Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 482: A Meditation for When Things Suck | Bonus Meditation with Kaira Jewel Lingo

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

Cultivating what’s good in us helps during times of both abundance and adversity. In fact, it’s when times are hard that we need it the most.About Kaira Jewel LingoKaira Jewel Lingo was an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. She's now a lay dharma teacher based on Long Island. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. and an M.A. in anthropology and social sciences. She’s also the author of the book We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons on Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption. To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Growing the Good,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=5e3aaefe-3a96-40a4-ad6a-1c41c9b9754d.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. Happy Friday everybody. It's bonus meditation time. And today we have a meditation for when things suck.

To be clear, things don't have to suck. Irretrevably and uncontrollably in order for this meditation to do its magic. Maybe you're just a little bit down. Anyway, this meditation is not designed to magically fix everything that's generally impossible, but it is designed to help counter program against our negativity bias to dig underneath our stories and see that the bad stuff is not the whole picture. Our teacher, DuJour, is Kyra Jule Lingo, who's been a guest on this show a couple of times.

She went to Stanford, then became a nun for 15 years, and now she is a lay Dharma teacher based on Long Island, and is the author of the book, We Were Made for These Times. Here we go now with Kairajul Lingo. Hi, this is Kairajul. We may believe that in order to be happy, our suffering has to disappear completely. But though you may be struggling in a time of transition or adversity, you can still be in touch with what is wholesome and good in yourself and around you. In fact, this is the moment you need it the most. Nurturing the good is crucial to your well-being and resilience in the face of change and tumult.

So let's give it a try. Begin by settling into the body. Feel the breath. connects you with your environment. We'll begin by opening to what's here in the body and mind, with whatever acceptance or kindness you can muster. If there is some sorrow, frustration, or pain, you're experiencing in your body or mind, allow its space to be aware of what is not going wrong. Notice what is happening even in the midst of this difficulty or pain that

is going well, sensations in the body? Or even just appreciating the fact that you're showing up here right now? Now, feel into how both of these things can coexist, the difficulty and the awareness of what is okay, what is good. Now, I invite you to appreciate yourself for showing up here today, as well as the many ways that you're open to learning. Something in you is energetic and motivated to grow and deepen. It cares about your own inner life, your own happiness. Feel the goodness of this impulse in you that brought you to meditate today. A kind of faith in yourself and your own inherent goodness. there. Open to it.

Let it grow in you. You can transition out of the practice now by gently moving your body and opening your eyes if they were closed. Nice work. Thank you through your life. 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 1dory.com slash survey.