Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - The Ultimate Mindfulness Test: Can You Meditate While Grocery Shopping? | Bonus Meditation with Anushka Fernandopulle

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

The next time you’re in the grocery store, instead of the grind, step into a grateful state of mind.About Anushka Fernandopulle:Anushka teaches meditation, works as an organizational consultant, and does leadership coaching with individuals and teams. She has practiced meditation for over 25 years, including four years in full-time intensive training in monasteries and retreat centers in the US, India and Sri Lanka.Her work is informed by a BA in anthropology/religion from Harvard University, an MBA from Yale focused on leadership and organizational behavior, and certification in coaching from the Coaches Training Institute.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Gratitude in the Grocery Store.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As I think you know, I'm always looking for ways to be just a little bit happier. One of the podcasts I admire in this vein is called The Science of Happiness. It's hosted by my friend and the award-winning psychologist at UC Berkeley, Dacher Keltner. On each episode of The Science of Happiness, guests try a science-backed practice for living a happier life, and we hear from experts about why those practices work. For instance, making it a point to notice funny moments can reduce stress and anxiety, or writing about beauty even briefly makes you appreciate it more in daily life. They're short personal episodes with beautiful storytelling, great for when you've got 20

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and access our bonus short hand episodes exclusively on Amazon Music or by subscribing to Wondry Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. podcasts or the Wondry app. This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey everybody, happy Friday. Time for a bonus meditation. Today we're going to take you to the grocery store, a place many of us go all the time and often in a mindless fashion.

Same could be said about the gas station, the bank, the gym, anywhere else we go on the regular. So, we've brought in the great meditation teacher Anushka Fernandapuli, who can be heard all over the 10% Happier app, to teach us how to be mindful wherever we go. A little bit more about Anushka. She's an organizational consultant and does leadership coaching with individuals and teams, and she has practiced meditation for over 25 years. Here we go now with Anushka Fernandapuli.

Hi, this is Anushka. This meditation is meant for a time when you're grocery shopping. We might see grocery shopping as a chore or a grind. And this meditation will bring a different lens of awareness to the experience and engage with gratitude and appreciation in what might otherwise feel like something to just get through. So let's get started. You'll probably be listening to the meditation as you're walking around the grocery store. If you can, take a moment to stand and catch your breath. Feel yourself grounded, connected to the floor or the earth.

Take a moment to feel your breath as it comes in and out. Then you can continue walking with awareness. As you move, take a moment to experience the sights around you. Notice the lights and colors of the grocery store. Notice the colors of the vegetables, fruits, and products. Explore this on your own for a bit. Recognize that all people don't have access to food today, or good healthy food. Connect with a sense of gratitude that there's food available here where you live and that you have access to it. As you walk around, stop to pick something simple up, like a vegetable or a fruit. Something that comes directly from the earth. Take a moment to appreciate this item and reflect on

how it came to this place. At some point someone had to plant a seed. It's amazing that this once came from a small seed. The seed was watered and received sunlight in order to grow. It grew in the earth with fertilizer and grubs, received rain, bent with the wind. All these elements of nature played a part in this coming to grow and to be here now. You can also reflect on all the labors it took for this fruit or vegetable to come to be here. Someone was involved in the planting of the seeds. Someone had to weed around it and water it.

Someone had to pick it. And all of this is hard work. Someone had to pack it into containers. Someone had to transport it. Someone had to stock it onto the shelves. Probably someone here in the store today. So much effort went into this item coming to be here. Take a moment to appreciate all of this work and all the elements it took to bring this to you here, right now in your hands. As we close this meditation, we can reflect on how we rely on so many people and systems of nature to have the food that we eat. Nothing happens on its own. Wishing you well as you continue your day.

Thank you to Anushka. 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. If you like 10% Happier, 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. Before you go, tell us about yourself

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