Bringing awareness to everyday activities can be a taste of freedom to help you move through your day with clarity, energy, and well-being. About Alexis Santos: Alexis Santos is a featured teacher on the Ten Percent Happier app and has been in the field of mindfulness and meditation since 2001. He has been a long-time student of Sayadaw U Tejaniya, with whom he ordained as a Buddhist monk, and has taught at retreat centers around the globe. To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app,...
Sep 30, 2022•6 min•Ep 503•Transcript available on Metacast Ever have that experience where you catch yourself in a moment of anger, judgmentalism or fear? And, with a wince, immediately tell yourself a whole story about what kind of person you are? How do you stop this from happening or cut it short once it’s already begun? The answer? Mindfulness or having the basic self-awareness to see what kind of mental states are arising so that you are not owned them. To use a technical Buddhist term this is called, “mindfulness of mind.” It’s the ability to see ...
Sep 28, 2022•59 min•Ep 502•Transcript available on Metacast Today we’re talking about an often overlooked source of suffering— housework. There are so many ways in which housework can be a bummer. Maybe we’re feeling guilty about the fact that our place is always a mess. Maybe we’re driving ourselves crazy with obsessive cleaning. Maybe we have relatives who are overly critical about the state of affairs in our home. Maybe gender politics with our spouses and partners is a source of strife. Our guest today, KC Davis, helps deconstruct these of...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep 501•Transcript available on Metacast In this previously released episode, Malcolm Gladwell responds to backlash he received over his belief that working in an office—and the collaborative creative environment it can offer—is in your best interest (and in the interest of others). We also dive deep into some of the important themes featured in the seventh season of his podcast Revisionist History , including: kindness, generosity, and sacrifice. And, Dan and Gladwell share their biggest mistakes as journalists. Malcolm Gladwell is th...
Sep 23, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep 486•Transcript available on Metacast Is it possible to be happy no matter what happens? Today we’re going right to the source of what makes us unhappy to learn how to disarm and disable potential suffering before it owns us. Everything that comes up in our mind is either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. In other words, with everything we experience, we either want it, don’t want it, or we don’t care. In Buddhism, this is called “feeling tones” or “vedana” and it is known as the second foundation of mindfulness in the Buddha’...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep 500•Transcript available on Metacast Jessica Nordell is a science and culture journalist who has written for the Atlantic and the New York Times. She earned a B.A. in physics from Harvard and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her new book is called The End of Bias, A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias. Photo Credit: Leslie Plesser In this episode we talk about: Why humans have biases What happens physiologically when biases are challenged Why some of the most p...
Sep 19, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep 410•Transcript available on Metacast Try this powerful metta practice where you connect directly with the feelings of loving-kindness in your body and then expand out to others. About Dawn Mauricio: Dawn Mauricio discovered the practices of Buddhist meditation in 2005, and from then on, did what any well-intentioned perfectionist would do — plunge in head first! Since then, she's graduated from several teaching programs, including Spirit Rock's four-year Teacher Training. Her teaching style is playful, dynamic, and heartfelt, and s...
Sep 16, 2022•6 min•Ep 499•Transcript available on Metacast It’s such a common desire to get out of our heads — to escape the nonstop, mostly self-referential chatter, the habitual storylines, the ancient resentments and the compulsive self-criticism. Many of us take elaborate and even drastic measures in this regard like self-medication, shopping, tech addiction, and so on. But there’s a much healthier option that is readily and perpetually available. In fact, we’re dragging it around with us all the time, the body. The Buddha is said to have laid...
Sep 14, 2022•55 min•Ep 498•Transcript available on Metacast Emotionally immature people (EIP’s) are hard to avoid and most of us, if not all of us, have to deal with them at some point in our lives. These interactions can range from mildly annoying to genuinely traumatic, especially if the emotionally immature people in question are our own parents, which is true for an awful lot of us. Today’s guest, clinical psychologist Lindsay C. Gibson, gives advice for dealing with emotionally immature people, whether they’re your parents or not. She has written a ...
Sep 12, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep 497•Transcript available on Metacast Hope is a skill. Using the phrase ‘let it be’ invites us to be more relaxed with life and lets us envision a better world. 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 St...
Sep 09, 2022•6 min•Ep 496•Transcript available on Metacast In the last couple of years, many people have been extolling the virtues of something called the "Enneagram" but—what the hell is it? On today’s show, longtime dharma teacher, Susan Piver, is here to demystify it. As she explains, the Enneagram is a tool that allows people to figure out their personality type and says it has been one of, if not the most important, tool in her personal development. Piver has been a student of Buddhism since 1995, graduated from a Buddhist seminary in ...
Sep 07, 2022•54 min•Ep 495•Transcript available on Metacast Most of us talk all day long. We speak to each other, we type at each other, and of course, we talk to ourselves internally. Talking and listening is a key part of what it means to be human and It’s very hard to be a successful person if you can’t communicate your ideas and listen to and understand other people. Today’s guests, Mudita Nisker and Dan Clurman, are here to explain some very simple and easy to understand communication skills that can transform your life. Their new book, Let's ...
Sep 05, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 494•Transcript available on Metacast Being aware of the breath is a foundation of mindfulness. The goal is to gently return, with growing kindness, again and again. About Sharon Salzberg: A towering figure in the meditation world, Sharon Salzberg is a prominent teacher & New York Times best-selling author. She has played a crucial role bringing mindfulness and lovingkindness practices to the West. Sharon co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield and is the author of nine books...
Sep 02, 2022•7 min•Ep 493•Transcript available on Metacast At times, self-improvement can seem like a never-ending hallway filled with limitless shame and insufficiency. So when something as simple as the breath falls into this category, it seems only natural to meet that news with some resistance. Our guest today, James Nestor argues that many of us, of all things, are breathing incorrectly but that by fixing our breathing, it can help with both physical and psychological ailments. Nestor is a science journalist who wrote a book called, Breath: T...
Aug 31, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep 492•Transcript available on Metacast Most of us worry about money sometimes, but what if we changed the way we thought about our relationship to finances? Today’s guest, William MacAskill, offers a framework in which to do just that. He calls it effective altruism. One of the core arguments of effective altruism is that we all ought to consider giving away a significant chunk of our income because we know, to a mathematical near certainty, that several thousand dollars could save a life. Today we’re going to talk about the whys and...
Aug 29, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep 491•Transcript available on Metacast After an intense day, try this simple meditation to decompress and de-stress by getting comfy and putting your feet up. About Jeff Warren: Jeff is an incredibly gifted meditation teacher. He's trained in multiple traditions, including with renowned teacher Shinzen Young. Jeff is the co-author of NY Times Bestseller "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics," and the founder of the Consciousness Explorers Club, a meditation adventure group in Toronto. He has a knack for surfacing the exact meditation that...
Aug 26, 2022•7 min•Ep 490•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode from our archives, psychologist Kelly McGonigal dives into her book The Joy of Movement and practical steps on how to develop healthy habits. Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University, and a leading expert in the new field of “science-help.” She is passionate about translating cutting-edge research from psychology, neuroscience, and medicine into practical strategies for health, happiness, and personal success. She is the author of The Joy...
Aug 24, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep 219•Transcript available on Metacast The idea of loving people no matter what— no matter how obnoxious or unacceptable their behavior is can sound simultaneously treacly and downright impossible. But today's guest Father Gregory Boyle talks about the practicality of this idea by showing how the concept of loving no matter what can be used as a tool— not to condone bad behavior but to help see people as doing their best, no matter how unskillfully. Father Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who founded a remarkable organiza...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep 489•Transcript available on Metacast Our busy lives rarely afford us time to reflect on what’s truly important. Remembering what matters most empowers us to engage meaningfully. About La Sarmiento: La Sarmiento is the guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington's BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Sanghas and a mentor for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and Cloud Sangha. They graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leader Training Program in 2012. As an immigrant, non-binary, F...
Aug 19, 2022•6 min•Ep 488•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode looks at one of the hardest Buddhist principles to grasp— the notion that the self is an illusion. Many people get stuck on the misunderstanding that they don’t exist. They look in the mirror and say, “Of course I exist. I’m right there.” And that’s true, you do exist, but just not in the way you think you do. Today’s guest, Jay Garfield explores this notion by arguing that you are indeed a person just not a self— a principle that can simultaneously feel both imponderable a...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr•Ep 487•Transcript available on Metacast Since the start of COVID-19, more people are working from home, and with that, more people have strong opinions about whether or not it’s the best route to take. In today’s episode, Malcolm Gladwell responds to recent backlash over why he believes that working in an office—and the collaborative creative environment it can offer—is in your best interest (and in the interest of others). We also dive deep into some of the important themes featured in the seventh season of his podcast Revisionist Hi...
Aug 15, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep 486•Transcript available on Metacast Bringing mindfulness to walking is an opportunity to build awareness and relax the mind as you move about your day. About Alexis Santos: Alexis Santos is a featured teacher on the Ten Percent Happier app and has been in the field of mindfulness and meditation since 2001. He has been a long-time student of Sayadaw U Tejaniya, with whom he ordained as a Buddhist monk, and has taught at retreat centers around the globe. To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Eve...
Aug 12, 2022•6 min•Ep 485•Transcript available on Metacast Oftentimes Buddhism can take a tough love, no nonsense approach to happiness by saying, if you want to be happier, sometimes you need to face hard truths. In today's episode we’re going to talk about a Buddhist list called The Three Characteristics. These are the three non-negotiable truths about reality, which you have to see and understand in order to be happy. Granted, when looked at from a certain angle, these truths, or characteristics of reality can suck at times. But do you want to ...
Aug 10, 2022•59 min•Ep 484•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Aug 08, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep 483•Transcript available on Metacast Cultivating what’s good in us helps during times of both abundance and adversity. In fact, it’s when times are hard that we need it the most. About Kaira Jewel Lingo Kaira Jewel Lingo was an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing . She's now a lay dharma teacher based on Long Island. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. and an M.A. in anthropology and social sciences. She’s also the author of the book We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons on Moving T...
Aug 05, 2022•6 min•Ep 482•Transcript available on Metacast There are so many benefits to mindfulness with one of the biggest being the cultivation of more self-awareness. This cultivation can lead to identifying the unhelpful mental habits that can develop over the years. Today we’re going to talk to Carol Wilson who offers very clear and practical ways that Buddhist meditation can help us turn down the volume on our unproductive mental habits and be less reactive. Wilson is a guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society , where for many years she ...
Aug 03, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 481•Transcript available on Metacast Many of us may have a reflexive reaction when we notice we’re feeling down: we want it to go away. Maybe we think something is wrong with us and we automatically self medicate in any number of ways. But how do we square this with the fact that many of us may also really like sad movies and music? And making things even more complex, how do we compute the fact that the universe is constantly handing us opportunities to feel awe, gratitude, and joy, often at the exact same moment that sadness aris...
Aug 01, 2022•59 min•Ep 480•Transcript available on Metacast Sharon teaches you a simple breathing technique to release tension and reduce the intensity of a painful experience. About Sharon Salzberg: A towering figure in the meditation world, Sharon Salzberg is a prominent teacher & New York Times best-selling author. She has played a crucial role bringing mindfulness and lovingkindness practices to the West. Sharon co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield and is the author of nine books, including...
Jul 29, 2022•7 min•Ep 479•Transcript available on Metacast Sit in meditation for a few minutes and you’re likely to experience pain, either physical or psychological. Hang around the meditation scene for very long, and you are likely to hear the expression, “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” And that’s what this episode is all about— boosting your pain tolerance through meditation. Because pain really is inevitable, but can you reduce your suffering through mindfulness and compassion? Our guest today, Christiane Wolf, argues ‘yes’....
Jul 27, 2022•50 min•Ep 366•Transcript available on Metacast We all have long-standing painful patterns of behavior or inner storylines that can cause us to react disproportionately or inappropriately to everyday events. Today's guest, Dr. Radhule Weininger, has a term for this. She calls them longstanding recurrent painful patterns or LRPPs. Weininger is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, and teacher of Buddhist meditation and Buddhist psychology. She has a new book, Heart Medicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and Find Peace and...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep 478•Transcript available on Metacast 
