The Tim Ferriss Show - #848: From Stress to Stillness — Guided Meditation with Zen Master Henry Shukman

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

This episode is part of a series called Meditation Monday. The teacher, Henry Shukman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach Sanbo Zen, and now, he’ll be your teacher.In addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday I’ll bring you a short 10-minute or so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week.Over this four-episode series, you’ll develop a Zen toolkit to help you find greater calm, peace, and effectiveness in your daily life.Henry’s app, The Way, has changed my life since I first started using it. Unlike other meditation apps, where you’re overwhelmed with a thousand choices, The Way is a clear step-by-step training program guided entirely by Henry. Through a logical progression, you’ll develop real skills that stick with you.I’ve been using it daily, often twice a day, and it’s lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible.As a listener of my podcast, you can get 30 free sessions by visiting https://thewayapp.com/tim and downloading the app.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss show. This episode is a brand new experiment called Meditation Monday. That means, in addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday, I will be bringing you a short 10-minute or so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week. Over this four-episode series, you'll develop a Zen toolkit specifically to help you find greater calm, peace and effectiveness in your daily life. The teacher, Henry Shookman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one of the first. He is one, of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach what is called Sambo Zen. And I have found this particularly interesting and effective. And now he'll be your teacher.

I've been using Henry's app, The Way, once, often twice a day. And it has lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible. As a listener of the show, you yourself can get 30 free sessions by visiting theway app.com slash Tim. So if you like what you hear in these meditations, which will be valuable in and of themselves, you can get 30 free sessions by going to The Way app. app.com slash Tim. And for the time being, please enjoy this meditation Monday with Henry Shookman. Welcome to this meditation with me, Henry Shookman, on working with stress. Stress is a universal human phenomenon and, you know, it's terribly widespread today in the way we are conditioned and socialized and the way we lead our lives with a constant pursuit of

productivity, etc. Many pressures on us. the time. I personally grew up with a lot of stress from a very difficult chronic illness throughout my childhood that was highly stressful. And the moment I started to meditate around the age of 25, it made a massive difference to how I dealt with stress. So I hope to share something of that right now. We might think of stress as a thing that we want to kind of eliminate and there's a lot of research that meditation can greatly help with that. But it's a counterintuitive way. The way to reduce stress is not to fight it.

It's actually to learn to allow it and include it. That is the meditative approach. So let's come into a comfortable seated position and we'll see how this can work. Yeah, get yourself settled. Find a comfortable position. close the eyes or lower the gaze with the eyes open if you prefer that. You know, make any micro adjustments of the body that will help you settle in. Just be in a position that feels good to you right now.

Let's take a deeper inhale, fill the lungs, and slowly let it out. Let the breath turn and once again fill. the lungs, hold it a moment, and slowly exhale. And one more time, filling the lungs, holding a moment, and releasing, and letting the breath return to its natural rhythm. So we're going to begin by becoming aware of the body, feel your feet on the floor or whatever surface is beneath them. just sense the contact that they're making feel your seat below your buttocks and whatever they're resting on

feel that contact and perhaps some pressure and be aware of your head now just sense your head and let it be in a restful position now let your shoulders arms and hands relax let them go slack, let them hang like old ropes. Let your legs also be completely relaxed, loose. So both arms and both legs are really at ease. They're not doing anything. Slack. And let the whole torso, the chest area, the belly area, and the whole back of the body. body, let it all be relaxed, at ease. So just see if you can get a quick sense of the whole body, may almost be like a mental image of the whole body, just sitting here, being still, and coming into its own state of rest. So stress shows up as a physical sensation.

in the chest. Some research suggests 94% of people experience stress in the chest area if they look for it as a physical sensation. So just see now how's your stress level right now. Can you sense any kind of sensation in the chest that might be associated with it? perhaps a certain kind of tightness, or a certain heat or sense of activation in the chest, or weight or density, then just back off from that

and bring your awareness to the surface of your whole ribcage, the skin around your ribcage. let that sheath around the ribcage become soft and warm like warm wax let it be warm and notice that in its softness and its warmth

it can contain and allow any other energies that are within the chest area. So whatever other kinds of energy may be subtly arising in the upper torso, this softness, encircling them, softness of our ribcage, and of the sheath around the ribcage that's warm and soft. It can hold all energies. It can allow them.

So we're not actually trying to get rid of anything. We're developing or rediscovering our capacity to allow any sensations that are uncomfortable or uneasy. There's a way in which we can already be able to allow them and include them. It's as if there's a part of us that has an inbuilt capacity for patience, for a certain flavour of kindness, of compassion, for ourselves. We allow ourselves to be as we are, including with the stress we sometimes feel. And to notice that we can hold it, we can allow it, that actually de-stresses us.

It wakes up a more patient and compassion. side to us, one that is already somehow welcoming of our very own experience, just as it is. So just resting for a moment more with whatever warmth and kindness toward ourselves we can taste right now, not making any demands on ourselves, letting ourselves be as we are, perhaps tasting just a little bit of well-being, in spite of whatever difficult feelings we may be experiencing, there's another kind of well-being that's here for us, part of our makeup.

Okay, let's gently start to come out. out of the sit, bring a little movement into the upper body. You might sway a bit from side to side. You can move the shoulders. Raise the eyes, look around you. Have a little stretch. Great. Thank you so much again for joining me. Please feel free to use this and any of this little set of meditations any time you like, any time you're needing a little hit of quiet, of calm, of resetting yourself, just go through any of these meditations and make them your own to use as and when you wish. Have a wonderful rest of your day.