Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - You’re Doing Better Than You Think | Bonus Meditation with Sebene Selassie

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

Early on, it's easy to think you're a failure at meditation. Truth is, you're probably not. Try easing the patterns that just hold you back.About Sebene Selassie:Growing up, Sebene felt like a big weirdo. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in white neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., she was a tomboy Black girl who loved Monty Python and UB40. She never believed she belonged. Thirty years ago, she began studying Buddhism as an undergraduate at McGill University where she majored in Comparative Religious Studies. Now, Sebene is a teacher, author, and speaker who teaches that meditation can help us remember our inherent sense of belonging, that our individual freedom affects absolutely everyone and everything, and that our collective freedom depends on each and every one of us. Sebene is a three-time cancer survivor of Stage III and IV cancer.To find this meditation in the Happier Meditation app, you can search for “Criticizing Your Meditation.”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. Hey, hey everybody, time for a bonus meditation. And this is a meditation about meditation. For a lot of us, when we get started meditating, we use it as another way to beat ourselves up, to tell ourselves a story about, here's another thing that we suck at.

Our teacher du jour, my great friend, Semenay Selassie, knows how this feels and she wants you to know that you're actually doing way better than you probably think. A little bit more about Seb before we get started. She's trained as a meditation teacher, an integral coach, an indigenous focusing oriented therapy for complex trauma practitioner,

and she's a New York State licensed hiking guide. Here we go now with Sabine Selassie. Hi, this is Sabine. This meditation is an opportunity to loosen the tendency to make meditation another thing for us to get wrong and beat ourselves up about. This practice is about meeting whatever is happening, even difficult thoughts or emotions, with curiosity and kindness. Then we'll be better at meeting life and ourselves with more ease too.

Let's give it a try. Find a comfortable posture. Your eyes can be closed or open. And just take a few moments to settle into your body. Now I invite you to simply notice what's happening in the body. Notice sensations, wherever and however they're most prominent. And welcome whatever is here. Notice sensations, wherever and however they're most prominent, and welcome whatever is here. Remember, meditation is an opportunity to cultivate a more easeful relationship to any moment.

We're not trying to get somewhere called peace. to cultivate a more easeful relationship to any moment. We're not trying to get somewhere called peace. We're inviting peace to every moment. Or like Martin Luther King Jr. said, "'Peace is not the destination, peace is the way.'" Try bringing the slightest smile to your mouth. Smiling releases dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin into your bloodstream, relaxing your body, lowering your heart rate and blood pressure. Right there, you're countering that tendency to be in contention with this moment.

You can even imagine that you're welcoming this moment. If you'd like, you can silently say, welcome, or yes, to whatever is here. Try this on your own for a bit, continuing to smile. Now begin to listen to the play of sounds around you. Those that are loud, soft, far, near, just listen. You don't need to do anything to hear the sounds. Just rest in spacious sense of gratitude. Most of us have learned to be hard on ourselves for not measuring up to our expectations of life. Meditation is one of the best places to unlearn this tendency. Great job.

You can open your eyes now and begin to move your hands and feet. Let yourself reconnect to your surroundings as we end this meditation. Thank you for your practice. See you next time. Thank you, your practice. See you can find more meditations like this one on the Happier Meditation app. Just download the app to get started. 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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