Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - How to Roll With Stuff | Bonus Meditation with Matthew Hepburn

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Guidance for any time you need to practice staying relaxed and ready for whatever life might throw your way.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 Ten Percent 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 Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Becoming Dauntless”. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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This is the 10% happier podcast on your host your guy your boy Dan Harris. Hello, everybody. Happy Friday. It's time for a bonus meditation. The reason why we call meditation a practice is that you really are practicing how to get better at life, how to deal with whatever is coming up in your mind or your body, how to deal with it in a more supple and effective way. And in this practicing, this dojo of the mind, in meditation, we try to get used to dealing with small things on the cushion so that we can deal with big things in life.

In other words, one of the outcomes of this practice is that it helps you roll with it, which in and of itself is an extremely valuable life skill. Our meditation teacher, Dujur, is Matthew Hepburn, awesome guy. A meditation and Dharma teacher with more than a decade's worth of experience. He teaches over on the 10% happier app. He's also taught in prisons, schools, corporate settings, and in silent retreats all over the place.

So, here we go now with Matthew Hepburn. Hi, this is Matthew. One of my most influential teachers, Narayan Liebinson, at times describes the confidence she's developed from a lifetime of meditation practice as feeling don'tless. What she means is that if we don't know how we're going to face the challenges life will inevitably throw at us, thinking about our future is going to feel daunting. But when we've learned the meditative approach of taking it one moment at a time, we begin to recognize that we can take on anything life throws at us.

Come what may, as she likes to say. Let's dive in. Settle into a posture that feels stable and firmly rooted, whether standing, sitting, or lying down. You can let the eyes close gently or keep them slightly open if you choose. For the next few minutes, you can put down the past and the future. Just relax and feel the body relaxing. Here you are. The meditative approach to life is about simply responding to whatever is happening in this very moment.

You can start by getting into your own mindfulness groove. Turn your attention to something here in the present moment. Whether that's hearing sounds or feeling the breath, choose one area of experience as your touchstone. Let yourself relax and turn your full attention there for a few moments right now. What's the mind doing now? Whether it's enjoyable, unnerving, or even boring, trust that you can respond by gently I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room.

I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. What's happening in the body?

Is there unnecessary tension that can be released? Or maybe there's a subtle mental resentment about a nagging area of discomfort. Can you add just a sliver more acceptance and let it go into the mix? Yn yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw Whatever happens in any moment, no matter how big or small, when you take the meditative approach, you can always make it through to the other side. Come what may. Take a moment here, quietly breathing and touching into your own sense of confidence that you can meet your eyes if they've been closed. Thanks for your practice. You got this. See you next time.

Thank you, Matthew. 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 right back here on Monday for a brand new episode. We're actually kicking off a series next week, which we're calling Monday and Glory. And it's all about how to squeeze more happiness out of whatever's going to be happening anyway in your life. We're going to start off with the science of art and beauty and how aesthetic experiences

both be holding them or participating in them can have a kind of dizzy array of physical and psychological benefits. So that series kicks off on Monday. Hey, hey, prime members. You can listen to 10% happier early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts.

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