Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Guided Meditation: Getting Out Of Your Head in an Age of Polarization

Episode Date: July 17, 2017

It's easy to become addicted to the constant stream of information coming at us from the 24-hour news cycle, social media, and our own desire to be informed. Led by Sebene Selassie (Podcast Ep. #42), this meditation helps us take a break from information overload. This meditation is part of a new Mindfulness in an Age of Polarization series on the 10% Happier app. Whether your personal politics lean left or right - top teachers have been enlisted to create bipartisan meditations that can help us navigate the challenges of our increasingly polarized world. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It kind of blows my mind to consider the fact that we're up to nearly 600 episodes of this podcast, the 10% happier podcast. That's a lot of conversations. I like to think of it as a great compendium of, and I know this is a bit of a grandiose term, but wisdom. The only downside of having this vast library of audio is that it can be hard to know where to start. So we're launching a new feature here, playlists, just like you put together a playlist of your favorite songs.

Back in the day, we used to call those mix tapes. Just like you do that with music, you can do it with podcasts. So if you're looking for episodes about anxiety, we've got a playlist of all of our anxiety episodes. Or if you're looking for how to sleep better, we've got a playlist of all of our anxiety episodes, or if you're looking for how to sleep better, we've got a playlist for that. We've even put together a playlist of some of my personal favorite episodes. That was a hard list to make. Check out our playlists at 10%.com slash playlist. That's 10% all one word spelled out..com slash playlist singular.

Let us know what you think. We're always open to tweaking how we do things and maybe there's a playlist we haven't thought of. Hit me up on Twitter or submit a comment through the website. Hey y'all, it's your girl, Kiki Palmer. I'm an actress, singer, and entrepreneur. I'm a 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. People are freaking out about politics these days. Both sides of the aisle as it were. And so we thought we might have a constructive role to play here by we, I mean, everybody in the 10% happier empire. And over at the 10% happier app, we've just launched a whole series of meditations, guided meditations specifically designed to help you make it through these turbulent times in a mindful fashion. We're posting one of them here on the podcast feed. It's from one of my favorite teachers and human beings,

Sebony Salassi. So give it a go, and if you like it, go over to the app and check out some more. Many of us are overwhelmed by current events and yet strangely addicted to the constant stream of information coming at us for many devices and channels. The 24-hour news cycle, social media, and our own desire to be informed and engaged can start to make us feel worried, angry or burnt out. This meditation is one in a series designed to help you take a break from the information overload. Other meditations in this series work with difficult emotions or thoughts, but in this meditation we're actually going to try and get out of our heads and into our bodies. So we're going to use awareness of the

body to help with the spin of thoughts and emotions. Your mind can yank you into endless ruminations about things past or into imagine catastrophes of the future. But the body is always in the present moment. We're not going to push away anything, but we are going to use the sensations of the body to help bring us some relaxation, ease, and well-being. So let's get started.

Find a comfortable position, seated or standing or lying down. A position where you can feel relaxed grounded, but where you also feel alert, open, attentive. Finding this balance between being alert and relaxed was one of the keys to our practice. So, let's begin by noticing any points of contact with what's supporting you right now. Feeling that sense of groundedness, gravity holding you down, relaxing into that support. Can you also feel a sense of alertness and openness? Finding that balance between being grounded, being upright or open. So we're going to use mindfulness of the breath as a way to connect with the body. The breath is always right here in the present moment.

We don't have to manufacture anything. You can just rest our awareness on wherever the breath is most prominent. I like to encourage people to feel the breath in the belly. You can even put a hand to feel the belly rising and falling as the diaphragm moves up and down. So, noticing if you're thinking about the breath, or you actually have a felt sense of each breath from its very beginning to its very end. Breath is a tool of awareness because it's connecting us to our body in this moment. So as thoughts arise, emotion, surface, we're not pushing them away, but we're using this meditation and this practice as a way to reconnect to what's here in the body right now so that we don't get caught up in that

stream of thoughts, in the stories, in the worries, in the planning or in the panic. We don't have to make a problem of any thoughts or any emotions, but we also don't need to follow each train of thought. We can simply rest our awareness back in this breath. And this one. For these moments we're not choosing or gets caught up, you can-relaxing into awareness of breathing. As we complete this short meditation, opening our eyes, moving in whatever way feels comfortable. simple. Remembering that this very simple basic tool of awareness of breath is always available when we feel really caught up in thinking in strong emotions, really lost in this world and world of our times right now.

We don't need to push those things away, but we can always use the sensation of the breath or the body as a way to bring some ease and well-being. Thanks for practicing with me. I hope it's helpful and good luck. Big thanks to 70 Celacii for that. And there are, as I said at the top of this thing, many more free guided meditations for people who are feeling anxious about the political scene right now. 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 1-3.com-survey. Raising kids can be one of the greatest rewards of a parent's life. But come on, someday, parenting is unbearable. I love my kid, but is a new parenting podcast from Wondry that shares a refreshingly honest

and insightful take on parenting. Hosted by myself, Megan Galey, Chris Garcia, and Kurt Brownleur, we will be your resident not-so-expert experts. Each week we'll share a parenting story that'll have you laughing, nodding, and thinking. Oh yeah, I have absolutely been there. We'll talk about what went right and wrong. What would we do differently? And the next time you step on yet another stray Lego in the middle of the night, you'll

feel less alone. So if you like to laugh with us as we talk yet another stray Lego in the middle of the night, you'll feel less alone. So if you like to laugh with us as we talk about the hardest job in the world, listen to, I love my kid, but wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.