Hello and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life.

I'm your host, Corey Miscara, and in this episode, we're going to talk about two ways to think about a meditation practice.

More to come on that in a moment.

First, let's settle in together with the sound of the bells.

Okay. In a moment, first, let's settle in together with the exploration of mindfulness for a lot of different reasons and from a lot of different perspectives.

As a teacher, it's important for me to know how to meet people where they are at. The teachings tend to be the same, but the doors into the room

tend to be different. And the doors aren't always the teachings. The doors are just how the

teachings are framed and presented. And it never feels manipulative. This just feels like meeting

someone where they're at and presenting it in a way that they would understand. And for a lot of

people, especially in the U.S., but I think just more developed countries,

there's an emphasis on doing and productivity, and we're all familiar with going to the gym.

And so I often frame meditation as a form of mental fitness, how we have a gym on every street corner, but where do you

go to develop your mind, to train your mind? And I say that we can look at meditation as like a

bicep curl for the brain, strengthening our capacity to focus and be present and be patient.

And every time the mind wanders, we bring it back. Wonders again, we bring it back. Wonders again, we bring it back. And that's like the

bicep curl for the mind. And this can be a very helpful approach for thinking about practice

because there's something tangible about it's like oh yeah I know how to

develop something I know how to build something meditation is another way to refine develop build

however there are sometimes a lot of people that the idea of mental fitness isn't compelling

feels like another

to do, or it feels very much just like personal development. And maybe they came to meditation

from a different angle, different contemplative traditions. They might have more of a faith.

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