Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Post-Election Uncertainty | Bonus Meditation with Oren Jay Sofer

Episode Date: November 6, 2020

During this wild moment of uncertainty, join Oren to ease your anticipation anxiety and soothe the troubling tumult of the unknown. We hope you enjoyed this meditation. If you're thinking, "You know, I could've kept going for another five or ten minutes," I encourage you to check out the Ten Percent Happier app, where you'll find this same meditation in different lengths to suit your practice. Your subscription cost directly supports our wonderful teachers and allows them to dedicate their time to teaching the life-changing skill of mindfulness. As an added incentive, we've got a special discount for anyone new to the app. To claim your discount, visit tenpercent.com/bonus. If you're an existing subscriber, we thank you for your support. About Oren Jay Sofer: Oren Jay Sofer teaches mindfulness, meditation and Nonviolent Communication. He has practiced meditation since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India and is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, and is a graduate of the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training program. He holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University and is the author of Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication. 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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Where did memes come from? And where's Tom from MySpace? Listen to Baby, this is Kiki Palmer on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcast. From ABC, this is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Greetings on a post-election Friday, given the moment in which we find ourselves we're dropping a special edition bonus meditation to support you at this moment of anxiety and uncertainty. At the moment when Orrin J. Soffer recorded this meditation, we did not know the outcome of the election. It was actually in the wee hours on election night when he recorded this. And his goal, and our goal was to help you

deal with all of the powerful emotions you may be experiencing no matter where you find yourself on the political spectrum. This meditation is also available, I should say, in varying lengths on the 10% happier app. Okay? Over to Orrin. Hey, this is Orrin. It's early Wednesday morning, November 4th. I am speaking to you from Richmond, California. And times like these with so much uncertainty and after this wild year that we've been having, being able to feel connected to others is so important for our well-being and our mental and emotional health.

So let's do some meditation and get connected. I invite you to take a deep breath if that's helpful. Breathe in through your mouth long and slow. You might roll your shoulders or your neck, just whatever helps you to begin to settle in. If you like, you can close your eyes. Or just turn your attention inwards. And begin to notice the places where your body is touching the ground. See if you can just start to navigate towards the steady sensations of contact as you feel

the ground beneath you. This whole life is a flow of change and uncertainty. And right now on this particular day, there's a lot of uncertainty. None of us know what's going to happen, and that's okay. That's the nature of things. So our job is to stay present, to stay grounded, to stay connected to ourselves, to each other, and perhaps most importantly to our values, to what we care most deeply about, so that we can act, so that we can respond to what's needed from a place of love. So just feeling your body sitting as we settle in and letting your thoughts and emotions be as they are

in the background. It's a good thing. If you feel anxious, tense, that's totally alright. It's a natural response to uncertainty. So see if you can begin to notice where in your body you feel any emotions that are present for you right now. And can you give that some space to be here, to just allow it without trying to get away from it, without trying to control it or fix it? It's just energy. It's just sensations. See if you can give more attention to the sense of your body sitting and breathing. Letting the feelings of that emotion just be present for you. taking it one moment, one breath at a time. 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' yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw' None of us know what the next few days hold, and none of us can control what happens. What we can do is show up,

stay grounded, see clearly, and respond with love. So how's your heart doing? awareness inside. It doesn't feel accessible. Get creative. Think of someone pet, moving piece of music, anything that connects you with your heart, with the sense of tenderness that we can feel as human beings for one another, and for the poignancy of being alive. See if you can begin to let your attention gather with that sense of kindness. Almost like a warm, glowing ember inside. Gently feeding it, stoking it with your attention. Just imagining a sense of warmth or care,

starting to permeate your whole being. As you begin to feel even the smallest glimmer of that warmth and care. Ask yourself, what do you need to care for yourself today? Let's help you to stay connected, grounded, and gentle with yourself. Take it out with you into the world. The world Thanks for joining me. Be well and take care. Big thanks to Orrin. We hope you enjoyed this meditation. If you're thinking, you know, I could have kept going there for another five or ten minutes. I encourage you to check out the 10% happier app where you'll find this very same meditation in different lengths. The cost of your subscription directly supports our many amazing teachers, and allows them to dedicate their lives to teaching the life-changing skill of mindfulness.

As an added incentive, we've got a special discount for anyone new to the app to claim your discount, visit 10% dot com slash bonus. That's 10% one word all spelled out dot com slash bonus. If you're an existing subscriber, thank you. That does it for today. We'll see you're here on Monday with a fresh episode. 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 1-3-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 slash survey. Life is short and it's full of a lot of interesting questions. What does happiness really mean? How do I get the most out of my time here on Earth? And what really is the best cereal?

These are the questions I seek to resolve on my weekly podcast, Life is short with Justin Long. If you're looking for the answer to deep philosophical questions like, what is the meaning of life? I can't really help you, but I do believe that we really enrich our experience here by learning from others. And that's why in each episode, I like to talk with actors, musicians, artists, scientists, and many more types of people about how they get the most out of life. We explore how they felt during the highs, and sometimes more importantly, the lows of their careers.

We discuss how they've been able to stay happy during some of the harder times, but if I'm being honest, it's mostly just fun chats between friends about the important stuff. Like, if you had a sandwich named after you, what would be on it? Follow life is short wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. named after you, what would be on it? Follow Life is short wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen to Add Free on the Amazon Music or Wonder a App.