Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 610: How to Get In the Right Headspace to Make New Habits | Bonus Meditation with Alexis Santos

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

If you’ve been listening to the podcast this week, you probably heard that we’re in the midst of a 3-week series on health and fitness – what we’re calling Get Fit Sanely. To state the obvious, one of the hardest parts of getting fit is to make and break habits. In conjunction with this series, we’re doing something cool over on the Ten Percent Happier app: we’re bringing back our Healthy Habits challenge, a 7-day course that pairs behavior change expert Kelly McGonigal and meditation teacher Alexis Santos. Each day, you’ll hear a short conversation with Dr. McGonigal about how to actually change habits in a beneficial way, without beating yourself up, followed by a meditation from Alexis that helps bring mindfulness to the whole endeavor. If you’re an app subscriber, you can check out the course anytime, but what’s really helpful is to do it with other people. The Healthy Habits Challenge kicks off in the Ten Percent Happier app on Monday, June 19. To join the Healthy Habits Challenge, just download the Ten Percent Happier app wherever you get your apps or by visiting tenpercent.com (all one word, spelled out). If you already have the app, just open it up and follow the instructions to join!And if you’re not already a Ten Percent Happier subscriber, you can join us by starting a free trial that’ll give you access to the challenge along with our entire app.And for today’s bonus meditation, we’re sharing one of the meditations that Alexis contributed to the challenge. It’ll help you get in the right frame of mind to start making a small, effective, doable change. We’ll be sharing more of these meditations from Alexis over the next couple of weeks as well. Alexis has practiced and taught Insight Meditation in both the East and West since 2001. Alexis has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, teaches retreats across the globe, and currently lives in Portland, Maine.About Alexis Santos:Alexis has practiced and taught Insight Meditation in both the East and West since 2001. Alexis has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, teaches retreats across the globe, and currently lives in Portland, Maine.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Starting With Mindfulness.”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. If you've been listening to the podcast this week, you've probably heard that we're in the midst of a three week series on health and fitness. We're calling it Get Fit, sanely. To state the obvious, one of the hardest parts of getting fit is making and breaking habits. So in conjunction with the series we're running here on the podcast, we're doing something

cool over on the 10% happier app. We're bringing back our healthy habits challenge, which is a seven-day course that pairs the amazing behavior change expert Kelly McGonacal and the meditation teacher Alexis Santos. Every day you'll get a short conversation between me and Dr. McGonacol about how to actually change your habits without kicking your own ass, followed by a meditation from Alexis that helps you bring mindfulness to the whole endeavor. If you are an app subscriber already, you can check out the course anytime, but what we think is really helpful is to do it with other people.

So you can do that as part of the challenge, which kicks off over on the app on Monday, June 19th, to join the Healthy Habits Challenge, just download the 10% Happier App, wherever you get your apps by visiting 10%.com. That's all one word spelled out. If you already have the app, just open it up and follow the instructions to join.

And if you're not already a 10% Happier subscriber, you can join us by starting a free trial that gives you access to the challenge along with everything else on the app. And for today's bonus meditation, we're going to share one of the meditations that Alexis contributed to the challenge. It'll help you get in the right frame of mind to start making small, effective changes in your life and we'll be sharing more of these meditations from Alexis over the next couple of weeks here on the podcast.

A little bit about Alexis. He has practiced and taught insight meditation in both the East and West since 2001. He's completed the Spirit Rock IMS teacher training program and he teaches retreats all over the planet and he currently lives in the great state of Maine. Here we go now with Alexis Santos. Hi, this is Alexis. of Maine. Here we go now with Alexis Santos. Hi, this is Alexis, and welcome to this course on building healthy habits. Most of us have probably tried some form of a New Year's resolution,

hoping through sheer resolve to turn over a new leaf. Our intentions may be great, but we often set ourselves up for disappointment. This course is meant to bring a more joyful and realistic understanding of how to form new healthier habits with these oftentimes unruly minds of ours. And mindfulness is the foundation of this meaningful yet lighthearted approach to habit formation. In this opening session, we'll do a basic mindfulness overview. Let's get started. Allow yourself to find a comfortable posture. Any posture that brings a sense of ease, yet also some alertness. If you're sitting on a chair or on a cushion, this might mean allowing the body to settle

down, even as there is a gentle sense of sitting upright. You can also stand or lie down as well, whatever feels comfortable. as you settle into your posture, you might allow your eyes to close if you like, where you can keep them gently open. And let's begin by taking a few deeper breaths, breathing in through the nose, and letting the breath go on the out breath. Then letting the breath go on the out breath. And again, breathing in. Then letting the breath go. And as you settle in, simply allowing the breath to be natural, flowing in and out. Mindfulness practice isn't about creating or controlling experience.

It's an opportunity to be aware, to wake up out of being on autopilot, and to recognize what is happening in each moment, just as it is. As you continue settling in, you might pay particular attention to any sensations you're able to feel in your body. For example, you might feel the weight of the body. Noticing the pressure or hardness from the contact of the ground or chair below you. Or simply feeling the whole posture, sitting or standing or lying down, noticing any sensations of tingling or vibration, heat or coolness. Simply knowing whatever it is that is predominant or feels easy to notice. And as you settle into the experience of the body, you might also become aware of the body breathing. And as you continue, we the experience of the body, you might also open your awareness to include the field of hearing.

Being aware of hearing as the different sounds in the room or of my voice come and go. You don't need to label every sound or follow your comments about what you're hearing. You can simply notice that you're hearing as the sounds continue to come and go. Practice with this on your own for a bit. 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 As you continue to allow yourself to know whatever experiences become most predominant, whether it's the sensations in the physical body, the changing sensations of breathing, or using the various sounds that are coming and going. Begin to notice as well your general sense of how you're feeling is one of the ways we can know our minds. Is there a background mood or emotion that's present? You feel relaxed at ease, anxious.

Maybe there's a low mood or you're feeling content. Whatever it is, our practice of mindfulness is to know what's present, to recognize it as it is. So rather than changing our mood, or judging it to be good or bad, we're simply knowing what's present, in a sense, stepping back and being mindful of it. Take a moment to do this 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 Our habits are often driven by various emotions that go unnoticed, or feelings in the body

that hijack our intentions, pushing us to make unwise choices. Take a few moments now to be with whatever is happening in an open way. Noticing whatever becomes predominant. As we begin to close out, consider one healthier habit that you would like to cultivate. And consider the possibility of getting interested in the journey towards this change. It's a journey, and mindfulness and a joyful interest can be our steady companions along the way. interest can be our steady companions along the way. And whenever you feel ready, at your own pace, you might take another deeper breath and allow your eyes to open if they have been closed. Great to be with you, and I look forward to supporting you in this course on Healthy Habits. Thank you to Alexis.

You can find more meditations like this one over on the 10% happier app. Just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started and check out the Healthy Habits Challenge when you're there. We'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode as our Get Fits Sainly series rolls on.

We're gonna be talking about movement next week and we're gonna start it off the Kelly and Juliet Starrette who have lots of interesting nuggets of wisdom to drop about how to keep your body durable for as long as possible. 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 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. short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.