Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - How to Stop Sleepwalking Through Your Life | Bonus Meditation with Pascal Auclair

Episode Date: December 31, 2023

Get out of the trance of thinking and explore what it’s like to be more generous with your attention directly, here, now.About Pascal Auclair:Pascal has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He is a co-founder of True North Insight and one of TNI’s Guiding Teachers.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “The Present Moment.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello listeners, this is Mike Corey of Against the Odds. You might know that I adventure around the world while recording this podcast. And over the years, I've learned that where I stay when I travel can make all the difference. Airbnb has been my go-to place for finding the perfect accommodations. Because with hotels, you often don't have the luxury of extra space or privacy. Recently, I had a bunch of friends come down to visit in Mexico. We found this large house and the place had a pool, a barbecue, a kitchen, and a great big living room to play cards, watch movies, and just chill out. It honestly made all

the difference in the trip. It felt like we were all roommates again. The next time you're planning a trip, whether it's with friends, family, or yourself, check out Airbnb to find something you won't forget. This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Happy Sunday, everybody. Time for a bonus. If you look around at the world, you can see that many of us in this may describe you have become at least at times zombies, just entranced, ensorcelled by our technology and not paying attention to anything else that's going on. We live in this kind of zombie mode or sleep walking mode or automatic pilot. And one of the great benefits of meditation is that it drags you off and kicking and screaming

into the present moment. But it's very beneficial. It is very simple, although as the cliche goes, not easy. So today we're going to practice a kind of meditation specifically designed to bring you into the present moment. This is a meditation that we've taken from the New Year's Challenge that is kicking off over on the 10% happier app, which is really designed to help you be less perfectionistic about your practice.

In fact, it's called the imperfect meditation challenge and it features many great meditation teachers like Matthew Hepburn, Carlisle and Don Mauricio. It kicks off on January 8th and you can join starting on January 1st. Today's meditation is led not by any of the aforementioned teachers, but by Pascal O'Clair, who has been immersed

in Buddhist practice and studies since 1997, and as a co-founder of True North Insight and one of the guiding teachers there. It's a great teacher, and here we go now with Pascal O'Clair. Hello there, Meditator. I'm Pascal. Let's explore what mindfulness meditation is together, yeah? First, I want you to drop any big ideas you have about meditation. We are going to do something very simple. We do every day. Listen, tune in and be receptive. Let's try it.

Close your eyes if you want. Take a deep breath in and let it go. Feel the touch of your feet on the ground. Experience this directly. It's not thinking about it's directly experiencing your feet right now. The tingling, the touch, simple, direct. Direct. Can you feel them? Just as a little experiment now, I would like you to think of your hands rubbing each other.

Don't do it, please. Just think about it. Imagine it. Now, let go of this image completely and fill your feet again for a moment. Now bring the attention to your hands and actually do it. Let your hands come together and rub them for real. Let yourself fill this. How different is the thinking of it and the doing it? Very different, no?

One is an idea, the other a real experience. Mindfulness is a direct experience out of theof-thinking, simply and fully experiencing something like the touch of your feet on the ground now. Or the sensations in your belly now, if you want, feel that for a bit. Just belly rising, falling. One of the things we are doing you might notice is we are getting out of our ideas about stuff, out of our thinking mind, out of the fascination we have for thoughts and stories we tell, and connecting simply and directly with reality through the senses. Feel your bum now if you're sitting. Mindfulness is not about looking for pleasant experiences.

It's about getting to know what is there. What's here now? Without forcing. Just staying curious to know what's there. Today, play with this extra ordinary attention in your own way if you want. Letting go of fascination with thoughts and giving value to direct experience. Thank you. You can open your eyes if they're closed. Have a good one. Thanks again to Pascal. 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 can't see tomorrow, but we can hear it. And it sounds like a renewable natural gas bus replacing conventional fleets. We're bridging to a sustainable energy future, working today to ensure tomorrow is on. And bridge, life takes energy. Working today to ensure tomorrow is on. And rich, life takes energy.