10% Happier With Dan Harris

Start focused on what's truly important. When you pause to remember the big picture, your day can move forward grounded in integrity & wisdom.About Alexis Santos:Alexis has practiced and taught Insight Meditation in both the East and West since 2001. He has been a long-time student of Sayadaw U Tejaniya (a well respected meditation teacher in Burma whose teachings have attracted a global audience), and his teaching emphasizes knowing the mind through a natural and relaxed continuity -- a style of practice that's particularly useful during our crazy lives. Alexis has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, teaches retreats across the globe, and currently lives in Portland, Maine.To find this meditation in the Happier app, you can search for “Wake Up With Perspective.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Natasha Rothwell created, executive produced, and stars in the highly anticipated series How To Die Alone. Natasha is best known for her Emmy Nominated performance in HBO’s The White Lotus and is set to reprise her role as Belinda Lindsey in the third season of the series currently in production.She is also known for her critically acclaimed work as a series regular, writer, director, and producer on HBO’s Insecure, for which she has won a Peabody Award and received the 2022 NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.Having previously written for Saturday Night Live, and after penning screenplays for Netflix, Paramount, and HBO Max— Natasha’s original screenplay Black Comic-Con was selected for the 2021 Sundance Screenwriters Lab.Her genre-bending feature, along with several other projects, are in development at her production company, Big Hattie Productions—founded in 2020 to focus on creating, producing, and developing projects that champion marginalized voices in subversive ways.In this

Meditation retreats are the object of much intrigue and even suspicion. So today, we’re going to take you inside a 10-day silent meditation retreat that Dan recently did with his teacher, Joseph Goldstein. You’ll also hear from Senior Producer, Marissa Schneiderman, who was fresh off a retreat of her own, with meditation teachers Alexis Santos and Andrea Fella. In this episode we talk about:The ups and downs of retreatsSome famous Buddhist listicles, including the five hindrancesThe importance of repetitionWe’ll hear snippets of Joseph answering Dan’s questionsWe find out what “cowboy dharma” isWhat it feels like to wear shit colored glassesHow to stop getting caught in a mind trapAnd lastly, we listen to voicemails and answer audience questions! Related Episodes:Joseph Goldstein On: How Not To Try Too Hard in Meditation, Why You Shouldn't "Waste Your Suffering," and the Value Of Seeing How Ridiculous You Are#377. A More Relaxed Way to Meditate | Alexis SantosEverything You Wanted To Know About Medi

It’s so easy, especially these days, to numb out. To get bored. To move through life on autopilot. There is even a scientific term for this: habituation.Today we’re talking to a researcher who co-authored a new book about the neuroscience of habit and how to wake up again. To make things exciting. Or as she says, to “re-sparkle”. Tali Sharot is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London and MIT. She’s written several books including The Optimism Bias and The Influential Mind. Her latest, co-written with Cass Sunstein, is called Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There. In this episode we talk about:What habituation is and what’s going on in the brain when it happensHow it negatively impacts the joy we feel in life – and inversely – how it can make us stop noticing the bad stuffKey strategies for disrupting habituation and introducing change and variety into your lifeThe interesting relationship between creativity and people who habituate slowlyHow habituation i

Recorded live at the Omega Institute, Dan leads us through a loving-kindness meditation, followed by discussion with retreat co-leaders Jeff Warren and Sebene Selassie.For more information on the next upcoming Meditation Party retreat, including scholarships available for BIPOC participants, visit Omega Institute. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We also talk about: whether it is possible to be a failed meditator; grief versus mourning; and meditation tips for parents.Sebene Selassie is a writer, teacher, and speaker who leads meditation, creativity, and nature-based practices for personal & collective liberation. Using ancient wisdom and modern science mixed with her own relational and relatable style, Sebene helps spiritually curious people explore the profound and sacred truth of belonging. She is trained as a meditation teacher, an integral coach, a practitioner of Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy for Complex Trauma (IFOT), and is a licensed hiking guide in New York State. She has taught classes, workshops and retreats online and in person for almost fifteen years. Sebene is a devoted student of mystic traditions, including astrology, and writes the popular newsletter Ancestors to Elements. Her first book, You Belong: A Call for Connection, is published by HarperOne. Jeff Warren is a meditation instructor and writer, known for his dyn

In which Dan gets candid about a major life struggle, the practical takeaways, and a big new project.In this episode:Dan shares news about what’s next for himHis strategies and lessons from a big career change including how to deal with conflict, anger and insomniaWhat he's learned about the power of self-compassion, the value of failure and how to gain perspective when you need it most If you'd like to be a member of Dan's new community but a subscription isn't affordable for you, write to free@danharris.com, and we'll hook you up, no questions asked.Related Episodes:Your Sleep Questions, Answered | Donn PosnerHow To Sleep Better | Diane MacedoKryptonite for the Inner Critic | Kristin NeffCheck out all the offerings at DanHarris.comFollow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTokTen Percent Happier online bookstoreSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelOur favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular EpisodesFull Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/dan-career-earthquakeAdditional Resourc

This Stanford psychologist has evidence that being a cynic is bad for your health, and offers a non-corny alternative. Dr. Jamil Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. He’s the author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, and his new book is called Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness.In this episode we talk about:What cynicism is, and why it’s so appealingHis own history as a “recovering cynic,”How to know if you yourself are a cynicA step-by-step guide to start developing the “hopeful skeptic” mindsetHow to get better at disagreeing with other people, including some rules of engagementAnd how to encourage kids not to become cynicalRelated Episodes:How (and Why) to Hack Your Empathy | Jamil ZakiReversing the Golden Rule | Jamil ZakiSign up for Dan’s weekly newsletter hereFollow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTokTen Percent Happier online bookstoreSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelOur fa

Recorded live at the Omega Institute, Jeff guides us through two different approaches to being attentive to our experience — followed by a discussion with Dan and Sebene.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. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We all know that change is inevitable and impermanence is non-negotiable. But somehow it can feel surprising, maybe even wrong, when we personally hit turbulence. The Buddha had a lot to say about this, and so does our guest. Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher who has a lifelong interest in blending spirituality and meditation with social justice. Having grown up in an ecumenical Christian community where families practiced a new kind of monasticism and worked with the poor, at the age of twenty-five she entered a Buddhist monastery in the Plum Village tradition and spent fifteen years living as a nun under the guidance of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She received Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh and became a Zen teacher in 2007, and is also a teacher in the Vipassana Insight lineage through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Today she sees her work as a continuation of the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh as well as the work of her parents, inspired by their stories and her dad’s work w

Cognitive scientist Maya Shankar talks about how to get comfortable with uncertainty in an ever-changing world. It seems like a design flaw in our species that we live in a world of constant change yet most of us are not comfortable with uncertainty. In this episode, we talk to Maya Shankar about how to get better at dealing with change and to stop seeking what scientists call “cognitive closure.”Shankar is a former Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House Behavioral Science Team. She also served as the first Behavioral Science Advisor to the United Nations, and is currently a Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google. She is the host of the Pushkin Industries podcast A Slight Change of Plans, which was named Best Show of the Year in 2021 by Apple. In this episode we talk about: Why humans are so uncomfortable with uncertainty and changeWhat a behavioral scientist actually does in the worldWhy even the host of a podcast about

This is the first time you’ve ever been here, now. Pascal invites you to discover the vivid and mysterious experience of this new moment.About Pascal Auclair:Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where he is now enjoying teaching retreats. Pascal teaches in North America and in Europe. 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 “Rediscover the Familiar.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cultivating resilience in the face of whatever comes up.Ethan Nichtern is the author of Confidence: Holding Your Seat through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds and several other titles, including the widely acclaimed The Road Home: A Contemporary Exploration of the Buddhist Path. A renowned contemporary Buddhist teacher and the host of The Road Home Podcast, Nichtern has offered meditation and Buddhist psychology classes at conferences, meditation centers, yoga studios, and universities, including Brown, Yale, and NYU. He has been featured by CNN, NPR, the New York Times, Vogue, and Business Insider and has written for the Huffington Post, Beliefnet, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma, and more. He lives in Brooklyn. Visit him online at http://www.EthanNichtern.com.In this episode we talk about:Authentic vs performative confidenceThe line between humility and confidenceA Buddhist list called the Eight Worldly WindsA slew of little practices you can do in order to boost your confidence (or resilience or equanimity)T

Smart and practical strategies for living, in Maria's words, wonder-smitten by reality.Maria Popova thinks and writes about our search for meaning — sometimes through science and philosophy, sometimes through poetry and children's books, always through the lens of wonder. She is the creator of The Marginalian (born in 2006 under the name Brain Pickings), which is included in the Library of Congress permanent digital archive of culturally valuable materials, author of Figuring, and maker of the live show The Universe in Verse — a charitable celebration of the wonder of reality through stories of science winged with poetry, which is now also a book.In this episode we talk about:Wonder as a tool for improving all of your relationshipsThe tyranny of the word shouldHow the hardest thing in life is not getting what you want, it's knowing what you wantWhy she doesn't believe in making meditation a tool, even though she's been practicing for 14 yearsThe illusion of certaintyThe immense value of intellectual humilityS

A busy city is an ideal place to cultivate loving-kindness and powerfully connect to those around you while you’re out & about.About Jay Michaelson:Jay Michaelson is a writer & journalist, rabbi & meditation teacher, keynote speaker, and scholar of religion. Jay is the author of ten books, most recently The Secret That Is Not A Secret: Ten Heretical Tales. His 2022 book, The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth, won the National Jewish Book Award for scholarship. He holds a JD from Yale, a PhD in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Loving-Kindness in the City.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There’s a great podcast we want to introduce you to today, hosted by our friend Rachel Martin at NPR. It’s her new show, called Wild Card, which she describes as “part-interview, part-existential game show.” It’s a different way of approaching a celebrity interview, with a special deck of cards that helps shape the conversation. It’s a really fun show, and she talks to some really big names, including David Lynch, LeVar Burton, Issa Rae, and US Poet Laureate Ada Limon. Rachel was also a guest on this very podcast recently, and we had a great conversation and even played a little bit of the card game, so go back in your podcast feed and check that out. You can also listen to it here. The Wild Card episode we’re sharing with you today features Taylor Tomlinson, who has found the kind of success many comedians dream about, with multiple Netflix specials and a late-night hosting gig — After Midnight on CBS. She tells Rachel that part of the secret to her success is fear. They also swap stories about the

The radio stalwart addresses life’s biggest questions.Rachel Martin is the co-creator and host of the podcast Wild Card, an interview game show about life's biggest questions. She invites notable guests to play a card game that lets them open up about the memories, insights, and beliefs that have shaped their lives.Martin spent six years as a host of Morning Edition, and was the founding host of NPR's award-winning morning news podcast Up First. She previously hosted Weekend Edition Sunday. She served as National Security Correspondent for NPR, where she covered both defense and intelligence issues, and also worked as a NPR foreign correspondent. Martin also previously served as NPR's religion correspondent. In this episode we talk about:How to survive the newsHow to make a huge career pivotWhat it’s like to become an orphan as an adultInsomnia and meditationHow to decide what matters in your lifeWe play the game Wild Card!We talk about how good we are at being wrongAnd lastly, something light… mortality

Lessons learned from the psychiatric hospitalWe’ve got a fascinating and very personal discussion today about the often very painful gap between the way you feel on the inside and the way the world perceives you. We also cover the urgency and difficulty of sitting with your own discomfort. Anna Marie Tendler is an artist and writer. She is also the author of a new memoir called ‘Men Have Called Her Crazy’. In this episode we talk about:The circumstances of her checking into a psychiatric hospital in 2021The difference between our interior emotions and our exterior selvesThe help she found through Dialectical Behavior Therapy – DBTWe dive into a very specific theme of the book – and its title – the insidious ways in which men have impacted her life. And lastly, how she found a way to sit with discomfort and pain, while showing up in the world authentically to herself.Related Episodes:#510. Me, a Love Story: How Being OK With Yourself Makes You Better at Everything | Sharon SalzbergThe Science Of

Dan dweebs out with a dad rock icon.Jeff Tweedy is the lead singer and songwriter of the Grammy award winning rock band, Wilco. The band have put out 13 albums… and shortly after this interview was conducted, the band put out a new EP. Jeff has released two solo albums and has written three books, including his latest, which is called World Within A Song: Music That Changed My Life And Life That Changed My Music.This interview is part of an occasional series we do called Boldface, where we talk to well known people who are willing to go there. We’ve already dropped two Boldface episodes this week: the rapper and author Common and the actress, activist and author Goldie Hawn.Sign up for Dan’s weekly newsletter hereFollow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTokTen Percent Happier online bookstoreSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelOur favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular EpisodesFull Shownotes: https://happierapp.com/podcast/tph/jeff-tweedy-813Additional Resources:Download the Ten Percent Hap

This multi-hyphenate opens up about his four pillars of health and successCommon is an Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Grammy Award–winning music artist. He is an actor and producer, and has appeared in numerous critically acclaimed films, as well as hit TV series. He is the author of One Day It’ll All Make Sense and Let Love Have the Last Word, which were both New York Times bestsellers. He was raised in Chicago and currently resides in Brooklyn.In this episode we talk about:Common’s relationship with self esteem growing up, and where he eventually found his own self worth.What it’s like dealing with rejection as an artistHis book ‘And Then We Rise’The four different wellness pillars in his book; food, the body, the mind, and the soulThe positive impact that therapy has had on his lifeWhat his meditation practice looks likeThe evolution of vulnerability in hip hopThe evolution of vulnerability in his lifeAnd his relationship with spiritualityRelated Episodes:Rewire How You Talk To Yourself | Ofosu Jones-Quart