Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Can You Be Curious Without Getting Judge-y? | Bonus Meditation with Oren Jay Sofer

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

In this session from Oren, learn how to use meditation to become less reactive and more open in relationships, conversations, and your life. To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Curiosity without Judgment,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=26d7d194-8d16-4a6f-91e5-b1f07345abc8. Of course, if you don't have the app, you can download the Ten Percent Happier app today, for free: https://10percenthappier.app.link/install. About Oren Jay Sofer: Oren Jay Sofer teaches mindfulness, meditation and Nonviolent Communication. He has practiced meditation since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India and is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, and is a graduate of the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training program. Oren teaches retreats across the country and works as Senior Program Developer at Mindful Schools, teaching and developing curricula for one of the international leaders of mindfulness in education. 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, this is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey everybody, it's Friday, time for a bonus, and we're bringing back one of our most popular teachers, Orange A Sofer. He's the Buddhist teacher you heard, talking about minimalism on Monday's episode. Orange has been practicing meditation for nearly a quarter centuries, a frequent guest on the show, and as mentioned, a very popular contributor to the 10% happier app.

And in this meditation, Orange helps us cultivate the crucial, yet very popular contributor to the 10% happier app, and in this meditation Orin helps us cultivate the crucial yet elusive ability to understand without judging and care without controlling. Here's Orin. Hey, this is Orin. One meditation teacher defines mindfulness as the intention to understand rather than to judge. This is a key aspect of both meditation practice and communication.

Our ability to come from curiosity and care rather than our habitual tendencies to judge and control things can make a world of difference in a conversation. So, let's get started. Do whatever helps you to arrive. Relax into your sitting posture, letting the weight of your body, begin to steady your attention in the present moment. For this practice, we'll explore the difference between these two ways of relating to our experience, a habit of judging, and the possibility of getting curious of having a genuine intention to understand.

Go ahead and allow your attention to begin to settle with the sensations of breathing in and breathing out. If breathing is uncomfortable or challenging for you in any way, just choose a different anchor to pay attention to. Take some time to be with your anchor. If you notice that your mind is wandered, gently let go and bring your attention back to your breathing. Remember, noticing that your mind reacts to anything, liking or disliking what happens. If you feel something unpleasant, do you resist? Do you pull away? When you feel something pleasant, what happens?

Do you lean forward inside or try to hold on? Each time you notice this reactivity, this judging, get curious. What would it be like to cultivate an intention to understand rather than to judge. A genuine intention to understand is one of the most powerful and transformative ingredients in contemplative practice and in dialogue. As you go through your day, I invite you to see what it's like to carry this intention forward. What's the effect on your conversations, on your relationships, when you come from curiosity and care, from this genuine intention to understand? genuine intention to understand. Okay, whenever you're ready, go ahead and let your eyes open. Thanks for joining me. Thanks again to Orrin. We hope you enjoyed this meditation. If you're thinking, you know, I could have kept going for another five or ten minutes. I encourage you

to go check out the 10% happier app where you'll find this very same meditation in different lengths to suit your practice. Your subscription cost directly supports our many, many wonderful teachers and allows them to dedicate their time to teaching the life-changing skills of mindfulness and compassion. And we'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode with the delightful Kyra Jewel Lingo. He's got a tool for helping you keep your relationships on the rails. 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 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 slash survey. Like this 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 Wondery App. Amazon Music or Wondering App.