Hello and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're

getting a little better at life. I'm your host, Cory Muscara, 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.

So, if people come to a meditation practice or 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, wanders again we bring it back, wanders 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. 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

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