Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 581: Use This When Stressed | Bonus Meditation with Jeff Warren

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

This four-part breathing technique calms the nervous system, relaxes the body, and is an effective antidote to obsessive over-thinking.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 “Breath Stressbuster,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=a93acc59-93ca-4002-9977-7ab1217fa1a3For more information about Dan and Jeff's upcoming retreat (with Sebene Selassie) at the Omega Institute: https://www.eomega.org/workshops/meditation-partySee 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. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris.

I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris.

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I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. I'm Dan Harris. thing. Our teacher, DuJour, is the incredible ineffable Jeff Warren. He's trained in multiple traditions, including with the renowned teacher, Shins and Young. Jeff is a great friend of mine. We wrote a book together called Meditation for Figuity Skeptics. He's also the founder of the Consciousness Explorers Club, which is a meditation adventure group in Toronto. Andy hosts a podcast called the Consciousness Explorers Podcast. Here we go now with Jeff Warren. Hi, I'm Jeff. And this meditation is a stress buster. An intervention I use to check my propensity

for obsessive over thinking that makes my stress much worse. It's intended to both calm the nervous system and to suck up some of the bandwidth of neurotic thinking. The technique is based on a form of breathing sometimes called box breathing, other times called four-part breathing. This particular version was taught to me by my friend and teacher, Teresa Jornlin, who teaches an excellent breath as medicine, of course. We start by closing the eyes or having them open at half-mast if that's more comfortable. So we start this practice by noticing the body, noticing the hard structure of the body, the bones even. And I don't mean this in a conceptual way. I mean, really try to feel into this. Where are the bones in your shoulders and your

chest and your arms? And noticing now, can to feel your body's entire structure once the whole skeleton. Good, so your attention is on the full structure of the body. And the next step here is to notice how the breath enters this structure. What is the breath's effect? How does it enliven and inspire the body, feeling it with life? Okay, now we're going to start our four-part breathing. Go ahead and just breathe in. Nice, even in breath, natural breath. And then, stop at the top.

So, before you exhale, stop at the top and deliberately pause. And then deliberately breathe out and stop at the bottom. Pause. And then repeat, deliberately choose to take an in-breath, natural breathing in. Pause at the top. Now breathe out. Long exhale. Pause at the bottom. And so on. That's our rhythm. Four parts. The in-breath, the pause, the out-breath, the pause. Take some, to the structure of your body. And see if you can notice how in the background, in the most natural way, the breath just comes in and gently moves the bones, inspires the body, fills it with life, but not a dramatic way, just this subtle modest way. Let's see if you can find some appreciation for the breath.

This is a really good technique. Even just doing it for two or three minutes can create a bit of a state shift in what's happening inside. When you're ready, you can open your eyes and rejoin your day. I hope you enjoyed this practice and found it effective. Thank you. I'm Jeff. Thanks again'm Jeff.

Thanks again to Jeff. You can find more meditations like this one over on the 10% happier just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. Also to say Jeff and I are going to be co-hosting a meditation retreat along with the great meditation teacher, Seven A. Celacii. It's coming up in October at the Omega Center in Rhineback, New York. We'll put a link in the show notes. If you don't want to or simply cannot make it all the way to New York, you can participate online. We'll put a link to that as well in the show notes.

And we'll see you back here on Monday for a brand new episode with the great Sharon Salisberg. She's got a new book out, which is very, very interesting. And she's also got some pretty harrowing stories to tell from her own recent life. So that's all coming up on Monday with Sharon. So that's all coming up on Monday with Sharon. So that's all coming up on Monday with Sharon. 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 slash Survey. at Wondery.com-survey.