Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 613: The Connection Between Autopilot Mode and Habit Formation | Bonus Meditation with Alexis Santos

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

Happy Friday, everybody. It’s time for another bonus meditation, and we’re going to stick with our current theme of Get Fit Sanely. This week on the podcast we talked with mobility experts Kelly and Juliet Starrett about how to stay pain-free and flexible even as you get older, and then Cara Lai helped us think about how to exercise without being motivated by subtle self-hatred.Obviously, a key part of fitness— from exercise to diet— is making and breaking habits. And that’s what today’s meditation is about: how when you’re in autopilot mode—a default setting for most of us— it is hard to change your behavior.  This meditation comes from the healthy habits course we produced over on the Ten Percent Happier app, which features Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal and meditation teacher Alexis Santos. To access the Healthy Habits Course, just download the Ten Percent Happier app wherever you get your apps or by visiting tenpercent.com. If you already have the app, just open it up and find “Healthy Habits” in the Course tab. 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 course along with our entire app.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. It's time for another bonus meditation. And we're going to stick with our theme of getting fit, sanely, which we've been yammering on about on the show of late this week on the show, as you may have heard. We talked with mobility experts, Kelly and Juliette Starrette about how to stay pain free and flexible as you age.

And then we also talked to Carl Lye, the great meditation teacher, about how to exercise without being motivated by self-hatred. Obviously, a key part of fitness from exercise to diet and beyond is making and breaking habits. And that is what today's meditation is all about. How when you are in autopilot mode, which is a default setting for most of us, it is very hard to change your behavior. This meditation comes from the healthy habits course that we produced over on the 10% happier app,

which features Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonical and meditation teacher Alexa Santos to access the healthy habits course just download the 10% happier app wherever you get your apps or by visiting 10% calm. That's all one word spelled out. If you already have the app, just open it up and find healthy habits in the course tab. And if you're not already a 10% happier subscriber, you can join us by starting a free trial that will give you access to the course along with everything else on our app Before we dive in with today's meditation

Just a little bit more about Alexis Santos He has practiced and taught insight meditation in both the east and west for well over 20 years He has completed the spirit rock IMS teacher training and teaches retreats all over the planet and he currently lives in Maine Here we go now with Alexis Santos. Hi, this is Alexis. Most of us don't realize just how much of the time we're living on autopilot. And it's this mode of being on autopilot where the forces such as craving or a version take hold. where the forces such as craving or a version take hold. In this session, we'll explore a bit more deeply, how we get seduced when we're in the autopilot mode,

and how when we recognize this moment, we can shift from being controlled by these habits of desire and a version to a moment of mindfulness, which can give us the space to remember our deeper intention. Let's get started. If you haven't already, find a posture that feels comfortable to you. You can sit, stand, or lie down. Allow your eyes to close if you like, or keep them gently open if that feels more natural.

You might take a few deeper breaths to get started, breathing in through the nostrils, and letting go on the out breath, and again, breathing in, and letting go. So just getting a sense of arriving, of the shoulders and arms to the way to the hands. Feeling the whole moment, noticing how the body feels, or being aware of the natural movement of the breath flowing in and out. The experience of becoming more aware is often described as feeling more present, more

settled, of knowing, or brightness. Just sensing for yourself how it feels to settle into this moment, bring to mind a situation where you can see yourself being pulled away from the healthy habit you'd like to cultivate. That despite your intention, it's as if there's an obstacle in the road or a force steering you off track. Imagine the moment when you are about to head outside for a walk or sit down to meditate, but feel pulled instead to another snack or the TV or phone. If it feels okay to do so, see if you can sense what's happening in that moment. How do you feel? Are you feeling settled or sped up? Is your attention narrow or spacious at that time?

In the situation where you're being pulled away from your intention, notice who is at the wheel, has a moment of craving or desire crept into the mind, or maybe some form or other dissatisfaction is there, and the resistance or aversion is looking for a quick fix, bringing a sense of curiosity and interest to what happens when the mind is on autopilot. And these forces take over. Great. And now imagine the same situation, where you might have gone on autopilot for a moment, being steered by craving and wanting, or some form of resistance, and just see yourself pause for a moment. You might see yourself taking a deeper breath of becoming more aware of your body, of space around you. And see if just for a moment, even if the force is of craving and a version steer you

off track. You can remember your deeper aspiration, the values that you care about. And then reflecting for a moment, how it might feel if in that situation you were simply able to pause. Notice the forces that were leading you away from your intention. And then make a wiser, more intentional choice. 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 now just returning your attention to being here in the present moment. Notice saying in this moment how you're feeling, bringing awareness to the body, and the body breathing. Our practice, both in these more formal moments, but also when we're in the midst of our lives, is an ongoing discovery of how to bring in another moment of awareness. So particularly when we sense we're an autopilot,

and the habits of wanting and desire, or resistance and aversion have taken the wheel, we can get curious about that moment, pause and becoming aware again, reconnect with our values, and then see what happens. When you feel ready, you can allow your eyes to gently open if they have been closed and begin to reconnect with the space around you. Good luck in your practice and see you next time.

Thank you to my friend 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. We'll see you back here on Monday for a brand new episode as the Get Fit Sainly series rolls on. Next week, we're talking about food, we've got a nutritional psychiatrist. We'll tell you what that means and we're gonna talk about intuitive eating. 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 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-survey. Serve it!