Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 512: An Ingenious Way to Handle Your Inner Critic | Bonus Meditation Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

Instead of letting your inner critic control you, turn it into a caricature so you can find a little space in the relationship.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 “Dressing Up The Inner Critic,” or click here: "https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=cadfb39c-1d15-49bf-a628-ee718d84cfe4"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, Dan Harris. Happy Friday gang. It's bonus meditation time. Today we're going to talk about an ingenious way to handle your inner critic. As is often the case with me, this is an idea that I completely dismiss at the beginning

because, yeah, that's the way I'm wired for sometimes not so useful skepticism. However, it's a technique that I have nonetheless come to embrace in varying forms with a high degree of success. I would go so far as to say it's really changed my life. So just to dismiss my dismissiveness and please accept my eventual acceptance of this technique. And it comes from the great Sharon Salisberg, a towering figure in the meditation world. Salisberg is a prominent teacher and New York Times bestselling author.

She's played a crucial role in bringing mindfulness and also loving kindness practice. To the west, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society alongside Jack Cornfield and Joseph Goldstein. And is the author of nine books, including loving kindness, real happiness, and real love. She lives in both New York City and Massachusetts and teaches all over the world. Okay. Over now to Sharon. Hi, this is Sharon Salisberg. This is a practice inspired by part one of my book, Real Love. When students ask me how to handle their inner critic, I often suggest, make her a nice cup of tea

and suggest she take an app. She's beginning to repeat herself, assure a sign she needs a rest. This gentle approach to the critic immediately diminishes her power. The new relationship we're aiming for is one where we hear that critical voice. We don't become completely swamped within it. And at the same time, we don't feel ashamed, we don't feel afraid.

We don't feel like we need to battle that voice. So let's begin. You can sit comfortably, close your eyes or not, however you feel most at ease. And begin your practice with the awareness of the breath. Where is it strongest for you? Maybe that's the nostrils or the chest or the abdomen. Bring your attention to that place and simply feel. Now we'll reflect on the inner critic. is it a persistent voice? Is there a face? Is the voice of a person really in your life, present or past? Can you give your critic a name or a personification? How would you fill out the feeling of the breath.

Then there's an exercise and active imagination? See what happens if you thank your critic for worrying about you. But say you're just fine for now. Yn yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw And return your attention to the feeling of the breath. And when you feel ready, you can open your eyes or lift your gaze. See if some of that strength of awareness and balance can stay with you throughout the day. It's great that you experimented in this way. I encourage you to keep practicing. Thank you to Sharon. We'll see you right back here on Monday

for a brand new episode. 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. a solid and tell us all about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com-survey.