10% Happier With Dan Harris

How do you strike work/life balance when you feel overwhelming pressure to provide for your family? How do you balance gender roles in a modern marriage? How close should we live to our parents when they retire? These are questions many, if not most, of us struggle with. But Ravi Patel does so in public. Not just in public -- but on camera, all over the world. Ravi is an actor who has been in TV shows such as Master of None and American Housewife and movies such as Transformers and the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984. He is perhaps best known for starring in a hilarious documentary called Meet the Patels, in which he travels around America and India egged on by his parents, looking for a bride. Now he has a new TV show on HBO Max called Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness, where in each episode, he and someone in his life -- his wife, his parents, his best friend -- go on a global adventure to address a major life issue. He’s very funny, and unusually an open book. I think you will enjoy this. Where to find Ravi onl

In the heat of an election that is both incredibly nasty and hugely consequential, it might be tempting to try to shut out all the feelings of anger, frustration, and powerlessness. But my guest today makes a compelling argument for engagement -- and for the notion that nothing should be excluded from your meditation practice, not even politics. Sharon Salzberg has a new book, called Real Change, which is about how to stay socially, civically, and politically engaged without losing your mind. We talk about how to develop patience when it seems there’s no light at the end of the tunnel; why it’s wise to cultivate compassion, even for people you find deeply objectionable; and ways to limit our Twitter doomscrolling, something Sharon struggles with herself. Loyal listeners will know Sharon well. She’s a towering figure on the American meditation scene, the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society, the author of several books, including Real Love, Real Happiness and Real Happiness at Work, and a founding teach

Angel Collinson is a badass in every sense of the word. She’s one of the world's best extreme skiers, a meditator, and a climate activist. In this conversation we explore Angel's mindfulness practice and how it helps her stay centered even when she’s skiing off a cliff, her work on Capitol Hill, and a tricky and raw conversation with her dad. This is another one of the episodes we recorded pre-pandemic, but which remains relevant. Where to find Angel Collinson online: Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelcollinson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AngelCollinson/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelcollinson/?hl=en We care deeply about supporting you in your meditation practice, and feel that providing you with high quality teachers is one of the best ways to do that. Customers of the Ten Percent Happier app say they stick around specifically for the range of teachers, and the deep wisdom they impart, to help them deepen their practice. For anyone new to the app, we've got a special discount just for you.

I grew up with that famous Groucho Marx joke, “I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” It always resonated with me. As my grandfather would say, “I resemble that remark.” We all know that belonging -- to a tribe, a family, a group of any sort -- is a key part of human happiness; science bears this out. But my guest today, Sebene Selassie, is taking this concept of belonging to a much, much deeper level. To the “oneness with the universe” level. That’s obviously one of the world’s greatest spiritual cliches, but in her new book, Seb unpacks and defends the concept incredibly effectively. The book is called “You Belong.” Seb is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn. She is a regular on the Ten Percent Happier app. And she is a great and valued friend. Where to find Sebene Selassie online: Website: https://www.sebeneselassie.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/sebeneselassie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sebeneselassie Book Mentioned: You Belong by Sebene Selassie: https://www.

It’s a human urge to return to normalcy after a cataclysmic event. But if we rush back to normalcy without taking a beat, without metabolizing what we’ve all been going through, that can create profound psychological issues. Dr. Pat Ogden is an expert in trauma and a pioneer in what’s called “somatic psychology” (which I will let her explain). In this interview we talk about whether we’re all traumatized by what we’ve been through in recent months; the impact of trauma on the brain and body; how to handle and heal from our trauma; and we also branch out into her fascinating views on productivity. There’s a lot here. Where to find Pat Ogden online: Website: https://sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org/ Book Mentioned: Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy by Pat Ogden, Kekuni Minton, Clare Pain - https://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Body-Sensorimotor-Psychotherapy-Interpersonal/dp/0393704572 We care deeply about supporting you in your meditation practice, and feel that providing you with high quality

This episode is a mix of the technical, the practical, and the delightful. We’re talking about a meditation technique that can impact relationships, your biases, and how you handle things such as lying, sex, alcohol, and social media. The key word here is the ancient term "vedana." And it involves, literally, any feeling state we experience. Basically, everything that comes up in your mind has one of at least three feeling tones: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. When you’re mindless, a pleasant feeling tone can lead to overindulgence or clinging; unpleasant can lead to aversion; and neutral can lead to numbing out. Unchecked, this unfolding process can have disastrous results, as it pertains to your reactions to food, other people, you name it. My guest today is going to tell us about how to bring mindfulness to this aspect of our experience. Martine Batchelor was a Buddhist nun in Korea for 10 years. She’s written a number of books, including The Path to Compassion and Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking F

The virus has exploited so many weaknesses of our culture. But having exposed the weaknesses, such as inequities and reckless individualism, could the current crisis lead to a fundamental shift for humankind? That may sound utopian, but our guest today believes it’s genuinely possible. Dr. Jonathan Salk is an adult and child psychiatrist at UCLA. He’s been thinking about the future of the species for about 40 years, starting when he co-authored a book called A New Reality with his father, Dr. Jonas Salk. You might’ve heard of him. He invented the polio vaccine 65 years ago.  Where to find Dr. Jonathan Salk online:  Website: https://www.anewrealitybook.com/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/ANewRealityBook Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ANewRealityBook/ Book Mentioned: A New Reality: A Vision of Hope for a World in Transition - https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781947951044 We care deeply about supporting you in your meditation practice, and feel that providing you with high quality teachers is one of the best

Today we have a master class in resilience. My guest is George Mumford, who has overcome some towering difficulties in his own life, including an addiction to drugs. He went on to become a legendary meditation teacher who has worked with athletes such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. We talk about how we can all develop the skill of resilience through meditation. Just like the Buddha did, George loves to teach using lists. You’ll hear him discuss the Three C’s, the Four A’s, and the Five Super Powers. You will also hear him talk about how he has had to apply these skills afresh in the past few months, when he has experienced death in his family, as well as the death of his friend Kobe Bryant. As you may have heard me mention in Monday’s episode, we are dedicating this whole week to the interrelated themes of resilience and grit. If you missed it, go check out Monday’s episode with psychologist Angela Duckworth, who wrote a whole book on grit. One last note: George has a fantastic course in the Ten Percent H

This week on the show, we’re exploring the interrelated themes of grit and resilience -- both massively resonant and relevant issues in the era of Covid and BLM. Today, my guest is Angela Duckworth. She’s a psychologist who was deemed a “genius” by the MacArthur Foundation, and she is perhaps best known for popularizing the term “grit,” which she defines as “a combination of passion and perseverance for a singularly important goal.” She’s written a bestselling book called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, and has a new podcast called “No Stupid Questions.” In this episode, we talk about the secrets of gritty people, how to cultivate grit when it seems like the world is falling apart, and the possible downsides of grit. She’s quite candid about a number of sensitive issues, including the recent passing of her dad, and the sharp criticisms her work on grit has received in light of America’s racial reckoning. Where to find Angela Duckworth online:  Website: https://angeladuckworth.com/ Twitter: https:

At a time when work has become more challenging than ever, we’re going to explore one myth and one revelation. The myth -- which many of us, myself included, have consciously or subconsciously incorporated into our lives — is that we need to grind ourselves into dust through faux “productivity” in order to achieve professional success. The revelation is that the more effective -- and cleaner burning -- fuel is that potentially sappy notion of finding your purpose. My guest is Leah Weiss, who has impressive bona fides on both the professional and contemplative fronts. She teaches Compassionate Leadership at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and she wrote a book called How We Work. She’s also done four 100-day retreats and one 6-month retreat. This conversion was recorded pre-pandemic, but is deeply relevant nonetheless. And toward the end of the conversation, she drops some words that have been rattling around in my head for months. Where to find Leah Weiss online:  Website: https://leahweissphd.com/ Twitt

In this episode, we take a simple, useful, and down-to-earth stroll through one of the most confounding -- but liberating -- concepts in Buddhism. On the one hand, Buddhists tell us the self is an illusion: “You don’t exist!” On the other hand, they tell us, “Well actually, on some level, you do, of course, exist.” So which is it? The answer is: both. But this concept -- call it not-self, selflessness, egolessness, or emptiness -- doesn’t have to be some hopelessly esoteric riddle; it is actually a game-changer that we can all apply in our own lives. Here to tell us how is Guy Armstrong, who has been a meditation teacher in the insight tradition for decades. He’s written a book called Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators. He is the husband of Sally Armstrong, who appeared on the show just a few weeks ago. I actually conducted the interviews back-to-back last fall. But even though this was recorded before the wretched events of 2020, the concepts herein are, I assure you, perennially useful. Where to fi

Buddhists don’t tend to shy away from talking about body parts -- but usually it’s more along the lines of meditating on things like spittle, defecation (otherwise known as poop) and the inevitable decay of the body. So where do sex and sexuality fit into this mix? Bottom line: how can we use sex to wake up? In this episode, I talk with dharma practitioners Devon and Craig Hase. They’re not sexperts by any stretch, but as a married couple who recently emerged from a year of monastic vows (which included celibacy), they’ve spent a lot of time exploring the intersection of mindfulness, meditation and sex. In fact, their new book How Not to Be a Hot Mess includes a whole chapter called, “Make Sex Good.” We start with a fascinating discussion about their own experimentation with esoteric, Tantric sex practices, but then veer directly into garden variety sex issues. It’s a fascinating chat, and I appreciate Devon and Craig being so open and honest on an intensely personal issue. Where to find Devon & Craig Has

I don’t know about you guys, but my sleep has suffered quite badly during the last few months. Today’s guest really got me thinking about this issue in a whole new way. First, he normalizes the sleep problems many of us are having. If you’re sleeping poorly right now, he says, don’t freak out; it is natural and normal. Second, he has a bunch of tips for how to deal with insomnia, some of which I had never heard before and am already starting to operationalize in my own life. His name is Donn Posner. He’s one of the leaders in the field of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. His titles are: Founder and President, Sleepwell Consultants, and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. Not only did he answer all of my questions, but we also played him some listener voicemails. One last thing to say before we dive in: our episodes this week have a theme: primordial needs. Today we’re doing sleep; Wednesday it’s sex. So i

How do you optimize your performance when life is utterly disrupted by a pandemic? Are optimism and confidence trainable skills? Can we get over our fear of other people’s opinions? These are some of the questions we tackle in this episode. We have two guests. Pete Carroll is our first interviewee who has a Superbowl ring. He’s been the coach of the Seattle Seahawks for ten seasons. He’s also the co-author and co-founder of Compete to Create, which is many things: a firm that works with companies to create high-performing teams, an online course that anyone can take, and a new Audible Original audio book. Coach Pete’s partner in all of this is our other guest. Michael Gervais is a high performance psychologist who has worked with MVPs from every major sport and Fortune 100 CEOs. He’s also the host of a podcast called Finding Mastery. Where to find Pete Carroll online:  Website: https://petecarroll.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeteCarroll  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coachpetecarroll/ Instagram: ht

At a time of multiple, mutually-reinforcing dumpster fires, meditation can seem counterintuitive. Instinctively, many of us might prefer to rush to the barricades, or Twitter, or the fetal position. But there is immense value in “doing nothing,” and we are going to explore that theme in this special episode. We’re bringing on two amazing meditation teachers, Jeff Warren and Sebene Selassie, to take your questions about the value of meditation in this difficult time. We discuss: how to work with a wandering mind; how to navigate the social anxiety many of us feel as we start to reopen; whether it’s possible to be mindfully depressed; and we explore the potential for gratitude at a time when it seems like everything sucks. The reason for this special edition of the show is that we at the Ten Percent Happier company are about to launch the Summer Sanity Challenge. It’s a free 21 day meditation challenge, starting July 27. Every day you'll get a short video followed by a free guided meditation to help you establi

In Buddhism/meditation circles, desire or wanting is often considered a no-no. But is this line of thinking sometimes taken too far — or simply misunderstood? Can we turn our desires — for food, sex, etcetera — into areas to apply our meditation practice? Today we’re going to explore that notion with Cara Lai. She is a mindfulness teacher, psychotherapist, and artist. She is also a coach on the Ten Percent Happier app. (Side note: shout-out to all the coaches on the app. The fact that we have these highly trained individuals standing by to take your questions is yet another reason to subscribe!) Anyway, back to Cara. I first encountered her when I was on a retreat last year, and she was one of the teachers. She gave a dharma talk that was incredibly funny and shockingly honest. And, as you will hear, she brings that same spirit to this conversation. Where to find Cara Lai online:  Website: http://www.caralai.org/ On the Ten Percent Happier app, you can chat directly with living, breathing meditation coaches (

Today we’re going to nerd out about what enlightenment (or, if that word is triggering, let’s just call it “high doses of meditation”) can do to your brain — and, more practically, how we can derive these benefits even if we don’t plan to spend decades living in a cave. My guest is Rick Hanson, Ph.D., psychologist and author of the new book Neurodharma. We go into the deep end, yes, but we also get very down-to-earth, talking about how anyone, including you, can “reverse engineer enlightenment,” and have “Nirvana operationalized in your nervous system.” Quick note that this was recorded right before the pandemic, but enlightenment is evergreen. Where to find Rick Hanson online:  Website: https://www.rickhanson.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/drrhanson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rickhansonphd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rickhansonphd/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RickHanson Book Mentioned: Neurodharma by Rick Hanson: https://www.rickhanson.net/books/neurodharma You can find meditations

"Mindfulness" has become a buzz phrase. There are books on mindful parenting, mindful lawyering, even mindful sex. But what does the word even mean? And how do you actually do it? In one of his most famous and foundational discourses, the Buddha was said to have laid out, in great detail, four ways to establish mindfulness. In today's episode we’re going to walk through these four "foundations" of mindfulness with Sally Armstrong, who started practicing in 1981, began teaching 15 years later, and now leads retreats all over the world. Before we start, I should note that we recorded this interview shortly before the pandemic and the racial justice protests, but we thought it might be a good time to drop a good, old-fashioned, meat and potatoes, stick to your ribs dharma episode to help us get back to basics.  Where to find Sally online:  Spirit Rock Profile: https://www.spiritrock.org/sally-armstrong Sally Armstrong on Dharmaseed.org: https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/153/ You can find meditations from our world-

It’s easy to think of racism as a virus that lives in your head. But my guest today makes a compelling case that it also lives, in very profound and often unseen ways, in your body. Resmaa Menakem is a therapist and trauma specialist based in Minneapolis. He’s also the author of an excellent book called My Grandmother’s Hands, which people in my life have been recommending to me for years. Resmaa’s work is all about healing our bodies -- and, by extension, our nation -- from racialized trauma. And in Resmaa’s philosophy, racial trauma lives on in bodies of all colors, including white bodies such as mine. Resmaa gives voice to a new lexicon -- terms like “white body supremacy” and “somatic abolitionism” -- and don’t worry, he’ll explain it all as the interview progresses. He will also share practices that bring you into your body. And he has very provocative thoughts about how white people can do their part way beyond the current news cycle. Where to find Resmaa Menakem online:  Website: https://www.resmaa.com

Faith is a loaded word in some circles, but in this episode, Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel makes her case for it - in ways that might surprise you. We also discuss: what she means by the phrase "being realistic," the power of exploring open questions, and how sitting like a log is the new activism. She's been practicing for 35 years in the Tibetan tradition. She is the retreat master of Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado and has spent over six years in silent retreat. She’s the author of The Power of an Open Question and The Logic of Faith, and host of the new podcast Open Question.   Where to find Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel online:  Website: https://www.elizabethmattisnamgyel.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMattisNamgyel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethMattisNamgyel/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethmattisnamgyel/  Books: The Power of an Open Question - https://www.elizabethmattisnamgyel.com/the-power-of-an-open-question The Logic of Faith - https://www.elizabethmattisnamgyel.com/the-logi