Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Guided Meditation - Holiday Stress: 'SURF the Urge'

Episode Date: December 19, 2016

We all have urges that are hard to resist this time of year. Dan's got a little tool for you to SURF these urges without reacting to them during the holiday season. (Additional Holiday Stress meditations from Sharon Salzberg and Jeff Warren are available in the 10% Happier app.) 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, it's Dan. During the holidays, we are beset by all these urges. Like I'm gonna have 35 of my grandmother sugar cookies. I'm gonna snap at my mother-in-law. I'm gonna buy myself a gift I really can't afford. I get a little tool for you that may help you

surf these urges without giving into them. It's not gonna work 100% of the time, maybe 10% of the time. To an acronym, S-U-R-F, see what's happening, understand what it is, relax around it, then you might find a little freedom. All right, let's get started. Sit comfortably, straighten your spine just a little bit. Close your eyes, find your breath, out wherever it's most prominent, your nose, your chest, your belly. Just feel your breath coming in and going out.

You know the deal. As soon as you find yourself distracted, totally cool. Just start again. Maybe you're finding yourself bored. Maybe you want to rip your headphones out and run away. Maybe you're hungry. Let's surf it. See what's happening. That's the first step.

Just see the urge. Second step. understand it. Where do you feel this urge in your body? And part of understanding it is seeing it for what it is. Can you really claim ownership of whatever this urge is? Do you have to follow it? Which brings me to R. Relax, it'll pass. Everything comes and goes.

As long as you don't feed it. And when you see this, you get freedom. You can watch these internal waves crest and recede. And there's a hugely useful moral to the story, which is you don't have to obey them. Okay, you're done. Open your eyes. So this acronym is good for helping you surf your urges while you're meditating, but it's really designed to help you navigate the real world. And the formal meditation is just training for that. Mazel Tuf, go out and enjoy the holidays.

It doesn't have to suck, and you don't have to make it suck. 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 add 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. Hey there listeners! at Wondery.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 discussed 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. Check out how I built this, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wondery app.