Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Getting Out of Your Own Head in Everyday Life | Bonus Meditation with Alexis Santos

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

When we're busy, we can get caught up in thoughts about what we're doing. Instead, you can practice bringing your attention to the doing itself.  About Alexis Santos: Alexis has practiced and taught Insight Meditation in both the East and West since 2001. He has been a long-time student of Sayadaw U Tejaniya (a well respected meditation teacher in Burma whose teachings have attracted a global audience), and his teaching emphasizes knowing the mind through a natural and relaxed continuity -- a style of practice that's particularly useful during our crazy lives. Alexis has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, teaches retreats across the globe, and currently lives in Portland, Maine. We hope that you'll subscribe to our app to learn how to care for yourself and others during crises (which are, after all, inevitable). To make it easier, we're offering 40% off the price of an annual subscription for our podcast listeners. We don’t do discounts of this size all the time, and of course nothing is permanent—so get this deal before it ends on April 1st by going to www.tenpercent.com/march   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,

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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, hey, it's Friday. That means it's bonus time. Today's bonus is designed to get you out of your head and into the here and now. And this particular meditation is of the on the go variety, or as I like to call it, the free range variety, meaning that no matter where you are or what you're doing right now, whether you're on the cushion, buying groceries, walking the dog, petting your iguana, whatever, this meditation will work for you in this moment. It is brought to you by my friend Alexis Santos, who's an amazing

meditation teacher and a frequent contributor to the 10% happier app. So here we go now with Alexis. Hi, this is Alexis. The way we experience life often makes us feel like more than one moment is happening at a time. It's so easy to feel entangled in a web of chaos, as if we would need to be an octopus with eight limbs just to keep up with juggling the present moment. And yet the reality is that there is only one moment at a time. In this on-the-go session, we'll explore how understanding and remembering this truth of just one moment at a time can bring simplicity and focus back to the mind. So let's get started. This meditation is designed to be with you wherever you are,

in whatever activity. So whether you are out and about, walking around, holding your phone, shopping, doing the dishes, sitting, looking at a computer screen at work or home, just begin by allowing yourself to become aware. Notice where you are, what you are doing. Keeping it very simple. If you are sitting, simply know that you are sitting. If you're walking, know that you're walking.

You might begin to feel the sensations in your body, generally sensing what's present, the pressure on the chair, or sensations of your feet contacting the ground, or just knowing the whole body as it moves about. Allow yourself to relax and simply bring in an intention to be aware. Are you aware? Simply reconnecting with being aware when you feel swept away again by experience. The feelings of being busy, or if many things happening at once, is actually the result of our attention getting caught up in the stories, or the concepts of the present moment. For example, if you're shopping, the stories would be about all the things you need to buy,

and how much time do you have, how much is it going to cost, or whatever else, or if you're working on something on your computer, you might be thinking about how much more you need to do or wanting to get it done, thinking about how this moment should be or could be different. When we're not aware, most of our attention goes to these stories or ideas to what we might call conceptual reality. When awareness returns, we're able to reconnect with what is real. The stories are fine. They may or may not be helpful.

But awareness allows us to be in the moment again. One moment at a time. So check again to see if you are aware. Feeling the breath or the body. Wherever we are, in any moment of the day, checking in and being aware allows us to shift from complexity to the experience of just one moment at a time. As you continue to go about your day, and particularly when you notice the feeling of too many things happening at once. Rather than trying to speed up, thinking you can do more and go faster. Try pausing for a moment and remember that there is just one moment at a time. See you next time.

Thank you, Alexis, and you can find more meditations by Alexis, including longer versions of See you next time. and compassion out in the world. To make it easier to become an app subscriber, we're offering 40% off the price of an annual subscription for our podcast listeners. We don't do big discounts all the time. And of course, nothing is permanent. So get the deal before it ends on April 1st by going to 10% dot com slash march. That's 10% one word all spelled out dot com slash march for 40% off your subscription. We'll see you back here on Monday for a brand new episode from the great writer, George Sonders, who wrote Lincoln in the Bardo and is a practicing Buddhist. This was a fascinating conversation for me, so I'm looking forward to sharing it with you on Monday. on Monday. Before you go, do us a solid and tell us all about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Celebrity feuds are high stakes.

You never know if you're just going to end up on Page Six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellasai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy

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