You don’t have to focus too maniacally on your breath; your body is part of the process, too. Our good buddy Joseph Goldstein shows you how to balance. 

Joseph Goldstein is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, both in Barre, Massachusetts. He is the author of many books including, most recently, Dreamscapes of the Mind. 

This meditation is part of a new series on the Eightfold Path. The rest of the series is available on Waking Up, a top-notch meditation app with amazing teachers and a ton of courses for all levels. If you subscribe via this link: wakingup.com/tenpercent, you’ll get a 30-day free trial—and you’ll be supporting the 10% Happier team, too. Full and partial scholarships are available.

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Plus more surprising information on this fundamental human drive.

Will Storr is a multi award-winning writer and Sunday Times bestselling author. His latest book is A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of storytelling to lead, motivate and persuade.

Waking Up, a top-notch meditation app with amazing teachers and a ton of courses for all levels. If you subscribe via this link: wakingup.com/tenpercent, you’ll get a 30-day free trial—and you’ll be supporting the 10% Happier team, too. Full and partial scholarships are available.

In this episode we talk about:

• The key elements of a properly deployed story
• The different ways to measure status
• The three main ways humans compete for status
• The benefits of altruism as a source of status
• The  balance between self interest and altruism 
• How mindfulness factors into the status drive
• Managing our relationships with social media

Related Episodes:

• Why You Can’t Pay Attention - And How to Think Deeply Again | Johann Hari

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Our favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular Episodes

How to boost your psychological immune system, the stoic way.

William “Bill” Irvine is the emeritus professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.  He is the author of eight books that have been translated into more than twenty languages, including Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy and Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient.

Bill is one of many great teachers featured on Waking Up, a top-notch meditation app with amazing teachers and a ton of courses for all levels. If you subscribe via this link: wakingup.com/tenpercent, you’ll get a 30-day free trial—and you’ll be supporting the 10% Happier team, too. Full and partial scholarships are available.

In this episode we talk about:

• How Bill was first introduced to Stoicism (the story involves a midlife crisis and a banjo.) 
• The comparison between Stoicism and Buddhism
•  Psychological strategies for attaining equanimity 
• The practice of negative visualization
• Stoic approaches to handling anger and insults
• How to reframe setbacks as tests
• Stoicism VS emotional suppression
• Tools for navigating the challenges of our digital age
• What Stoics say about pursuing fame and status
• And why death is the “ultimate exam”

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Additional Resources: 

• Links to Bill’s Waking Up content
• Links to Bill’s books 

From punk rock to broadcast journalism. A veteran journalist shares her story.

Alisyn Camerota is an award-winning journalist and author. She recently wrote the memoir,  Combat Love: A Story of Leaving, Longing, and Searching for Home.

In this episode we talk about:

• Our mutual dislike of covering breaking news 
• How her turbulent teenage years helped her prepare for life’s chaos 
• What “home” actually means
• How her childhood informed her own parenting style
• The delicate balance between giving your children too little or too much freedom
• What it means for a journalist to center themself in a story 
• Surviving the news 
• Coping with anxiety and media consumption
• And much more

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Additional Resources: 

• Alisyn Camerota on Substack
• Sanity Podcast

Cross-training for your mind.

Diane Musho Hamilton is an author, award-winning mediator, and teacher of Zen. She is the author of three books on conflict resolution, relationships, and communication. Her latest book is Waking Up and Growing Up: Spiritual Cross-training for an Evolving World, co-authored with Gabriel Wilson.

Diane is one of many great teachers featured on Waking Up, a top-notch meditation app with amazing teachers and a ton of courses for all levels. If you subscribe via this link: wakingup.com/tenpercent, you’ll get a 30-day free trial—and you’ll be supporting the 10% Happier team, too. Full and partial scholarships are available.

In this episode we talk about:

• What Diane means by spiritual cross training and waking up 
• Cultivating emotional maturity
• Foundations of Zen practice
• Integrating shadow and psyche
• The key aspects of living with purpose 
• The value of intention setting
• Ethical action and community

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Our favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular Episodes

Additional Resources: 

• Dan’s panic attack on live TV

An old friend (and my spiritual brother) discusses some of the most important things he’s ever learned.

Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, author, podcaster and the proprietor of Waking Up, a top-notch meditation app with amazing teachers and a ton of courses for all levels. If you subscribe via this link: wakingup.com/tenpercent, you’ll get a 30-day free trial—and you’ll be supporting the 10% Happier team, too. Full and partial scholarships are available.

In this episode we talk about:

• How to maintain equanimity in shitty situations 
• How to have compassion – or at least non-hatred – for people you disagree with politically 
• The illusion of free will and its relationship with compassion 
• The difference between dualistic and non-dualistic mindfulness
• The concept of having no head
• Why meditating with your eyes open can be super helpful
• And much more

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Additional Resources: 

• On Having No Head

We’re going to give you a taste of the so-called “renegade sangha” sessions on DanHarris.com, which is powered by Substack. In those sessions, Dan usually guides a meditation and then takes questions. 

In this brief episode, you’re going to hear one of the best, funniest, most relatable questions we have received to date.

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Our favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular Episodes

Dan deconstructs the Dharmic elements of the popular HBO show, with the co-host of The White Lotus Official Season 3 companion podcast.

Joshuah Bearman is a writer and film producer in Los Angeles. He has written for Wired, GQ, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, and contributed to This American Life. Along with Jia Tolentino, Josh is the co-host of the The White Lotus Official Podcast.

In this episode we talk about:

• How Josh became interested in Buddhism 

• How Mike White, the writer and creator of The White Lotus, became interested in Buddhism 

• Buddhist concepts and themes all three seasons of The White Lotus

• Buddhist notions of self and identity

• Some paradoxes and pitfalls of Buddhism

• The perils of pleasure seeking

• Craving certainty as a bulwark against anxiety 

• The importance of repetition  of simple Buddhist ideas that we are programmed to forget 

• The Buddhist concept of attachment

• The three jewels of Buddhism and the importance of relationships

Related Episodes:

• Natasha Rothwell (White Lotus, How To Die Alone) On: Loneliness, Envy, People Pleasing, And Finding Your “Hell Yes”

• Michael Imperioli (From The Sopranos and White Lotus) Knows a Shitload About Buddhist Meditation 

• Holding it Together When Things Fall Apart | Pema Chödrön

• Pema Chödrön, Renowned Buddhist Nun, On Her One Non-Negotiable Happiness Strategy

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Additional Resources: 

• The White Lotus Official Podcast

They say enlightenment is always an accident. Here’s how to make yourself more accident-prone.

Henry Shukman is a poet, author and Zen master in the Sanbo Zen lineage. He is founder of the Original Love meditation program, spiritual director emeritus at Mountain Cloud Zen Center and co-founder of the single-path meditation app The Way. His most recent books are Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening and the Zen memoir One Blade of Grass. 

In this episode we talk about:

• Henry’s awakening moment
• The meaning of the term “inn”
• We walk through the four inns
• We talk about loving your obstacles
• Whether finding a meditation teacher matters
• What koans are, and how they can enhance your practice

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Ten Percent Happier online bookstore

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Our favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular Episodes

Additional Resources: 

• Henry's meditation app, The Way

• Henry's latest book, Original Love

• Henry's website

The liberation that comes from realizing that you’re never going to get everything done.

Oliver Burkeman is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Four Thousand Weeks, The Antidote, and most recently, Meditations for Mortals. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Psychologies and New Philosopher. He has a devoted following for his writing on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment. 

Oliver is one of many great teachers featured on Waking Up, a top-notch meditation app with amazing teachers and a ton of courses for all levels. If you subscribe via this link: wakingup.com/tenpercent, you’ll get a 30-day free trial—and you’ll be supporting the 10% Happier team, too. Full and partial scholarships are available.

In this episode we talk about:

• What the term “imperfectionism” means
• The illusion of reaching a point where "everything's done"
• Why there’s liberation in seeing how finite we are 
• Why small, imperfect actions are more valuable than perfect plans
• Why overplanning is a kind of avoidance
• How to make decisions 
• The importance of finishing things
• Who you should develop a taste for problems
• Why effort doesn't always equal value
• Why we need to stop protecting other people’s feelings
• And the paradox of mattering immensely and not at all

Related Episodes:

• The Power of Negative Thinking 
• Time Management for Mortals

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