's okay. So repeat these further phrases silently and I'll say a few sets of these and say them aloud and then you can repeat them silently. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am feeling the warmth of your hand on your heart. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am feeling the warmth of my hand on my heart. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am feeling the warmth of my heart, and on my heart. And as you repeat these phrases silently, really trying to get in touch with the intention behind the words, the intention to offer yourself kindness, compassion, and acceptance. And your mind wanders, which you'll invert to be due. And just refresh the phrases in your mind. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am. And giving yourself the same kindness and support and acceptance, you would give to a good friend who was feeling bad about themselves. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am. Remembering that everyone's in the same boat. Everyone feels inadequate in some way. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody at some point fails. This is the human condition. This is normal. This is something we all share. And remember, this is okay. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am. And remembering all your fellow humans who struggle with self-judgment the way you do. And let's just change the phrases slightly so that we include everyone in our intention for self-compassion. May we all feel safe. May we all be peaceful. May we be kind to ourselves. May we accept ourselves just the way we are. May we be safe. May we be peaceful. May we be kind to ourselves. May we accept ourselves just the way we are. And just gently repeating the phrase silently. May I be safe. May we be peaceful. May we be kind to ourselves. And may we accept ourselves just the way we are. Now I'd like you to think of something that's been causing you suffering. That you don't necessarily blame yourself for. Maybe you have a loved one who is not well at the moment or something's gone wrong in your life just due to external circumstances. Something that's very hard to bear. Something that's been quite difficult to deal with. And also give yourself compassion for this source of suffering. Your suffering comes from two main sources. From ourselves not as being as we want. And from our lives not being as we want. So thinking of this aspect of your life and this aspect of your life that's causing you pain. Repeat the following phrases. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept my life as it is. This is the way things are. May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept my life as it is. And by repeating these phrases silently to yourself Soothing and comforting yourself with the difficulties of living the human life. Really feeling you, your caring concern, your tenderness of love for yourself. And we all struggle like so many others. But we say may I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept my life as it is. Again put your hand on your heart of it's been there for a long time. Really feel your hand on your heart. And while we've been focusing on comforting ourselves for painful feelings for suffering now see if you can feel what the compassionate self feels like. Maybe your heart now is tingling or just feel warm, vibrant in some way. And notice the good qualities of an open heart that's filled with compassion. The beautiful feelings of tenderness, care, concern, and kindness. Notice in the joy of compassion of connectedness, of open-heartedness. This is also the part of a human experience. And thank yourself for being a good supportive friend. May we all be well and safe. May we all be happy and free. And acceptance and loving kindness and compassion for ourselves unlocks the happiness and freedom from within and our open warm and loving heart. Take a deep breath in and breathe out. And when you're ready, wiggle your fingers and come back into the room. I don't think there's any more to say. It's a lovely meditation and it pretty much says everything we need to say. There is no such thing as perfect and accept that we're all going to make mistakes, we're all going to have things that don't work. But let's not beat ourselves up over it every single time. Let's hold ourselves with that loving kindness. God bless you on day 95. Tomorrow's day 96. It's definitely a period in our lives which we will look back on and reflect how we could have done things better. What could we have done? But that's progress. That's not beating yourself up. Understand where we could have done something better. We could have maybe been healthier. We could have done whatever we wanted to do during this period. But just remember, we're the lucky ones. We have the ability to close our eyes and focus on our breath. There are thousands and thousands of people who have passed and no longer have that. And think of all of those thousands of people, millions of people who have been left behind and who have lost loved ones through this very difficult period. And it undermines the fact that life isn't perfect and life can be difficult and life can seem cruel. But just always have that loving kindness and support and open-heartedness and connectedness and compassion for yourself to allow you to move forward and to allow your journey to continue in the beautiful, imperfect way it is. And as I say a million times, the ability to bathe in the sea of uncertainty. And what about bathing in the sea of imperfection? It's a great one again, isn't it? Let's try and bathe in those seas today. Be loved and give love. Good morning, Julian. I love you. Have a lovely day. Take care. And make this Monday a bit special because it's the day where you are going to truly love yourself. Be loved and give love. Take care. Bye-bye.