Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 554: Partying With Your Neuroses | Bonus Meditation with Jeff Warren

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

Instead of fruitlessly trying to control everything in your life, take a lighter approach and throw a party for all that comes your way.About Jeff Warren:Jeff is an incredibly gifted meditation teacher. He's trained in multiple traditions, including with renowned teacher Shinzen Young. Jeff is the co-author of NY Times Bestseller "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics," and the founder of the Consciousness Explorers Club, a meditation adventure group in Toronto. He has a knack for surfacing the exact meditation that will help everyone he meets. "I have a meditation for that" is regularly heard from Jeff, so we've dubbed him the "Meditation MacGyver."To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Welcome to the Party,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=0a0c8786-37d5-4f61-9fd1-98986a05bc3d.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, gang. It's bonus meditation time. Today, you're going to learn a meditation technique that has, and this is an overused phrase I'll admit, but it has genuinely changed my life.

It's called welcome to the party. So the idea is that when you see your demons and dysfunction pop up in meditation, usually there may be a temptation to shut them down to recoil and shame or hide your head in the sand. But the ball or move is to welcome in all of the garbage. It's a kind of radical disarmament. Our teacher, Du jour is the progenitor of this technique. He's my friend Jeff Warren.

You may have heard him on this show earlier this week along with Seven A. Celacie. They're taking part in a new experimental format on this show, which we're calling Meditation Party. If you missed it, go check it out. Love to hear what you think. Just a little bit more about Jeff here. He's been on the show many times. We wrote a book together called Meditation for Figuity Skeptics. He's also the co-founder of the Consciousness Explorer's Club in Toronto, and he's the host of the Consciousness Explorer's podcast. Here we go now with my friend, Jeff Warren. Hello, this is Jeff. So the whole principle of this welcome to the party meditation is that everything and everyone is welcome.

There's no secret biases or preferences happening. Whatever happens is welcome, including your most neurotic judgments and unholy feelings and seeding resentments, all are perfectly welcome. You are an affable host. So happy to see you, you might say. Welcome to the party of my direct experience. That's the attitude you want to have. So let's get this party started. Okay, so start in the usual way. Couple of deep breaths. Long breath out, settling on the exhale. Eyes closed if that's comfortable for you or open.

The key here, right at the very beginning, is to make a decision that you're not going to get uptight about anything. Everything is welcome. So if you're a breath person, start with the feeling of the breath that gets settled, just zooming in on the feeling of it. As always, we can use a little bit of noting. So that means that as you feel the breath, you say feel to yourself. But it doesn't have to be the breath. You can also choose another body sensation, something you like working with more.

So it could be point at the heart or a point in the belly or a feeling of the belly. It could be where you contact the ground or the feeling in your hands, whatever you like. So as you're feeling, you're maybe gently noting feel, or if you're working with the breath, you're saying in and out, just bringing it back to the breath, back to whatever sensation you're working with. 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 Okay, so here's the fun part. There's one more little note you can use, and that's welcome to the party. Actually say this in your head.

Whenever you're getting pulled into a thought or distracted by something, and you notice it, say, welcome to the party. You are co-opting the problem here. Make this your mantra. Welcome the insistent thought. Welcome the annoying sensation. Welcome the distracting sound. And then return to noticing the breath or your home-based sensation.

There are no enemies in this meditation. No problems. Only new things to notice and to welcome. So your attention is on the breath or some other body sensation. If you notice any thoughts, welcome to the party. If you notice some strong sensation, welcome to the party. You're hitting sound. Welcome to the party. You're taking sound. Welcome to the party. Nothing is not welcome.

You are an affable party host. Know that it's okay to fake your welcoming attitude. Welcome your fakery. Welcome your suspicion. Welcome the smell of your meditation. If your mind wanders, welcome the fact that your mind wandered, and primarily staying with the breath or some other sensation, but you've got this welcoming attitude, allowing everything to be there. If you like, we can try experimenting with a slightly wider expanse of mindfulness. So, to do this, you sort of let go of your focal attention on the breath of the body and expand your awareness out to include sounds, and he sounds that are coming and going.

And also, the wider sense of space in the room or above you and behind you and around you. If you like, you can use a little note. You could say sounds or space just to keep your attention on it. Let your mind get big and soft. 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 If you feel this broader focus is hard to maintain, and when we expand the stance of our welcoming. All sounds and sensations are welcome. All of it rising and falling within the broad space of your awareness. Welcome to the party. You say to anything you happen to notice, and then you kick back.

Aware of sounds, aware of space, maybe aware of the body, and the breath, and whatever's going on. Aware of it all. 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 When you're ready, bring your awareness back into the body. So the breath, maybe to the feeling of contact with the ground. Rest here for a moment or two. And then, slowly, open your eyes. Nice work, and welcome to the party. Next time, we bring beer.

Or your favorite non-Akkahawk beverage. Thank you, Jeff. And thank you to you for listening. We'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode about the art and science of intuition 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 ad-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 1-3-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 you