Hello and welcome to another episode of Mindfulness Plus. I'm your host, Thomas

McConkey. Thank you so much for listening today. In the season opener for season six,

I talked about a vulnerable moment I had out here in my new town of Boston, Massachusetts,

where I fell into a river.

If you haven't listened to that episode, and you want to hear about me falling into a river?

I recommend it.

I mentioned that because today's episode is on a related theme, related to vulnerability.

And I know vulnerability has made its rounds in media.

Brené Brown, the patron saint of vulnerability, does a great job with it.

Why would I say anything else about vulnerability?

I actually think that vulnerability is close to the heart of almost everything we do in life.

Particularly in this practice, we're doing mindfulness practice here,

in case you didn't notice from the title of the podcast.

In mindfulness, when we bring our highest awareness to the present moment and the raw nature of experience,

if we do it faithfully, if we do it consistently, we're bound to feel very vulnerable

at a certain point. Why? It turns out in life, when we pay attention, when we're mindful,

sooner or later we get the insight that we have almost always unconsciously,

we get this insight that we have unconsciously choreographed our lives

around avoiding certain experiences and seeking other experiences.

Mindfulness as a practice cuts through that because we get this message

imprinted in our bodies in mindfulness that whatever is happening, our basic task is to bring

full awareness to it, precision and awareness as well as great openness. So I'm clear on what's

...