Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Learn Basic Breath Meditation From a Master | Bonus Meditation with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: October 8, 2023

Being aware of the breath is a foundation of mindfulness. The goal is to gently return, with growing kindness, again and again.About Sharon Salzberg:A towering figure in the meditation world, Sharon Salzberg is a prominent teacher & New York Times best-selling author. She has played a crucial role bringing mindfulness and lovingkindness practices to the West.Sharon co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield and is the author of several books, including Lovingkindness, Real Happiness, and the most recent Finding Your Way. Sharon lives in New York City and teaches around the world.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Basic Breath Meditation.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ghosts aren't real. At least as a journalist, that's what I've always believed. Sure, odd things happen in my childhood bedroom. But ultimately, I shrugged it all off. That is, until a couple of years ago, when I discovered that every subsequent occupant of that house is convinced they've experienced something inexplicable too. Including the most recent inhabitant who says she was visited at night by the ghost of a faceless woman. And it gets even stranger. It just so happens that the alleged ghost haunted my childhood room might just be my wife's great-grandmother. It was murdered in the house next door by two gunshots to the face.

From Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios comes Ghost Story, a podcast about family secrets overwhelming coincidence and the things that come back to haunt us. Follow Ghost Story on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes at free right now by joining Wondry Plus. Happy Sunday, everybody. We're experimenting with sending out these bonus meditations on Sundays because we're dropping some special episodes on Fridays. Later this week on the podcast, I'm going to be talking with Sharon Salzburg, who's one of the founders of the Insight Meditation Society, Great Place in Barry Massachusetts. She's also a key teacher over on

the 10% happier meditation app. And she's got a new book out called Finding Your Way. So, in honor of that, for today's bonus meditation, we thought we'd let Sharon take us back to basics for very simple meditation on the breath. Here we go now with Sharon Salzburg. Hi, this is Sharon. A classic foundational exercise in meditation is focusing on the feeling of the in and out breath. They say the breath is chosen for many reasons. For one, you don't have to believe anything

in order to feel your breath. You don't have to call yourself Buddhist or Hindu or believe in anything in particular. It's also said that the breath is very portable. Anywhere we are breathing, we can be meditating. To begin, you can sit comfortably and relax. It helps if your back can be straight without being strained or overarached. You can close your eyes or not, however you feel comfortable. In this system, the breath that we focus on is the natural flow of the in and out breath. We don't try to make the breath different or deeper. Instead, we just notice how everything is appearing and how everything is changing. So first, notice where the feeling of the breath is most predominant for you.

This might be at the nostrils, at the chest, or at the abdomen. Wherever the breath is easy for you to feel, rest your attention lightly in that area. See if you can feel just one breath from the beginning through the middle to the end. Set it back. Let the breath come to you. You're breathing anyway. All you need to do is feel it. If something arises, sensations, emotions, that's strong enough to take your attention away from the feeling of the breath, or if you fall in asleep. Notice how you speak to yourself at that moment when you realize that you were just distracted

and prepared to let go and begin again. If it's a harsh, judgmental voice, see if you can soften it. It's actually through kindness towards ourselves rather than condemning ourselves that we make the most progress. We say that the moment you realize you've been distracted is the magic moment because that's the moment we have the chance to be really different. And not judge ourselves, not condemn ourselves, but simply let go and begin again thousands of times, it's fine. That's the practice.

It's just one breath. And when you feel ready, you can open your eyes or lift your gaze and we'll end the meditation session. Thank you for your practice. Thank you Sharon. 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. And you can hear my full conversation with Sharon coming up on Friday right here on the podcast. And in the meantime, we'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode.

We're talking to my friend and former colleague, Matt Gutman, ABC News, a national correspondent who just wrote a really revealing and fascinating book about panic. 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 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-survey.