Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - The Present Moment | Bonus Meditation with Pascal Auclair

Episode Date: August 27, 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 Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society 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.

It kind of blows my mind to consider the fact that we're up to nearly 600 episodes of this podcast, the 10% happier podcast. That's a lot of conversations. I like to think of it as a great compendium of, and I know this is a bit of a grandiose term, but wisdom. The only downside of having this vast library of audio is that it can be hard to know where to start. So we're launching a new feature here, playlists, just like you put together a playlist of your favorite songs.

Back in the day, we used to call those mix tapes. Just like you do that with music, you can do it with podcasts. So if you're looking for episodes about anxiety, we've got a playlist of all of our anxiety episodes. Or if you're looking for how to sleep better, we've got a playlist of all of our anxiety episodes, or if you're looking for how to sleep better, we've got a playlist for that. We've even put together a playlist of some of my personal favorite episodes. That was a hard list to make. Check out our playlists at 10%.com slash playlist. That's 10% all one word spelled out..com slash playlist singular.

Let us know what you think. We're always open to tweaking how we do things and maybe there's a playlist we haven't thought of. Hit me up on Twitter or submit a comment through the website. It's the 10% happier podcast. I'm your host, you guy, Dan Harris. Hello, everybody. It's bonus meditation time. We're trying something a little bit different this week.

We've been doing a lot of experimentation on the show. You might have noticed this week we're dropping your guided meditation on a Sunday when you might have a little bit more time in your schedule to actually meditate. Let us know what you think about this revision or potential revision or experimentation in our timing. Today's meditation is very simple. We're gonna encourage you to actually inhabit the present moment, something most of us rarely do.

And we're gonna get you to do this, hopefully, by checking out the difference between thinking about something and actually experiencing it. If that sounds complicated, don't worry. It's not. Everything will be explained via our meditation teacher, Du jour, who is the delightful Pascal O'Clair. He's been immersed in Buddhist practice and studies since 1997, mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Cornfield at the Insight Meditation Society 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. Here we go now with Pascal O'Clair.

Here we go now with Pascal Okler. 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. 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. 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 feel 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 the trends of 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. 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 belly. 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. Thank you, 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'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode. We're going to talk about all of the science that says that getting exposure to nature can upgrade your mental health with Linda Ocasin McGurk who can also provide some quite practical strategies for getting outside more often. 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

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