10% Happier With Dan Harris

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- The office might be one of the most difficult places to not side with yourself, but it’s a concept that can help you navigate challenging situations at work. Matthew is a meditation and dharma teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience and a passion for getting real about what it means to live well. He emphasizes humor, technique, and authentic kindness as a means to free the mind from unnecessary struggle and leave a healthier impact on the world.  Beyond Ten Percent Happier, Matthew has taught in prisons, schools, corporate events and continues to teach across North America in buddhist centers offering intensive silent retreats and dharma for urban daily life.  In this episode we talk about: How to change your relationship to your thoughts How to navigate the highs of praise and the lows of blame How to handle relationships at work when giving or receiving feedback How

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Balancing happiness and ambition is a challenge, especially if you often define yourself by your work. Stolzoff covers why it’s good to have a job that’s simply good enough. Simone Stolzoff is the author of The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work. He is a designer and workplace expert from San Francisco, and a former design lead at the global innovation firm IDEO. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and many other publications. He is a graduate of Stanford and The University of Pennsylvania. In this episode we talk about: His argument for diversifying our sources for what makes a meaningful life  How passion for your job shouldn’t be a stand-in for pay or security  And how to balance the pursuit of meaningful work without letting it take over your life Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-epi

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Mindfulness is a word that is in danger of becoming meaningless. In this episode, we dig into the meaning of mindfulness, how to practice without getting overwhelmed, and how to stop the judgment spiral. Today’s guest is Diana Winston, the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. She has written several books, including The Little Book of Being, and Fully Present, the Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness, which she co-authored with Susan Smalley, and which is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Diana has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 1989, including a year as a Buddhist nun in Burma.  In this episode we talk about: How Diana defines mindfulness How we know if we’re in a state of bonafide mindfulness The difference between mindfulness as a trait and mindfulness as a state  Whether you have to meditate to achieve mindfulness as a t

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Welcome to the third installment of Meditation Party, an experiment we’re running with a chattier format – more of a morning zoo vibe, but way deeper, of course. Dan’s co-hosts in this episode are his two close friends: the great meditation teachers Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren. Sebene Selassie is based in Brooklyn and describes herself as a “writer, teacher, and immigrant-weirdo.” She teaches meditation on the Ten Percent Happier app and is the author of a great book called, You Belong. Jeff Warren is based in Toronto and is also a writer and meditation teacher who co-wrote the book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics with Dan Harris. Jeff also hosts the Consciousness Explorers podcast. Related Episodes: #489. Can You Really Conquer Hatred Through Love? | Father Gregory Boyle #519. The Art and Science of Keeping Your Sh*t Together | Shinzen Young and James Gross  Best of the Archives: M

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Today’s guest is Linda Åkeson McGurk, a Swedish American writer and author of There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids. Her latest book is called The Open-Air Life: Discover the Nordic Art of Friluftsliv and Embrace Nature Every Day. She is the founder of the blog Rain or Shine Mamma, a resource for parents and other caregivers. In this episode we talk about: Why humans are so drawn to nature and what the many scientific benefits are The historical roots of friluftsliv in Nordic countries Why we should go outside even when the weather sucks Why we should go camping  The benefits of cold plunges The benefits of silence The danger of seeing ourselves as separate from nature And why she believes appreciation of nature and meditation are complimentary Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episod

Ryan also talks about how meditation helped him ride out a brutal political campaign,  escaping the grind, and whether he’ll run for office again. Tim Ryan served for 20 years in the U.S. Congress. He is the author of a book on the power of mindfulness. He is the author of a book on the power of mindfulness, Healing America: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Recapture the American Spirit and a book on reforming the broken food systems, The Real Food Revolution: Healthy Eating, Green Groceries, and the Return of the American Family Farm. In this episode we talk about: How his practice helped him weather a brutal political campaign  Why he’s joined the ice bath craze The link between breathwork and meditation How he’s adjusting to civilian life after 20 years in Washington How he handled things when he realized the race was not going his way What he was thinking and feeling when he made his concession speech What it’s like to be outside of the DC fishbowl The freedom that comes with not living under a micro

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Gladwell On: the importance of flow states, why people should have a lifelong pursuit or practice, and how he personally relaxes. Malcolm Gladwell is the president and co-founder of the podcasting network Pushkin Industries, and the author of six New York Times bestselling books including The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath, and Talking to Strangers. He’s also the host of the Pushkin podcast Revisionist History.  For tickets to TPH's live event in Boston on September 7: https://thewilbur.com/armory/artist/dan-harris/ For tickets to TPH's live and live streamed event in Colorado on November 3: https://www.milehichurch.org/calendar/10-percent-happier-with-dan-harris/ Do you have a favorite episode of TPH? We want to hear about it! Here’s how you can help us uncover these hidden gems. Call +1 508-656-0540 Tell us your name and favorite episode And, in a couple of sente

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- The scientific case for self-compassion and why it doesn’t have to lead to passivity, self absorption, or cheesiness. Today's guest is Kristin Neff, an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She’s the author of the book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself and Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive. For tickets to TPH's live event in Boston on September 7: https://thewilbur.com/armory/artist/dan-harris/ For tickets to TPH's live and live streamed event in Colorado on November 3rd: https://www.milehichurch.org/calendar/10-percent-happier-with-dan-harris/ Do you have a favorite episode of TPH? We want to hear about it! Here’s how you can help us uncover these hidden gems. Call +1 508-656-0540 Tell us your name and favorite episode And, in a couple of sentences,

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- We also cover: What to do when you're feeling stuck, the difference between authenticity and sincerity, and his approach to work/life balance. Rick Rubin is a nine-time GRAMMY-winning producer and a New York Times number one best selling author of the book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time and the most successful producer in any genre by Rolling Stone. He has collaborated with artists from Tom Petty to Adele, Johnny Cash to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys to Slayer, Kanye West to the Strokes, and System of a Down to Jay-Z. In this episode we talk about: Rick’s meditation practice The connection between meditation and creativity Why creativity is a birthright for all of us How good habits help facilitate the making of good art The benefits of accepting the magical and mysterious aspects of creativity His

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- The great meditation teacher Sebene Selassie said this about today’s guests: “I think their work is going to revolutionize mindfulness.”  The guests in question are Jake Eagle, a licensed mental health counselor, and Dr. Michael Amster, a physician with a specialty in pain management who is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher. Together, they’re out with a new book called The Power of Awe: Overcome Burnout & Anxiety, Ease Chronic Pain, Find Clarity & Purpose―In Less Than 1 Minute Per Day. In it, they lay out a simple technique for “microdosing mindfulness” that just about anybody can work into their daily lives. Plus: Dan’s wife, Bianca, joins Dan as co-interviewer. In this episode we talk about: How Jake and Michael stumbled upon this method (the story involves pancakes) Why Bianca has had trouble booting up a meditation habit (and why Jake says he’s “a terrible medit

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- The hidden influence that your surroundings can have on your happiness. And how to tweak things in subtle but powerful ways. Today’s guest is Ingrid Fetell Lee, the author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. She is the former design director at IDEO and the founder of the website The Aesthetics of Joy. She holds a Master’s in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and a Bachelor’s in English and Creative Writing from Princeton University.  This is the second installment in a three part series we’re running called, Mundane Glory about learning not to overlook the little things in your daily life that can be powerful and evidence-based levers for increased happiness.  For tickets to TPH's live event in Boston on September 7: https://thewilbur.com/armory/artist/dan-harris/ In this episode we talk about: The physiological and psychologic

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Did you know that just 20 minutes of art a day is as beneficial as exercise and mindfulness? Or that participating in one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years?  Our guests Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen talk about their new book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. Together they explore the new science of neuroaesthetics, which explains how the arts can measurably change the body, brain, and our behaviors.  This is the first installment in a three part series we’re running called, Mundane Glory about learning not to overlook the little things in your daily life that can be powerful and evidence-based levers for increased happiness.  In this episode we talk about: Their definition of the arts and aesthetic experiences How they see nature as, “the highest form of art” How simple actions like humming in the shower & gardening can be categorized as art

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Our guests today trained an AI on the world’s most beloved texts, from the Bible to the Koran to the words of Marcus Aurelius, Maya Angelou, and Leonard Cohen. Then, they asked the AI life’s hardest questions. The AI’s answers ranged from strange to surprising to transcendent. Jasmine Wang, a technologist, and Iain S. Thomas, a poet, join us to talk about not only the answers they received from the robot, but also why they are deeply concerned about where AI might be headed. In this episode we talk about: The origins of the book The definitions of some basic AI terminology The biggest takeaways of their conversation with AI—some of the answers they got back were fascinating and beautiful The perils and promise of AI (we spend a lot of time here) The ways in which AI may force us to rethink fundamental aspects of our own nature   And what we all can do to increase the odds that our AI f

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Jennifer Egan is not only a novelist, she's also written short stories and award-winning magazine journalism. She's one of those writers who can both spin a fascinating yarn and load it up with insights into everything from human nature to the future of technology, all while pulling off bewitching turns of phrase; what the writer Jonathan Franzen has called “micro felicities.”  Egan is as funny, fascinating, and open IRL as she is on the page although it’s not clear she feels that way given she talks about how much smarter she feels in writing than in speaking! In this episode we talk about: Egan’s writing process  The power of writing by hand  The shocking, relentless, ruthless discipline that she imposes on herself to never do the same thing twice as she’s writing Curiosity, awe, and panic attacks How she handles feedback Her feelings of insubstantiality  Our cultures fetishization

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Today’s episode is a wide-ranging Interview with Zach Braff, one of those rare famous people who’s really willing to go there.  You may know Braff from the TV show Scrubs or the movie Garden State but Braff is actually a genuine multi-hyphenate; a true triple threat. He acts, writes and directs his own movies and other people’s TV shows including Ted Lasso on Apple TV. Relatively recently he put out a new movie that he both wrote and directed called A Good Person starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman.   In this episode we talked about anxiety, depression, insomnia, addiction, grief, social media usage, and what he means by “learning to love your fate”—a notion that is literally tattooed on his wrist.  This Interview was conducted in person at the TED conference in Vancouver this past April.  Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/zach-braff

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- In today’s episode, Dr. Donn Posner proposes a whole new way of thinking about sleep. First, he normalizes the sleep problems many of us experience. If you’re sleeping poorly right now, he says, don’t freak out; it’s natural and normal. Second, he has a bunch of tips for how to deal with insomnia, some of which you may have never heard before.  Dr. Donn Posner is one of the leaders in the field of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia. Dr. Posner is the Founder and President of Sleepwell Consultants, and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.  In this episode we talk about: The difference between chronic and acute insomnia How we can adapt to things that can mess up our sleep, like remote work Sub-chronic sleep conditions  What to do if we're experiencing acute insomnia so that it does

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- If you're not sleeping well, it's harder to do anything you care about. It's harder to get healthier, to be more focused and productive, to be happier, to be more successful, to have good relationships—all of it.  Sleep may be the apex predator of healthy habits, and yet so many of us are getting terrible sleep because we don't prioritize it or because we've told ourselves a whole story about how we're just not people who sleep well, and so we just live with it. In this episode, you’re going to meet somebody who decided she was not going to live with it any longer, and she launched an extremely detailed personal investigation in order to fix it. And luckily for us, she is a journalist, so she documented the whole thing and gathered extremely useful, heavily vetted information and insights we can all use. Diane Macedo the author of the book, The Sleep Fix: Practical, Proven and Surprisi

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Every year, Joseph Goldstein does a three month silent meditation retreat by himself at his home in Massachusetts. In this conversation you're about to hear, Joseph had just emerged from one such retreat with a bunch of thoughts on what are called the three proliferating tendencies or three papañca to use the ancient Pali term.  These are three ways in which we perpetuate an unhealthy sense of self. Joseph has explained that you can think about the process of going deeper in meditation as a process of lightening up or getting less self-centered. You're about to get a masterclass in doing just that.  For the uninitiated, Joseph is one of the co-founders of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. His co-founders are two other meditation titans, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. Joseph has been a teacher at IMS since it was founded in the seventies and he continues to be th

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- These days, the word mindfulness has become a buzz phrase but very often people don’t know what the word actually means, much less how to practice it. One simple definition of mindfulness is the ability to see what’s happening in your mind without getting carried away by it. The benefits of doing so are vast and profound— from decreased emotional reactivity to being more awake to what’s actually happening in your life.   Today's guest Joseph Goldstein talks about a classic Buddhist list called the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which lays out various techniques for developing mindfulness within your practice.   Goldstein is one of the premier western proponents of Mindfulness. He co-founded the legendary Insight Meditation Society alongside Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. He also wrote a book called Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening.   In this episode we talk about:   The

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- This is a fun, weird, extremely interesting and inspiring episode. It’s about lucid dreaming, something that people might perceive as hippie nonsense, but is actually deeply woven into ancient and time-tested Buddhist traditions.  Our guest today has been studying and practicing Buddhism and what he calls nocturnal meditations for more than four decades. And he has remarkably simple and down to earth tips for doing this in your own life. He argues anybody can do this. And the proposition is pretty compelling. We’re asleep for a huge percentage of our life, and from a perspective of contemplative development, or training your mind, that’s a huge stretch of land that is lying fallow.  Andrew Holecek is an expert on lucid dreaming and the Tibetan yogas of sleep and dream. He is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and the author of scientific papers on lucid dreaming. He ha