Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 465: Dismantling Perfectionism | Bonus Meditation with La Sarmiento

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

Nourish yourself with some kindness and shift away from self-criticism towards accepting yourself fully, even your hardest parts.About La Sarmiento:La Sarmiento is the the guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington's BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Sanghas and a mentor for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and for Cloud Sangha. They graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leader Training Program in 2012. As an immigrant, non-binary, Filipinx-American, La is committed to expanding access to the Dharma. They live in Towson, MD with their life partner Wendy and rescue pups Annabel and Bader.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Dismantling Perfectionism, Accepting Yourself,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=dd701886-ad66-417a-b466-cdefb92ff5c8.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it even mean to live a good life? Is it about happiness, purpose, love, health, or wealth? What really matters in the pursuit of a life well lived? These are the questions award-winning author, founder, and interviewer Jonathan Fields asks his guests on the Top Ranked Good Life Project podcast. Every week, Jonathan sits down with world renowned thinkers and doers, people like Glenn and Doyle, Adam Grant,

Young Pueblo, Jonathan Height, and hundreds more. Start listening right now. Look for the Good Life project on your favorite podcast app. This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey, happy Friday. It's time for a bonus meditation. Today we're talking about perfectionism, which is both extremely common and commonly

crippling. It's often based in a deep sense of insufficiency and frequently leads to burnout. So today, a meditation specifically for perfectionists. It comes from the amazing Las Armanto, who is the guiding teacher of the Insight meditation community of Washington's BIPOC and LGBTQIA plus Sangas, and also a mentor for the mindfulness meditation teacher certification program and for cloud Sanga. Here we go now with law.

Hi, this is law. Life is hard. With all the demands on our time and energy, expectations can pile up. Then we may judge ourselves for not successfully living up to the unreasonable external and internal standards of perfection. Mindfulness reminds us that these judgments we carry are simply thoughts in the mind. Kindness offers a chance to shift from self-criticism to accepting ourselves fully, the good, the bad, and the so-called ugly. Let's begin.

Find a posture that your body would most appreciate right now, whether it be sitting, standing or lying down. Allow your eyes to close or soften your gaze. Allow yourself to fully arrive here right now, letting go of any worries or concerns as best you can. As you settle in, invite your mind to be curious rather than critical, even if it's just practice and you can do it. Finding a sense of acceptance for ourselves can be challenging, so let's start with someone easy. Bring to mind a person that you care about dearly, someone that you find easy to love. This dear person probably has a hard time accepting something about themselves. which they feel inadequate in their life, just like you do sometimes.

Do you notice any thoughts, emotions or sensations when you consider this dear person having a hard time? Radical kindness is the antidote to self-criticism. Let's see what it's like to offer this dear person some phrases of self-acceptance. You may wish to place your hand over your heart as a gesture of support and care for this person. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you trust that you are people who care about you. Just like this dear person, we all have times when it's hard to remember self-acceptance.

Now, let's practice with ourselves. May I accept myself just as I am enough right now. May I remember that there are people who care about me. Take some time to notice how those phrases of self-acceptance feel for you. Whatever is present is totally okay. As we end our practice, gently open your eyes if they have been closed. Take a moment to settle back into your space. and our practice gently open your eyes if they have been closed. Take a moment to settle back into your space. Thank you for practicing the kindness of self-acceptance. May it be of benefit to you and those you interact with.

Take care. Thank you, Law, and we'll be right back here on Monday with a freshy, a brand new episode with the behavioral scientist, Maya Shankar, who has worked for everybody from the Obama White House to the United Nations to Google, and she is specifically interested in why humans are so bad at dealing with uncertainty and change in a world where uncertainty and change are non-negotiable. So we'll talk to her about why that is and what we can do about it coming up on Monday. Hey, hey, Prime members. You can listen to 10% happier early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. Before you go, do us a solid and tell us all about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.