Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - An Ancient Antidote to Holiday Stress | Bonus Meditation with Sebene Selassie

Episode Date: November 26, 2021

This meditation will explore an ancient meditation on the classical elements of matter, helping you connect more deeply with your body.Growing up, Sebene felt like a big weirdo. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in white neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., she was a tomboy Black girl who loved Monty Python and UB40. She never believed she belonged. Thirty years ago, she began studying Buddhism as an undergraduate at McGill University where she majored in Comparative Religious Studies. Now, Sebene is a teacher, author, and speaker who teaches that meditation can help us remember our inherent sense of belonging, that our individual freedom affects absolutely everyone and everything, and that our collective freedom depends on each and every one of us. To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Four Elements,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=1ba1eb16-2918-4f7d-b4cd-160ecad8e4ab.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. Hey gang, happy Friday. It's the day after Thanksgiving, which means the holiday season is now officially upon us.

And for many of us, that can bring all sorts of extra stress and anxiety. So for today's bonus, we've got an ancient, but perhaps less or known meditation for you to help you counteract any stress or anxiety you're feeling. Our teacher for this bonus is TPH favorite Seven A. Celaci and she's going to lead you on a meditation on the elements. I'll let her explain what that actually means. Seb, by the way, is a well-loved meditation teacher and author of an excellent book called You Belong. You can find lots more of her teachings over on the 10% happier app and speaking of the app, if you're a regular listener to this podcast, you may have noticed that we've

got a lot going on over on the 10% happier app this fall from meditation challenges to the brand new 20% happier podcast. There's never been a better time to join our community of meditators to make sure you have a chance to try it out. We're offering 10% happier subscriptions at a 40% discount until December 1st. We don't do discounts of the size all the time and of course nothing is permanent. As we putists like to point out,

so you can get this deal before it ends by going to 10% dot com slash 40. That's 10% one word all spelled out. Dot com slash 40 for 40% off your subscription. Okay, here we go now with 7a. Hi, this is 7a. This meditation will explore an ancient but little known meditation on the classical elements of matter.

This is a good meditation to do if you're looking for ways to connect more with nature. The classical elements are referred to in the ancient traditions of almost every continent, from ancient Egypt to Greece to China and India to the indigenous traditions of the Americas. We're going to work with four elements, earth, fire, water and air. These aren't the scientific elements we learned in chemistry class. You can think of these elements as simple categories for relating to our direct experience, including our own density, temperature, fluidity, and spaciousness. This meditation on the elements helps us to connect to our bodies in a way that also connects

us to everything else in nature. There are many studies which show that being in nature has amazing benefits for our overall health, but it's also been shown that even feeling like we are a part of nature positively affects life satisfaction, vitality, meaningfulness, happiness, mindfulness, and even lower anxiety. Ready? Let's get started. Find a comfortable position, either seated or even laying down.

See if you can feel alert and open in the front of the body. But really relaxed and at ease. You can close your eyes, or if they're open, keep a soft focus on one point. Let's begin by spending a few minutes gathering our awareness and allowing the mind to settle before we work with the elements. As you rest awareness on the body, can you connect to the breath as a way to anchor and gather your attention? Finding the breath as a way to reconnect to the body and to the present moment.

As you continue to settle in your seat, begin to notice the weight of your body sitting here. This sense of solidity, density, can be experienced as the Earth element. Your bones and flesh, all that is solid and dense in the body, this is the Earth element in you. As you connect to this element, allow your body to soften and rest deeply into your seat for the ground underneath you. You can rest awareness on the breath for a few moments as we move to the next element. The second element is fire. This element can be felt by noticing temperature in the body. Fire is heat and power. This might be warmth or vibration, and it's, in the belly or in the heart area. element in you. Resting awareness on the breath for a few moments again as we move to the third element. Third element is water. Water is smooth and flowing.

It's all that is fluid in our body, and it's the realm of emotions in our life. Most of our body is fluid, about 60% is water. Perhaps you can sense this, feeling this saliva in your mouth, or sensing the blood coursing through you. Can you sense this water element in relation to the water that covers our planet, the oceans and rivers and lakes. Our world is made mostly of water, and so are we. Resting awareness on the breath for a few moments says we move to the final element. The fourth element is air. Air is movable and changeable. It is light and ephemeral. Of course in our bodies the air element is the breath. And air is the realm of thought in our lives. Noticing the in-breath and the out-breath.

Are you aware of the air moving in and out of your lungs? By bringing your awareness to your breath, you can bring the air element in the body into When you're ready, you can open your eyes. You can orient to the space around you. Even if you're in a city, you can connect to the elements, the earth underneath your feet on the street, the water flowing when you take a shower, the fire of the sun shining through the window, and the air all around you. Nature is always right here. Thanks for doing this meditation on elements. I hope to see you next time. Thanks for doing this meditation on elements. I hope to see you next time.

Thank you, Seb. We'll see you right back here on Monday. We're kicking off a special week-long series. We're calling the Anti-Diet series. And our first guest is the actor, Jimmy Ligemiel. Hey, hey, prime members. You can listen to 10% happier early and ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

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