Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - The Simplest Meditation | Bonus Meditation with Jeff Warren

Episode Date: January 5, 2025

Explore letting your body's most natural habit take over, and enjoy the benefits this brings to any moment.About Jeff Warren:Jeff makes meditation and practice accessible to diverse audiences in order to help people live more fulfilled and connected lives. He’s taught meditation to suspicious journalists, US Army cadets, burned-out caregivers, Arizona cops, formerly-incarcerated youth, virtuoso popstars, distractible teens, and every other conceivable demographic of freethinker, including squirmy six-year old kids.  He tries to do this in a way that’s rigorous and clear and adventurous. You can find out more about him at jeffwarren.org. To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “Being Simplicity.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to 10% happier early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. It's the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Happy Sunday and Happy New Year everybody. It's time for a bonus meditation. We're going to take it back to basics today with a very simple meditation from my friend Jeff Warren who's going to encourage you to drop any storyline or big idea you have about meditation and just sit there. A little bit more about Jeff before we get started.

He has taught meditation to suspicious journalists, US Army cadets, burned out caregivers, Arizona cops, formerly incarcerated youth, virtuoso pop stars, distractible teens, and every other conceivable demographic. He tries to do this in a way that's both rigorous and clear and adventurous. And you can find out more about him at jeffwarren.org. Here we go now with Jeff Warren.

Hey, this is Jeff. The research shows that habits work best when you do them for their own sake, not because you're expecting some big in-the-moment reward. If we're all about immediate rewards, then as soon as those rewards don't happen, you'd bail. This is extremely relevant with meditation. We meditate because in the long run it makes our lives better. Sometimes it

feels easy and good, sometimes it doesn't. The mature practitioner knows that ups and downs are a natural part of the practice. It becomes a true habit when we sit no matter what. So close your eyes and relax and let me guide you through a meditation that's all about this. The beautiful simplicity of letting the habit take over and being on automatic. Okay, so close your eyes and relax and just start. Don't make any kind of big deal of it. Boom.

As you sit, feel that this is what your animal body's trained to do. Not getting all jiggly and wigged out with your overthinking brain. The body's running the show here. Body sit. Body breathing out. Body settling. Body breathing.. Nothing else you need to do. The benefits trickle down whatever you do.

Just being here and sitting is the practice. Body sitting. Body being. If thinking is there, let it be in the background. This is the real habit. Elemental sitting being. Connecting to a sense of composure, if you can, timelessness. The simple pleasure of sitting for, of simplicity. Body breathing, body being. Okay, and when you're ready, you can open your eyes. As you move through your day, being simplicity, being the body, being presence, trusting that most of the time, this is actually enough.

Good luck out there. Thanks again to Jeff. You can find more meditations like this one over on the Happier Meditation app. And you can learn more about Jeff at JeffWarren.org. If you like 10% Happier, and I hope you do, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

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