Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - A Meditation For Counteracting The Negativity Bias | Bonus Meditation with Jay Michaelson

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

How not to take sh*t for granted.About Jay Michaelson:Jay Michaelson is a writer & journalist, rabbi & meditation teacher, keynote speaker, and scholar of religion. Jay is the author of ten books, most recently The Secret That Is Not A Secret: Ten Heretical Tales. He holds a JD from Yale, a PhD in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.To find this meditation in the Happier Meditation app, you can search for “Delighting in Pleasure.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to 10% happier early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. It's the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey, hey, happy Friday. It's bonus meditation time. We're squarely in the middle of the holidays right now, and I know there are many stressors and many pleasures. So today we're going to focus on the delights in our meditation teacher du jour is Jay Michelson. He's going to guide us through a practice that will help us pay attention to the good

things. A little bit more about Jay before we get started. He's a rabbi, an attorney, a writer, a Dharma teacher. Basically he does it all. And his most recent book is a book of fiction called The Secret That Is Not a Secret. Here we go now with Jay Michelson. Hi, this is Jay. This guided meditation is about savoring the pleasures of life.

I know a lot of the meditations in the app are about working with the difficult stuff, and for good reason. That's where some of the biggest benefits of meditation reside. But life is also filled with delicious, delightful stuff. And this meditation will use the practice of mindfulness to deepen your joy of those moments. Let's start just by settling in, closing the eyes if that feels natural for you, finding a posture where you won't have to move around much,

feeling the body in stillness. Now, for this meditation, you might try inclining the mind to focus on something pleasant in the breath. It can feel really good to exhale, for example, that little moment of relaxation and release. Let's give it a try now. On the next breath as it arises naturally, see if you can focus on the pleasantness of letting go. How does that feel in your body? Let's imagine something that likely isn't happening right now, but that brings you delight. For example, eating a favorite food, or listening to some music you love, or getting a nice,

sweet hug. Something delightful and relatively simple. Choose one pleasurable sensation and bring it to your mind now. to imagine yourself enjoying that pleasure. Next, notice how the body feels as we do this contemplation. If you're imagining eating chocolate, for example, your mouth might actually water. Or you might not feel anything, which is also fine. Just check in, see how your body feels when you really sink into this pleasure. Take your time, let's do that for a bit.. Let's take a few moments now to appreciate the moment that you've been contemplating fleeting, something to enjoy and let go. Finally, as we let go of this pleasant sensation that we've been contemplating, see if you can let go with grace, with allowing.

Just come back into your body in the present moment. What's going on in the body. And stay here for a bit before we wrap up. You can try this mindfulness practice at other times in your day. Go ahead and open your eyes if they've been closed. Enjoy the next moment. Thank you, Jay. You can find more meditations like this one over on the Happier app. Download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. If you like 10% happier, and I hope you do, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

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