Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - How To Feel OK, Even In A Sh*tstorm | Bonus Meditation with Matthew Hepburn

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

Learn to find a feeling of protection and trust during a downpour of stressful thoughts or overwhelm.About Matthew Hepburn:Matthew is a meditation and dharma teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience and a passion for getting real about what it means to live well. He emphasizes humor, technique, and authentic kindness as a means to free the mind up from unnecessary struggle and leave a healthier impact on the world. Beyond Happier, Matthew has taught in prisons, schools, corporate events and continues to teach across North America in buddhist centers offering intensive silent retreats and dharma for urban daily life. To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “Shelter In A Storm: Finding Refuge.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to 10% happier early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Hey, Dan here. If you want to continue unlocking your potential to live your best life, then I think you should check out Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Whether you're working on a wedding toast or planning a big meeting at work, strong speaking skills are critical in life. Every Tuesday, host and Stanford lecturer Matt Matt Abrahams, sits down with experts to discuss

their best advice to hone and develop your communication skills from making small talk that leaves a big impression to keeping your nerves in check while speaking to groups. He shares tips, tricks, and science-based strategies to boost your confidence and clarity. Communication is so incredibly important, and yet so few of us are ever taught how to do it. It's a huge and really important subject. Check out Think Fast, Talk Smart, listen every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts,

and on YouTube. And you can find additional content at fastestmarter.io. It's the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey, hey, everybody. Time for a bonus meditation. Today, we're going to talk about finding a moment to breathe, even in the middle of a super stressful situation. Remembering that you can always find a sense of refuge inside of yourself, even when there's a storm outside.

Our meditation teacher du jour is Matthew Hepburn, who's a meditation and Dharma teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience. Here we go now with Matthew Hepburn. Hey, it's Matthew. Sometimes the stresses of the day pile up so high in your mind, you start to lose hope there's any alternative but to fight your way through it. But when you can remember that you're actually a part of something much bigger, it's easier to find the confidence to weather difficult storms instead of getting swept up in painful self-centered thinking.

Take a few moments to get settled in and intentionally relax. You can gently close the eyes. Take a few long, slow in-breaths and let each one out naturally. While you're tuning into your breath and relaxing, imagine for a moment you're outside when suddenly a massive downpour of rain opens up from the sky above. You quickly duck under a nearby awning, safe, dry, and protected while the deluge passes. In this meditation, you're going to practice building the muscle memory of ducking out from a downpour of stressful thoughts

into a sense of refuge, trust, and ease. To start, we'll bring to mind a reflection that has three attributes. It feels a part of this moment, feels broader than you are, and brings you a sense of trust or peace. Some examples might be calling to mind that you're a small part of the grandness of nature, or remembering your caring community, or that there are likely millions of people like you who are meditating this very moment. Let yourself get in touch with something that brings you that type of trust,

expansiveness, or confidence now. As you hold it in your attention, notice your butt. Let's practice this move. Bring to mind the current stressors in your life or in your day to day. Let your mind run through its unique pattern of highlighting what's worrisome or painful. Okay, pause, take a breath. Hopefully you didn't go too far down the rabbit hole.

Bring your attention back to the present moment and call up your refuge from earlier. This is the move. What do you notice? In a given day, our inner thoughts and emotions change just like weather patterns. On a bad day, we simply try to fight through it. But we don't have to endure. When we can trust in something that's beyond our limited sense of ourselves, everything begins to shift. When you're ready, you can slowly open your eyes and take in the space around you. See if you can bring this refuge into the next moments of your day. And if you find yourself in a downpour of painful thoughts, you can always return here

as a place to weather the storm. Take care and see you next time. Thank you, Matthew. You can find more meditations like this one over on the Happier app. Download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. If you like 10% happier, and I hope you do, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey.