10% Happier with Dan Harris

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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It's hard to be a human. No matter how good things are for you, being alive is still hard. Whatever your life circumstances are, we're all subject to impermanence and entropy.

This episode dives into a five-part Buddhist list for being stronger in the face of whatever life throws at you.

Sister Dang Nghiem, who goes by Sister D, is a nun in the Plum Village tradition and a disciple of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She was born in Vietnam during the war, and is the daughter of a Vietnamese mother and an American soldier. Sister D experienced an unfathomable amount of loss before relocating to the US, where she became a doctor and later, after experiencing more loss, became a nun. She's written several books and her most recent is Flowers in the Dark.

In this conversation, Sister D shares her story, and then walks us through The Five Strengths of Applied Zen Buddhism which include trust, diligence, mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

Content Warning: This episode covers difficult topics including death, mental illness, and sexual abuse.

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/sister-dang-nghiem-403-rerun

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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So many of us suffer over the issue of time management.

Our guest today approaches the topic from research and personal experience and dives into how we can think more strategically about our time and aspire to build resilient schedules, rather than perfect ones.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books. Her latest is Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company. Laura's TED Talk on "How to Gain Control of Your Free Time" has been viewed more than 12 million times, and she also hosts the podcast Before Breakfast. Her previous books include Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done, I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think.

In this episode we talk about:

• Why time is the great leveler
• Why time management strategies aren't only for people lucky enough to set their own schedules
• Why Laura's number one rule in her book is to "give yourself a bedtime"
• Why she is a big believer that that weekends and evenings do not have to be work free zones
• How to use exercise as a reset button during your day
• Why creating a habit doesn't have to mean doing it everyday
• The time management rule that Laura gets the biggest pushback on
• And the rule Laura says all the other rules are jealous of

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/laura-vanderkam-606

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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The notion of "being your authentic self" might sound like too much of a tired trope, but getting real and stripping away your fears and hang-ups can help you live a more meaningful life.

In her new book, "Bold Move: A 3-Step Plan to Transform Anxiety into Power", Dr. Luana Marques shares her story about growing up in chaos and learning early skills of cognitive behavioral therapy that helped her cope with anxiety and live boldly.

Dr. Luana Marques is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, a former president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), and a renowned mental health expert, educator, and author.

In this episode we talk about:

• Luana's personal story growing up in Brazil and struggling with anxiety as a child
• What it means to live boldly
• What is psychological avoidance and the 3 R's of Avoidance
• Luana's three step plan to transform anxiety into power
• How to be comfortably uncomfortable
• Why the brain is a faulty predictor
• Why being bold is not the same as being fearless
• Why social support is the number one buffer across any mental health issue
• How aligning your daily actions with your values can help you deal with anxiety
• How to identify your values by looking at pain
• And what Luana means by "being the water not the rock"

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/dr-luana-marques-604

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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Why, you might fairly ask, am I interviewing Rainn Wilson, best known for his star turn on the sitcom The Office playing Dwight Schrute, the hilariously dysregulated paper salesman with a lust for power and a tragic haircut? Why, you may ask, am I interviewing that dude about mental health and spirituality?

Because in real life, Rainn Wilson has spent many, many years wrestling with religion, sobriety, and marital ups and downs, and he's got a new book called Soul Boom in which he cracks a lot of jokes and also makes a dead serious case for a spiritual revolution. (I'll explain exactly what he means by that.)

In this episode we talk about:

• the role of the Baha'i faith in his life
• why he was so miserable at the height of The Office's popularity
• what he considers his greatest achievement in life
• the importance of spiritual pilgrimage
• the ingredients of the perfect religion, which he insists must include potlucks.

A little bit more about Rainn: he won three Emmys for his work on The Office. He hosts a podcast called Metaphysical Milkshake, and he's got a new travel series on Peacock called Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss.

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/rainn-wilson-603

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

We're going to start experimenting with these Friday episodes. Historically on Fridays, we've dropped guided meditations – and we will still do that – but we're also going to try some different formats, including some shorter episodes with guests that might not be a fit for our traditional Monday and Wednesday shows.

Today we've got Dan's new friend Geena Rocero. She has an incredible story about what it's like to live with an all-encompassing secret.

Geena was born and raised in the Philippines. There, she became a star on that country's thriving transgender beauty pageant scene. Then she moved to America to launch her modeling career. But here, in this new country, she was justifiably very worried about letting anybody in the fashion world know that she was transgender. So for many many years, she lived with a secret -- one that could destroy her livelihood at any moment. In 2014, she decided to come out publicly in a TED Talk that now has more than 4 million views. She's now a public speaker, trans rights advocate and an award-winning producer/writer/director.

She is also an author, just out with a new memoir, called Horse Barbie. You'll hear her explain what that title means. We also talk about the cost of living with a secret, why she decided to come out, and the overlap between gender and spirituality.

Where to find Geena Rocero online:

• Twitter: twitter.com/geenarocero
• Instagram: instagram.com/geenarocero

Book Mentioned:

• Horse Barbie: A Memoir

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Geena's TED talk: Why I Must Come Out

Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/install

Through the protection of gratitude, the world becomes brighter and more hopeful, and the mind becomes more balanced. Gratitude: cultivate it!

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 in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He is a co-founder of True North Insight and one of their Guiding Teachers. 

To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Feel Good with Gratitude,” or click here: https://app.tenpercent.com/link/content?meditation=87b6a5f2-d37f-45a5-895e-c7bae73e5ac4

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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Welcome to Round II of the Meditation Party. The feedback we got from our first episode was overwhelmingly positive, so we're going for it again. Meditation Party is an experiment we're running with a chattier format – more of a morning zoo vibe, but way deeper, of course. The real agenda here is to show that meditation doesn't have to be a solo death march; it is vastly enhanced by having friends.

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.

In this episode, we talk to Jeff about what it's like to be a meditation teacher who has ADHD. And even if you don't have ADHD, there's a lot of practical value to this conversation, because we all have unruly minds, and Jeff has found some great ways to work with this condition.

We also take listener questions, discussing topics like drugs. Specifically, psychedelics — and whether you're violating Buddhist precepts if you take them. We also talk about how frustrating it can be to repeatedly wake up from distraction in meditation.

And finally, we have a segment talking about the stuff we're psyched about right now… in which Sebene sings for us.

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/sebene-selassie-jeff-warren-601

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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Historically on this show, we want guests who either have skills that they can teach us (i.e. meditation teachers or happiness researchers) or we want people who are willing to get super personal about their interior lives—and today you're gonna meet a bold-faced name who happens to have both qualifications in spades.

Mayim Bialik burst onto the scene in the 1990s as the star of the TV show Blossom. Then she stepped away, got a bachelor's and a PhD in neuroscience, and became a mom. She returned to TV with another sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. And now she has a very full plate as the co-host of Jeopardy! and the host of a podcast of her own called Mayim's Breakdown. Oh, and she's also written four books, including Girling Up: How to Be Strong, Smart, and Spectacular and Boying Up: How to Be Brave, Bold, and Brilliant.

In this episode we talk about:

• The pressures of being a teen star
• Mayim's fascination with the brain
• How she squares her scientific expertise with her religious beliefs
• Why she half-jokingly says she was born "a mental health challenge"
• The difference between anxiety attacks and panic disorder
• Why she's chosen to be so public about her complicated psychiatric history
• Whether it's possible to be overdiagnosed
• The tools she personally uses to stay afloat
• What's behind her busyness, and what happened when she decided to stop working all the time
• And why at age 47, she's now taking the time to learn how to express her anger in a healthy way

A note that there are some mentions of suicide and addiction in this episode.

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/mayim-bialik-600

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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It's always a big deal when we get the maestro Joseph Goldstein on the show. He's one of the greatest living meditation teachers—and we cover a lot of ground in this conversation both related to meditation and to life.

This is the third installment in a series we've been running this month on the Eightfold Path. If you missed the first two episodes, don't worry. Joseph starts our conversation with a brief description and explanation of this pivotal Buddhist list. The list is basically a recipe for living a good life.

In this episode we talk about:

• How to strike a balance between trying too hard and trying too little in meditation
• How to handle your doubts about whether you're meditating correctly
• What the Buddhists really mean when they say "let it go"
• What Joseph means when he says, don't waste your suffering
• Why he uses the word ridiculous so much to describe the way our minds work
• How the eightfold path encompasses both daily life and formal meditation
• The simplest possible definition of mindfulness
• How mindfulness can prevent unwholesome or unhealthy states of mind from arising
• What to do when unwholesome states have already arisen
• Being mindful of seeing, which is an often overlooked
• A simple explanation of the tricky Buddhist concept of not self
• The Buddhist concept of wisdom
• And the importance of having a sense of humor about your own mind

A note that we initially conducted this conversation live via Zoom as part of a benefit in support of an organization called the New York Insight Meditation Center, which is an offshoot of IMS.

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/joseph-goldstein-598

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.

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Today's show features one of Dan's personal musical heroes, Mike Diamond — "Mike D" from the Beastie Boys. Their conversation is wide ranging and covers topics from the role of failure in achieving success to Mike's personal meditation practice. They say, "never meet your heroes", but Mike D doesn't disappoint in this smart and thoughtful discussion.

Mike D formed the Beastie Boys with Adam Yauch, aka MCA, in the early 80's, winning a number of Grammys and spanning a multi-decade career. In 2018, along with his bandmate, Adam Horovitz, Diamond co-authored Beastie Boys Book, which told the story of the band in its own words and reached #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list. A limited series of live shows, in which the two brought stories from the book to life, was captured in the 2020 film Beastie Boys Story.

Content Warning: The content is a little mature at points so take care if you're listening with kids.

In this episode we talk about:

• How Mike reconciles the misogyny of the Beasties early work
• The evolution of the band — and how they freed themselves from feeling imprisoned by their own personas
• The role of failure in achieving success
• The value of taking risks in creative endeavors
• Watching his late bandmate, Adam Yauch, find Buddhism, and how that impacted their music
• The addictive nature of adrenaline when performing
• The role meditation and yoga played for Mike as he tried to calibrate the highs and lows while on tour — and how these practices also now play a role in parenting his two kids
• How he works through self-judgment while meditating
• How he and the other surviving bandmate, Adam Horovitz, managed their grief in the wake of the untimely death of Adam Yauch
• And how a Beastie Boy came to embrace, of all things, loving-kindness

Full Show Notes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/mike-diamond-597