Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 599: How Not to Take Shit for Granted | Bonus Meditation with Pascal Auclair

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Through the protection of gratitude, the world becomes brighter and more hopeful, and the mind becomes more balanced. Gratitude: cultivate it!About Pascal Auclair:Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He is a co-founder of True North Insight and one of their Guiding Teachers. To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Feel Good with Gratitude,” or click here: https://app.tenpercent.com/link/content?meditation=87b6a5f2-d37f-45a5-895e-c7bae73e5ac4See 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. Time for a bonus. I will say that I am constantly surprised in a bad way by how often my mind wanders into worry and pettiness and bitterness.

I think this is probably true for most, if not all of us, the good news is it's not really your fault. We are all wired for a negativity bias. It helped us survive on the Savannah back in evolutionary times. The even better news is you can train your brain and your mind in the opposite direction toward gratitude. Yes, I know that gratitude can often be served up to us and rather cliched or hackneyed, manored. But as I often say, cliches become cliché for a reason because they're either true or important or both. So today we've got a

short meditation to help you train your brain for gratitude. Our teacher Du jour is Pascal O'Clair, who's been a guest on this show. He's been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He's been mentored by other frequent flyers on this show, including Joseph Goldstein and Jack Cornfield. And he is a co-founder, Pascal, of True North Insight, and one of their guiding teachers. Here we go now with Pascal O'Clair.

Bonjour to you. It's me, Pascal. Gratitude can be a powerful protection for the mind. It's like a vitamin we can take to prevent oxidation, protecting us from dwelling in negative states, orienting ourselves towards the good, appreciating the blessings in our lives and benefiting from the ease that comes from this very helpful attitude. Gratitude, let's cultivate it. Settle back into your posture,

awake and relaxed, as much as possible. Take a few deep breaths. Feel the body here. If you want now, think of a good friend or loved one. You might see them in your mind's eye or think of them in your own way. Bring to mind what you appreciate in this person, their good qualities. You can even imagine naming these qualities to them. Take some time to do that. How does it feel to think of this person and their qualities? It might be nurturing.

What do you notice? And now take a moment to consider your life as if for the first time with a fresh look. What is beautiful about your life? What do you appreciate? Think of three things you are grateful for right now in your life. This feeling of gratitude you might have access to now is a beautiful protection for the mind and it can be cultivated. Through gratitude the world loses a bit of the hostility we might perceive in it. It becomes a little bit more bright and hopeful.

Gratitude helps balance the mind. It can be helpful also to think of our own good qualities for a moment. Let's go there. Think of two of your good qualities. Of course they might not always be available, but think of them when they show up in your life to help you out and to contribute to your relationships. Remember, in your own good qualities is a beautiful way to appreciate yourself, to alter Infectual way. Great. You can gently open your eyes now if they're closed. Notice how you feel.

May these qualities protect you. May they be your contribution to the world. See you soon. Thank you, Pascal, and you can find more meditations like the one we just did. Over on the 10% happier app, just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. We'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode with Mayem Beallik,

who is one of the hosts of Jeopardy, star of Blossom, and also a neuroscientist, who has a lot to say about the brain and the human behavior, and is very, very open about her own psychological history. So that's coming up on Monday. 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 1-3-plus

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