Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - How to Counteract Your Negativity Bias | Bonus Meditation with Oren Jay Sofer

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

Counteract negativity bias by appreciating the goodness in life: simple acts of kindness, moments of beauty, and even your own good efforts.About Oren Jay Sofer:Oren Jay Sofer teaches mindfulness, meditation and Nonviolent Communication. He has practiced meditation since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India and is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, and is a graduate of the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training program. Oren teaches retreats across the country and works as Senior Program Developer at Mindful Schools, teaching and developing curricula for one of the international leaders of mindfulness in education.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “What’s Good?” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Have you been considering starting or restarting your meditation practice? Well in the words of highway billboards across America. If you're looking for a sign, this is it. To help you get started, we're offering subscriptions at a 40% discount until September 3rd. Of course, nothing is permanent. So get this deal before it ends by going to 10% dot com slash 40. That's 10% one word all spelled out dot com slash 40

for 40% off your subscription. It's the 10% happier podcast. I'm your host Dan Harris. Hello, everybody. Happy Friday, time for a bonus meditation. On the show this week, we've been talking a lot about beauty and art and aesthetics, and we're going to pick up on that theme in today's meditation. One of the more pernicious aspects of the design of the human mind is that we have this negativity bias. We evolved to spot threats like saber-toothed tigers and it's served us well in some ways. However, it can lead to some pretty serious degradation of your daily life if you're constantly focusing on the negative. So this is a meditation that will help you do the opposite to focus on the

good stuff. And our teacher, DuJour, is the marvelous orange A. So for, he teaches mindfulness, meditation, and also something called nonviolent communication, which is essentially communication skills. And he's written a whole book about that. He's been practicing since 1997. And not for nothing, he's also one of, if not the most popular teachers on the 10% happier app. So let's get started now with Orrin J. Sofer. Hey, this is Orrin. It's easy to notice what's wrong

or define something to stress about. Meditation can help us to balance that negativity by us by appreciating the goodness that's already here and available in life. When we uplift the heart, even a little, we have more energy and strength to devote to the things we care about. So go ahead and find a comfortable posture where you feel at ease and alert. You can let your eyes close and turn your attention inwards. You might take a few slow deep breaths to shift gears and settle in. Breathing in through your nose.

And breathing out through your mouth long and slow. Each breath is a gift freely given. We don't have to do anything to earn or deserve it. Just wait and the body breathes in. It fills with new life. See what it's like to appreciate your breathing in this way, receiving each in-breath as a gift. Uplifting the heart isn't about avoiding what's difficult, or pretending that everything's okay if it isn't. It's about noticing the things we ordinarily take for granted, and allowing them to nourish

us. To start, you might think of something kind that someone said or did recently. Let that moment or person come to mind and let your attention linger there for a bit. Notice any feelings or sensations of ease or pleasure, however small, and really let that in. to just savor that moment. Another way to uplift the heart is to notice her own goodness. It's so easy to focus on our faults. Instead, see what it's like to bring to mind one thing that you appreciate about yourself. We're simply recognizing and focusing on one good quality that we value

and want to strengthen in our lives. Taking even a few moments each day to uplift the heart can have a profound impact on your overall sense of well-being and on your ability to think clearly and positively about the future. When you're ready, you can let your eyes open, go ahead and look around the room a bit if you like, and notice how you feel. Thanks for practicing together. Take care. Thank you, Warren. You can find more meditations like this one over on the 10% happier app.

Just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. We'll see you're back here on Monday for a brand new episode, the final installment of our series that we've been calling Monday and Glory, kind of how to tune into the good stuff all around you and squeeze more happiness juice out of life. And on Monday, we're going to talk to two guys who came up with a way to microdose awe in a 30 second practice. So it's perfect for people who feel like they don't have time to meditate. Although you may not fall into that category given that you just

Completed that meditation. I'm rambling now. I'll see you Monday Hey, hey prime members, you can listen to 10% happier early and add free on Amazon music 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 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. survey.