Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - How To Handle Exhaustion, Disconnection, and Physical Pain | Meditation with Bart van Melik

Episode Date: January 18, 2026

A short, gentle body scan meditation from Bart van Melik, our Teacher of the Month for January. This isn't about fixing anything or achieving some special state. It's about finding one small place in your body that feels okay—not great, just okay—and seeing what happens when you meet that experience with a little bit of kindness. Bart is a meditation teacher and psychotherapist who has trained in Insight Meditation and Buddhist psychology. He's worked extensively in clinical settings with people dealing with stress, anxiety, and harsh self-talk. He's the guiding teacher for the Community Meditation Center in New York City. Check out more meditations from Bart throughout January in the 10% with Dan Harris app. Related episodes: Buddhist Strategies for Protecting Yourself from Everyday Chaos | Bart van Melik   Join Dan's online community here Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok Subscribe to our YouTube Channel   To advertise on the show, contact [e-mail] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris  

This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello, everybody. Today we've got a short guided meditation for my friend Bart Van Mellick, who is our teacher of the month for January over on the 10% app or meditation app. Fair warning, nothing dramatic is going to happen here. You're not aiming for bliss or insight or upgrade of your personality. The practice we're going to do today is simple. It's about just noticing the body as it is, finding one small place that feels okay. Not great. Just okay. And then we're going to see what happens when you can relate to that experience with just a little bit of kindness. So there's no fixing, no forcing, no pressure here. This is a low-key meditation.

Just a little bit more about Bart. He's a meditation teacher and psychotherapist who comes at all of this stuff in a very practical way. He has trained in Insight Meditation and Buddhist psychology and he's worked in clinical settings with people dealing with stress, anxiety, and a lot of harsh self-talk. If you want to get more meditations from Bart and many of the other amazing teachers we work with, check out my new meditation app 10% with Dan Harris. You also get this podcast with no ads and weekly live meditation and Q&A sessions with me and many of the aforementioned teachers. Come join us. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. back with Bart's meditation.

And take a slow, gentle breath in. And as you exhale, feel the body landing wherever it is. Let gravity do its work and pause. Noticing the weight of the body being supported by the chair, the floor, the bed, feeling the contact points. Maybe there's warmth or pressure, tingling. Maybe there's nothing much at all. It's okay. Even here, just by being. The body's already doing so much. The heart is beating,

lungs are moving, pause. Now see if you can find one small area that feels okay right now. Not amazing, not blissful, just okay. Maybe it's the hands or the feet or the face. perhaps it's the shoulder or the belly. Letting awareness rest there. Mm-hmm. Letting kind awareness rest there. You feel what it's like to let something be good enough. And can you let that small pocket of V spread?

Just a little. Imagine it moving like sunlight across the skin, or like a soft hand resting on the lap. Now bringing to mind this question. What would kindness do right now? If kindness were breathing this breath, how would it breathe? If kindness were sitting in this body,

how would it sit? If kindness were looking at this body, what tone of voice would it use? What would kindness do right now? There's nothing to fix, nothing to attain, nothing to push through only curiosity only care just this kind awareness that knows the body is alive right now what happens to your experience of the body when you meet it with kindness and awareness is there a

release or a softening perhaps a judgment can all be known right here right now but why What would kindness do? Right now, you're resting in this reflection, knowing the body is right here with you. It's real. Can you offer it kindness, appreciation, or gratitude? Not because it looks or performs in a certain way, but because it lets you be here. Take one more slow, kind breath. the whole body is a single living field, messy, tender, miraculous.

When you're ready, opening your eyes or lift your gaze, don't have to move or stretch or run. Just notice that you are embodied. Big thank you to Bart. Again, don't forget to sign up for my new meditation app, 10% with Dan Harris. You can get it at danharis.com or wherever you get your apps. There's a free 14-day trial if you want to try before you buy. Lots of great stuff over there, guided meditations, this podcast, add-free, and weekly live video guided meditations and Q&A sessions with me and many of the other teachers.

Really, it's a great way this app is to do meditation as a team sport, to do it in the carpal lane with me and the meditation teachers and all of the other members. It's just a super supportive community, which the research shows is a great. way to create an abiding habit. Join the party. And thank you to everybody who works so hard to make this show. Our producers are Tara Anderson and Eleanor Vassili. Our recording and engineering is handled by the great folks over at Pod People. Lauren Smith is our managing producer. Marissa Schneiderman is our senior producer. DJ Kashmir is our executive producer and Nick Thorburn of the band Islands wrote our theme.