Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 479: A Meditation for Pain Relief | Bonus Meditation with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: July 29, 2022

Sharon teaches you a simple breathing technique to release tension and reduce the intensity of a painful experience.About Sharon Salzberg:A towering figure in the meditation world, Sharon Salzberg is a prominent teacher & New York Times best-selling author. She has played a crucial role bringing mindfulness and lovingkindness practices to the West.Sharon co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield and is the author of nine books, including Lovingkindness, Real Happiness, and the most recent Real Love. Sharon lives in New York City and teaches around the world.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Breathing to Release Pain,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=9a2fee2c-a8ea-443c-bf4f-d4329f2eb2ef.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, gang, happy Friday. It's bonus meditation time. As you may know, on the show this week, we've been talking a lot about pain, both physical

and psychological pain and how meditation can help. Today we're going to move from talking about this to actually practicing it. Our meditation teacher, DuJour is the great Sharon Salzburg, who for many of you will need no introduction. But if you're new to our little TPH world, here's a quick bio. Sharon is a Vipassana or Insight Meditation teacher who teaches all around the world. Alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Cornfield, she founded the Insight Meditation Society back in the 1970s.

It's a legendary retreat center. She's also the author of 11 books, including Loving Kindness, The New York Times Best Seller Real Happiness, which she followed up with a book called Real Love, and then her latest book Real Change. Sharon also hosts the Metta Hour podcast, which brings Buddhist wisdom to everyday life

in practical common sense vernacular, so be sure to check that out. All right, enough out of me. Over to Sharon. Hi, this is Sharon. The breath can help you tap right into your parasympathetic nervous system. That's the rest and digest part of your nervous system. The opposite of fight or flight. When you breathe slowly and deeply, you start to come down. In fact, research shows that when you breathe in, your heart rate speeds up. And when you breathe out, it slows down. So a quick way to relax is to lengthen your exhales. No matter where you are on your commute, a date or an interview,

just tapping into the power of your breath will trigger your relaxation response. So let's begin. You can sit comfortably, or lie down. Remember that it's fine to move, if that seems the best thing to do. Or lie down. Remember that it's fine to move, if that seems the best thing to do. And for a moment or two, just breathe naturally and settle your attention on the breath. Now we begin to breathe deliberately.

Breathing in to the count of one, breathe out to two. You're going to have to just pain somewhere else in your body. See if you can pay attention to the feeling of the breath as you breathe in this deliberate way. With your out breath, about twice as long as the in breath. And then again breathe naturally. Notice how you feel. See if it's possible to breathe in through counter two, hold the breath to the counter two, and breathe out to the counter four. If it feels like a strain, you feel stressed, just forget it, do what's easy. But if it's possible, you can experiment. Breathe in to two, hold to two, breathe out to four.

Remove between this kind of deliberate breath and the natural breath, paying attention to how you feel, once arising. Thank you for listening and practicing. We'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode with Susan Cain, perhaps best known for her book about introverts called Quiet, but actually she's going to be on the show this time to talk about a new book about the upside of sadness. Hey, hey, prime members, you can listen to 10% happier early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with 1-3-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-survey. completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.