Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - A Shortcut to Gratitude | Bonus Meditation with Jay Michaelson

Episode Date: December 25, 2020

Feel the sweet happiness of gratitude for those who have helped you over the years, the kind benefactors in your life. Excited about our upcoming New Year's Challenge? Download the Ten Percent Happier app today to get ready: https://10percenthappier.app.link/install  About Jay: Dr. Jay Michaelson is the Editor of Wisdom Content at Ten Percent Happier and the author of six books on meditation, including his newest, Enlightenment by Trial and Error. In his “other career,” Jay is a columnist for The Daily Beast, and was a professional LGBTQ activist for ten years. Jay is an ordained rabbi and has taught meditation in secular, Buddhist, and Jewish context for fifteen years. 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. Hey y'all, it's your girl, Kiki Palmer. I'm an actress, singer, and entrepreneur. On my new podcast, Baby This is Kiki Palmer. I'm asking friends, family, and experts the questions that are in my head. Like, it's only fans only bad.

Where did memes come from. And where's Tom from MySpace? Listen to Baby, this is Kiki Palmer on Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcast. From ABC, it's the 10% happier podcast, I'm Dan Harris. Hey guys, happy holidays. We got a little gift for you. It's a brand new bonus meditation.

This has been, to say the least, an unusual and often deeply suboptimal holiday season. One way to counter program against the sadness or frustration or loneliness that you might be feeling is gratitude. I am not, to be be clear talking about reality denying polyanna-esque positivity. Instead, I'm talking about tuning into the genuinely good things and great people who exist in all of our lives. We've all had benefactors, friends, family, mentors,

colleagues, even just inspirational people in the culture. People have gone out of their way to help us in one way or another. In today's bonus meditation, Dr. J. Michaelson is gonna help us bring these people to mind as a way to cultivate the skill of gratitude. And it really is a skill that you can train and it has been shown in study after study

to benefit our mental health. J. as a friend of mine's a deep and fascinating guy. You may remember him from the bonus episode a few weeks ago in the nature of happiness. He's also our editor of wisdom content at 10% happier, and he's a prolific author, a former professional activist, and an ordained rabbi. Dude, where's many hats?

Just one quick reminder before we jump in here. We've got a special series of New Year's episodes that begin next week. Dude, where's many hats? Just one quick reminder before we jump in here. We've got a special series of New Year's episodes that begin next week. We here at 10% happier are taking a counter-intuitive approach to the New Year. You're not going to hear any of the usual New Year, New Year stuff. You know, here are all the things that are wrong with you

and all the ways you need to change in 2021. That's a pretty well-worn, stick. We're going to take a different tack built around self-love. We know that this notion can easily devolve into bathos or cheesy fondue or passivity or self-obsession, but trust us, I hope we've earned your trust by now. We're gonna tackle self-love and a cool and interesting and practical way.

Next week, we're gonna drop new episodes about self-compassion featuring Kauramo from Queer Eye on Netflix and a psychologist from Harvard by the name of Chris Gurmur. Also starting on Monday, January 4th, we're going to be launching a free New Year's Meditation Challenge in the 10% happier app featuring meditation teachers such as Susan Piver to Erie Salah and Jeff Warren. To sign up for that challenge, just download the 10% happier app today, wherever you get your app, so or by visiting 10%.com. That's one word all spelled out. Okay, let's meditate.

Here's Jay. Hi, this is Jay. There's plenty of data showing that experiencing gratitude makes us happier. And one of my favorite ways to cultivate gratitude is by bringing to mind people who have helped me over the years. Let's try this together. First, let's just take a moment to settle into the body.

Resting the attention on the breath, just to settle in. Now I invite you to bring to mind someone who has helped you at some time in your life. For example, a teacher or a mentor or someone else who's played that kind of role. Take some time to think of someone like this. If you can, try to imagine them in your mind's eye, maybe looking at you or in a memory that you have with them. Don't worry about getting it perfect. Just imagine them in your presence as best as you can. Taking a moment to just be with them. Now, bring to mind how they were supportive to you.

If this person was a teacher, for example, reflect on the teaching which they gave to you, or the support, the encouragement. Just bring that to mind. Let's take some time to reflect on what you've received from this person. Pay attention to how it feels to contemplate this gift, really that you've received from them. Take a few moments to check that out. What does it feel like in the body? Holding this reflection for a moment, turn the attention gently to your own being, your body, heart and mind. What does it feel like to feel gratitude? Before we close, take a moment to just re-ground your experience in whatever you're feeling

right now. and come back to the present moment to this body, this next breath. If your eyes have been closed, you can open them when you're ready. Have a great day. Thanks to Jay. Happy holidays, everybody. Okay, happy holidays, everybody. 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 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 Slash Survey. Hey, I'm Ericia and I'm Brooke. And we're the hosts of Wondery's podcast, Even the Rich, where we bring you absolutely true and absolutely shocking stories about the most famous families and biggest celebrities

the world has ever seen. Our newest series is all about drag icon Rupal Charles. After a childhood of being ignored by his absentee father, Rue goes out searching for love and acceptance. But the road to success is a rocky one. Substance abuse and mental health struggles threaten to veer Rue off course. In our series Rue Paul Born Naked, we'll show you how Rue Paul overcame his demons and carved out a place for himself as one of the world's top entertainers, opening the doors for aspiring queens everywhere.