Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Guided Meditation: Election Stress (Powers of Ten)

Episode Date: November 1, 2016

This election has been brutal on the American psyche (on both sides of the aisle). In this meditation from Dan's "10% Happier" app, Jeff Warren leads us in a guided practice to gain perspective and find a bit of balance. Jeff delivers with the candor and hilarity that only a Canadian could bring to this uniquely American stressor. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before we get started with today's episode, let's talk about summer. Even in the sunshine or on vacation, many of us struggle to enjoy me time or even worse, we struggle to stay present during us time with friends and loved ones. To learn how to actually unwind this summer, check out the Relax and Restore meditation pack in the 10% happier app. Meditation can help you become more mindful and relax no matter what you're doing, whether you're chilling out on the beach, catching up on your favorite show or having a deep conversation.

Download the 10% happier app today wherever you get your apps and get started with a free trial. Now on with the show. So people are freaking out about this election and we're here to help. We at the 10% happier app, which is available in the Apple App Store, or at 10% happier.com. We've posted a whole bunch of free nonpartisan guided meditations, and we're posting one of them here

in this podcast stream, so you can check it out. And this one's from a Canadian, so he's got no dog in this fight, so there's no reason to be suspicious of this guy. It's always one of my favorite meditation teachers on earth. His name is Jeff Warren, and here he is. We're exploring a bunch of different meditations to do in this election season. And one of the themes that is there, and a few of them, is about this theme of getting

space, of getting room around our responses, using this as a way to get space around what's happening. And for me, this isn't that hard to do, particularly when it comes to what's happening in the States, and that's because I'm Canadian. I live across the border, and Canadians are used to having this sort of observer stance of watching the unusual dramas unfold, the colorful characters of American politics of American life. It's kind of a habit, Canadian pastime, to watch all this unfold with a combination of fascination and delight and horror. And whatever else we have have all the different feelings.

So, I call this meditation powers of 10 and it comes from this famous short film of the same title by Charles and Ray Eames, the famous American husband and wife design team. And the idea is that the film starts with a scene of this couple having a picnic in a park in Chicago. And then the camera moves out by increments of 10, a powers of 10. So every 10 seconds, the camera pans back a larger distance. So first, you see the city and then you're seeing the whole continent and the earth. And then you're out at the edge of the galaxy and it keeps going back. And I really liked this film. I liked the, we had a book of it at home and I used to like flip through

it when I was a kid. I especially liked the expansion part. It was something that I actually would use that when I, my life felt too close and too painful, I would literally, I would lie in my bed and I would deliberately imagining panning back the camera. So I could move into this broader perspective. The idea of getting perspective is a very useful tool and it's definitely one I've taken with me into adulthood. So here on the verge of the US election with so much at stake, it can be helpful to remember that while things are very serious, things are also complete and beautiful in and of themselves. And if we pan back the camera far enough,

we can get this perspective. So that's what we're gonna do. So when you're ready, close your eyes, and we'll start by taking a few deep breaths. As you inhale, stretching up the spine, as you exhale, just relaxing, settling into the body. On the exhale you can soften the forehead and the eyes and the cheeks and jaw, the shoulders and the throat, the hands. Right here at the very beginning we find a kind of composure in the posture. We

make this commitment to be open to not get uptight if there are distractions. There's a kind of good naturedness that we can express just in the way we sit, beginning to maybe taste a little bit of that right now. So this meditation is about our imaginations. It's about kind of exploring to the edges of where our senses can go. Uh, as a way to gain perspective. And as always, we're exploring. So you might really like this meditation or you might think it sucks. See what happens for you.

So the first click of the camera, the first power of 10, the first place in which we're paying attention to is the body itself. So just begin to notice your posture, the feeling of your body sitting there, the full warmth of that, the humid fullness of the body. Maybe you're happy, maybe you're calm, maybe you're annoyed, maybe you're neutral, maybe you're completely freaked out about America going down the toilet. Whatever it is, all legitimate feelings. Have all your feelings.

You're on them all. You're on the whole thing, the whole body. The question is, when we get some space? So let's start to the second click of the camera. I want you to pan back your awareness and notice the whole room you're sitting in. Sense of your body in space, the space around you, the sense of volume in the room. Sounds rising and falling, this big open space. Can you feel space behind you? Above you? Below you? Front of you? Maybe the radio is playing in the distance, the sound of media pundits, and it's emmering away. Hawk, a caverny, human society.

And within that, your own thoughts, feelings, sensations, coming and going. Space. And light yourself, be light, easy going. Just sitting in a room, aware of space, things are doing what they're doing. Okay, good. So we're ready to pan back the camera to the next click. This one is going to be a little bit more challenging, involves using more of our active imagination. I want you to imagine moving out so that the whole Earth is in front of you. This movement is almost an proprioceptive kinesthetic. It's like you can

feel it in your distributor system. It's kind of falling backwards into space so that now you're aware of the whole planet in front of you. So you may have an image of the planet, like literally be visualizing it or it might be more just an idea. Either it's fine. The concentration part of this meditation comes from trying to hold this perspective, this lush expanded perspective near and far below the distant roar of traffic, of voices, geese honking as they make their way across the sky, all the earth drama, trying to feel a sense of space expanding out behind you, exploring Exploring this perspective.

But find it pleasurable. Make a decision that this is a pleasurable experience. There's something nice to have this much space around us. And if it's not really working for you, just be an easygoing, letting yourself feel space around you, that's fine too. Okay, good. But in true Charles and Ray Eam's style, the camera never freezes, continues to move back that the earth is shrinking and shrinking. And there's a sense of moving backwards, getting ever more cosmic, fast solar system, the orbit to the planets. Sun comes

into view, ending back. The whole Milky Way galaxy now is in front of us continuing to move back faster and faster, wider and wider, the angle of our view. Till we come to a place where you can imagine the whole universe is in your awareness, this huge expansion, planets are less than nothing. Ice ages pass in the blink of an eye. Black holes eat chunks of time and space. What does it be like to try to take this perspective? Of course, it's going to be super abstract for most of us, but that's partly the point. We're finding our widest possible view. The one that permits everything. This is the cosmic view. Does it feel like to hold for a few seconds.

And then when you're ready, we're gonna come back into body. So bring you back before you fly off the edge of infinity or something, because the election's waiting. And it may be a lot less weird now in comparison with what we just did, But just bringing your attention back into the body feeling your body sitting there Noticing the details of your body is the feeling of the sensations the Follow breath breathing in breathing out Be moved your fingers a little bit. Feel the ground beneath you. Breathing up from the ground.

Breathing down to the ground. Letting it root you, ground you. This appreciative quality as we come back into our body, our homes. All of these different perspectives, these different homes from the widest, whole universe, and the galaxy, Milky Way, the solar system, and the planet onto our continent, our country, our neighborhood, and finally our bodies. Ready to open our eyes and take this expanded perspective into the dramas of the season. Thank you.

Thanks to Jeff. He's the best. And you can see much more of Jeff on Nightline. We brought him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is of course a battleground state. We brought together a bunch of Clinton supporters and Trump supporters that we had to meditate together with Jeff and handled it incredibly well. It was super interesting. You can see that on Nightline, or maybe that story is what drove you here.

Either way, if you want more emergency election stress guiding meditations, check out the 10% happier app available in the App Store on Apple or at 10%happier.com. 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 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 1-3-dot-com-slash-survey. Hey there listeners. While we take a little break here, I want to tell you about another podcast that I think you'll like. It's called How I Built This, where host Guy Razz talks to founders behind some of the world's biggest and most innovative companies, to learn how they built them from the ground up.

Guy has sat down with hundreds of founders behind well-known companies like Headspace, Manduka Yoga Mats, Soul Cycle, and Kodopaxi, as well as entrepreneurs working to solve some of the biggest problems of our time, like developing technology that pulls energy from the ground to heat in cool homes, or even figuring out how to make drinking water from air and sunlight. Together they discuss their entire journey from day one, and all the skills they had to learn along the way, like confronting big challenges, and how to lead through uncertainty.

So if you want to get inspired and learn how to think like an entrepreneur, check out how I built this, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wondery app. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wondery app.