Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - How to Calm Down | Bonus Meditation with Matthew Hepburn

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

Bring yourself down from a level 10 to a level 2—stimulating the calming parasympathetic nervous system with validated timeless practices. Matthew Hepburn is a straightshooting, clear thinking, and dedicated meditation teacher. His personal practice caught fire over the course of several extended meditation retreats in his early twenties, and for the last 5+ years he has been teaching meditation at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Boston, MA. Matthew is currently a participant in the four-year Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program, where he studies with renowned teachers including Joseph Goldstein. 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 guys, hope everybody's feeling okay. We're posting a bonus meditation in the feed today to help everybody maintain their sanity levels. We've actually created a bunch of meditations for this time of pandemic and you can find them.

We're calling it our coronavirus sanity guide. You can find it on our webpage at 10% calm It's all free. It also all lives within the 10% happier app We'll be back on Monday with a fascinating conversation about romantic relationships Well, we're all on lockdown with the renowned couples therapist Esther Perrell and the meantime this guided meditation is from my friend and colleague Matthew Hepburn, one of the amazing teachers on the 10% happier app.

It's all about how to calm down your nervous system when it seems like the world is on fire. So here's Matthew. Hi, this is Matthew. For the next few minutes, I'm going to guide you through a powerful combination of practices to help regulate the nervous system and reestablish calm, grounded well-being. You can do this wherever you like, just let the body be natural in whatever place you're

in. Take a deep breath and relax the shoulders. You can either let the eyelids relax closed, or you can rest your gaze on something steady, calming, and I'm distracting. Whichever you choose is fine. We'll begin with first lips breathing, then we'll add in intentional calming, and finally, we'll include a meditation technique called loving kindness. To begin, take a gentle fall in breath through your nose. And when you let it out,

push your lips gently, instead of press the air out as if you were blowing bubbles through a drinking straw. This breathing technique has been shown to regulate and deepen the breath, oxygenating the blood and supporting the body's own natural stress-relief response. Let's try it again. Take an easy, full in breath through the nose. When you're ready, purst your lips, and gently, steadily, let the out breath pass through your purse lips,

until all the breath is out of your lungs. Cray, continue for a few moments, and find your own rhythm. Now we'll add in some intentional calming. This classical meditation technique involves repeating simple phrases on the end and out breath which will help steady and balance the mind. On the next end and out breath, silently repeat the following. Breathing in, I calm the body. Breathing out, I calm the body. Breathing in, I calm the body. Breathing out, I say the same for the mind. Breathing in, I calm the mind. Breathing out, I calm the mind.

Breathing out. I calm the mind. Don't worry if you're breathing and my guidance get out of sync. Stick to your own rhythm of breathing and saying the phrases to yourself and let the words of guidance come in however they're helpful. Try this at your own pace. Fleeting images or thoughts of worry, stress or concern may come up. That's fine and totally natural. Just see if you can bring these phrases into the foreground and let those passing, fleeting impressions be in the background. Now that you can connect the phrases to the breath, we're going to try out two simple phrases from another meditation technique.

On the next in breath, let the mind gather around the phrase, may I be safe and protected. And for the outbreath, the phrase may I be safe and protected. Let it go on the out breath. May I be peaceful and at ease. Find your own rhythm, gathering the mind wishes to include all who come to mind. May we all be safe and protected. May we all be peaceful and at ease. and at ease. Including all who come to mind.

Before we wrap up, take a moment to give yourself some honest thanks for making time to do this practice. The world needs more people who are willing to take this time. There are many people who would be grateful to know you did this practice. When you're ready, you can wiggle your fingers and toes, Trag your shoulders up to your ears, and let them drop with a sigh. Open your eyes if they were closed, and become aware of this space around you. No matter how bad things get, you can always come back to this practice to find a little more peace of mind. Thanks and see you next time. 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 1-replus in Apple podcasts. Before you go, do

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