Hello.
Thank you so much for joining me.
I'm Mark Rowland.
When was the last time you allowed yourself to simply exist without feeling that you somehow ought to be doing something?
Not working toward a goal,
Not trying to improve yourself.
And not thinking about what needs to happen next.
Just being here.
I think we all live in a world that places such an enormous value on doing.
From a really early age,
We're encouraged to achieve,
To make progress.
We're encouraged to be more successful,
To make good use of the time we have.
And of course,
Don't get me wrong,
There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that.
Of course doing things can be deeply fulfilling.
But I think maybe that somewhere along the way,
Many of us begin to measure our worth by how much we accomplish.
A productive day feels like a good day.
A day when very little gets done can leave us feeling strangely disappointed in ourselves.
Even when we're exhausted and our body is needing rest,
We can find ourselves thinking about what else we should be doing.
And with that in mind,
I'd like to invite you to explore a different way of relating to yourself.
To remember that you are,
First and foremost,
A human being.
Not a human doing.
So begin by finding a comfortable position.
Allow your body to settle into whatever is supporting you underneath.
Don't worry there's no particular posture you need to try to get into or achieve today.
Just notice the simple fact that you're sitting or lying down.
Feeling the weight of your body.
Notice the contact with the surface beneath you.
And become aware of your breathing.
Your breath is already happening.
You haven't had to organize it,
Schedule it or remember to put it on your list of things to do today.
Your body has been breathing.
For you throughout your whole life.
And for these next few moments,
You can simply experience that.
The gentle movement of an inhale.
And the natural release of an exhale.
Now I'd like you to notice how you feel about doing nothing.
Because even here,
Even in meditation,
The mind can turn the experience into yet another task.
Am I relaxed enough?
Am I doing this correctly?
Should my thoughts have settled down by now?
It's quite funny,
Isn't it?
We can take an invitation to rest and turn it into another opportunity to judge our performance.
So let's see if we can approach this a little differently for the next few minutes.
There is no particular state you need to reach.
This meditation doesn't have to become another accomplishment.
You can simply be.
Be a person sitting here,
Laying here.
Having an experience.
And whatever that experience happens to be.
You can allow it.
I'd like you to consider something now.
Think about yourself as a young child.
Before you understood the meaning of success,
Before you had responsibilities,
Deadlines or a career.
Before you knew what it meant to be productive.
You were already a complete.
Human being.
You didn't need to earn your place in this world through achievement.
Your existence was enough.
And somewhere inside the person you've become.
That same fundamental,
Intrinsic worth remains.
Of course,
You've grown,
You have learned things.
Made mistakes,
Developed skills and.
.
.
Perhaps taking on many responsibilities.
But none of those things created your worth.
They became parts of your life.
And your life is so much more than the things you do with it.
Bring your attention back to this moment now,
Notice the sensations in your hands,
You can feel them without needing to do anything with them.
Just notice the sounds around you now.
And you don't have to identify where they're coming from.
You can simply hear.
Now notice the space in which your thoughts are appearing A thought may arise about something you haven't finished,
Like an appointment,
A conversation,
Maybe a thought about a job that you've been putting off.
See if you can recognise these thoughts without following them into another activity.
You can acknowledge that something needs your attention later.
And then return to just being here.
We often treat rest as like it's a reward,
Something we're allowed to enjoy once we've completed enough.
Once a house is tidy,
Once the work is finished,
Once everyone else has been taken care of.
But have you noticed how that list never seems to really end?
There's almost always another thing waiting for us.
And if we make our permission to rest dependent on everything being finished,
We can spend an extraordinary amount of our lives waiting.
So I wonder what it would feel like to stop negotiating with yourself for a few moments.
To put down that invisible list.
To allow this time to have no purpose beyond experiencing your own life.
See if you can sense what remains when you aren't trying to get anywhere.
There's a body here,
Breathing.
A mind sometimes busy and sometimes still.
And an awareness of it all.
You don't have to create that awareness,
You're already experiencing it.
Just allow yourself to rest in this simple knowing.
Here I am.
Alive.
And present.
If your mind wanders,
That's alright,
Just notice how quickly it wants to find something to occupy itself with.
You may even feel an urge to make this meditation useful at the moment.
To take an important insight or feel noticeably different by the time it's over.
See if you can just smile at that familiar habit,
That part of you that has learned to keep striving.
It's probably helped you accomplish a great deal and you don't need to fight it.
Just let it know that for now.
Its work can wait.
And as you continue to rest here.
Consider how it might change your relationship with yourself if you stopped measuring every day by what you'd achieved.
You could still have those ambitions,
You can still work hard,
Care for people and pursue the things that matter to you.
But your sense of worth wouldn't have to rise and fall with your productivity.
A difficult day wouldn't make you a failure.
A day spent resting.
Wouldn't be a day wasted.
Because your life isn't simply a collection of completed tasks.
Your life is also the experience of being alive while all of these things are happening.
Like the warmth of a sunlight through a window,
The pleasure of a conversation that you really love having.
The feeling of sitting down finally after a long walk and realising that,
For a moment,
There's nowhere else you'd rather be.
These experiences don't need to produce anything.
They are part of what it means to live.
Now for these final moments,
I'd like to invite you to release the idea that you need to become anything at all.
Allow your breathing just to find its own natural rhythm.
Let the muscles around your face soften and feel the steady support you have beneath your body.
You are allowed to be unfinished.
There will always be more to learn,
Things to work through and parts of life that need your attention.
And you can meet them in time,
But for now,
Experience a simple freedom of being here,
Without asking anything of yourself at all.
And when you are ready,
Begin to notice the room around you again.
The sounds.
How the air feels against your skin.
The movement of your body as you breathe.
You will return to doing things soon enough.
There may be people waiting for you,
Work to finish,
Or plans that you have to make.
And that's all part of being human too.
But see if you can carry this understanding with you.
What you do matters.
But it is not the measure of your worth.
You are a human being and being here is enough.
Thank you so much for sharing these moments with me.
May you remember to make room in your life for the simple pleasure of being alive.
Have a beautiful rest of your day.
Go in peace.
Namaste.
