Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - An Infinitely Portable Meditation Technique | Bonus Meditation with JoAnna Hardy

Episode Date: July 10, 2020

You can find meditations on relaxation and much more on our app. Visit tenpercent.com to download the Ten Percent Happier app and kickstart your meditation practice. Visit tenpercent.com to sign up today. Listen to Joanna's meditation on the app here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/BodyRelaxation About JoAnna: JoAnna Hardy can talk about meditation to pretty much anybody. She not only teaches in traditional environments like retreat centers, but also in both schools and jails. JoAnna has been studying meditation for nearly two decades and she's done some amazing work ensuring that the practice is available to people who might not otherwise have access to it. JoAnna teaches at the Insight Meditation Society, at Spirit Rock, and is a Founding Member of The Meditation Coalition. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Hey guys, in our bonus meditation this week, we're gonna pick up on a theme that we explored at length in the two episodes that we dropped this week. On Monday, we talked to Resma Menechem, a trauma therapist from Minneapolis who talked about how racial trauma lives in our bodies. And on Wednesday, we talked to Sally Armstrong, legendary meditation teacher, who talked about using the body as a foundation for mindfulness, a way to be mindful. And you can think of the body as this incredibly powerful tool to wake up. It can become a cliche, but cliches become cliche for a reason.

So there's an incredible amount of power below our neck, and it becomes sort of an infinitely portable meditation technique. And so this meditation is from Joanna Hardy, who is a teacher on the 10% happier app, where you can also find this meditation, just to say about Joanna. She also teaches meditation retreats all over the country and the world, and she teaches in places such as schools and even jails.

So here we go now with Joanna Hardy. Hi, this is Joanna. This is going to be a simple relaxation meditation that you can do anywhere. Perhaps you've had a busy day or have a distracting situation constantly pulling you off into thought. This is a good, simple practice to help you connect back to the body and the present moment. Nothing complicated, keeping it to the basics of the first foundation of mindfulness, breath and body. Don't worry about sounds or activities around you.

Just let them be there, it's okay. This practice helps us settle and calm the mind by resting our attention on one or two focal points, sometimes called anchors or objects of concentration. Let's get started. First, find a posture that is attentive yet relaxed. If you're sitting on a chair, feel your feet firmly on the ground, hands resting gently in your lap or legs, and getting an uprightness in your spine.

It's not too rigid, yet also not too casual. And if you're sitting cross-legged on a cushion, the same type of posture, not too rigid, not too casual. And if you feel comfortable to do so, closing your eyes now, and if not just keeping your lids slightly open, engaging a few inches ahead of you. And we'll do a body scan to get settled into the body, starting with the feet. Let your attention land here. Let your attention land here. Not so much thinking about the feet, but actually feeling the sensations in the feet. Maybe warmth or coolness, the vibration, the pressure of whatever your feet are in contact with,

just allowing your attention, your awareness to land on your feet. Moving up into the shin and the calf area, overall sensation of that body part. Next up into the knee, feeling the bend of the knee, perhaps some tightness, warmth, whatever the knee sensation is. Then moving into the thigh area, feeling the contact with whatever you're sitting on, up into the hips, the butto on this part of the body. Moving into the belly and the mid-back area, perhaps when we're at the belly area feeling the expansion and contraction of the breath, up into the chest and upper back.

Also, perhaps feeling the movement of breathing. Up into the neck, with throat area, whatever is being held there, moving into the face, the cheeks, the head. And now sensing into in this body. And the next, find where you feel your breath the strongest. For some, it's at the nostril area, there might be a feeling of coolness or warmth as it exits and enters. For some people feeling it in the chest area is the easiest, the rising and the falling.

And then for others, it is the contraction and expansion of the belly. So choose one of those areas where you feel the breath the strongest and we'll use that as your anchor or concentration point for a few moments. Seeing how interested you can be with the breath, how each breath is unique. Landing your tension here over and over again, And if the breath doesn't feel accessible to you, then choose one of the body parts that we used for the body scan. Your hand, your feet, your bottom. Use this as the place that you return to over and over again, giving the mind a break and allowing yourself to stabilize your attention. This practice of connecting to the body and finding ease in a moment can make a difference between wise and unwise decisions and reactions. This is a practice that can literally go with you anywhere.

Nobody needs to know that you are doing it even in the grocery line. Just coming back to the sensations in your body, moving from head to toe or staying with your breath. Now you can open your eyes if they were closed, reorient to where you are, feel into your body and continue on with your day. Goodbye for now, and thank you for your interest in learning a life-changing meditation practice. Big thanks to Joanna, and of course, you can find that meditation and many others. On the 10% happier app happier app will be back on Monday with a fresh episode in the meantime.

Have a great weekend. 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 Wondery.com slash survey. Life is short and it's full of a lot of interesting questions. What does happiness really mean? How do I get the most out of my time here on Earth? And what really is the best cereal? These are the questions I seek to resolve on my weekly podcast, Life is Short with Justin Long. If you're looking for the answer to deep philosophical questions,

like, what is the meaning of life? I can't really help you. But I do believe that we really enrich our experience here by learning from others. And that's why in each episode, I like to talk with actors, musicians, artists, scientists, and many more types of people about how they get the most out of life. We explore how they felt during the highs, and sometimes more importantly, the lows of their

careers. We discuss how they've been able to stay happy during some of the harder times. But if I'm being honest, it's mostly just fun chats between friends about the important stuff. Like, if you had a sandwich named after you, what would be on it? Follow Life is short wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen to Add Free on the Amazon Music or Wondering App.