10% Happier with Dan Harris

What does it actually mean to "trust life" — especially when life is handing you something genuinely hard? In this Meditation Party episode (originally aired in 2024), Dan, Sebene Selassie, and Jeff Warren dig into that question from multiple angles: as a personal mantra, a philosophical stance, and a daily practice. Plus: listener questions on rumination, work-life balance, and the eternal napping-vs.-meditating debate.
"Trust Life" vs. "This Is the Curriculum" — Sebene shares the origin of her tattoo and what the mantra has meant through years of health challenges. 

The three timescales of practice — Jeff breaks down how meditation works in the moment, over months and years, and across the arc of a whole life. The third one is where things get interesting.

Obsessive thinking / rumination — Practical tools from all three, including one from Sebene involving a trampoline, and one from a clinical psychologist that will make you feel ridiculous in the best way.

Sebene Selassie 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. She's based in Brooklyn. 
Jeff Warren is also a writer and a meditation teacher. He and Dan co-wrote the book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. He also hosts the Consciousness Explorers podcast. He's based in Toronto. 
Related episodes: 
How to Stay Calm No Matter What's Happening | Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren
Science-Based Tools for When You're Stressed, Obsessed, or Overthinking | Dr. Jenny Taitz
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Strategies for getting out of your head and thriving in a chaotic world.
Prentis Hemphill is a writer, political organizer, therapist and somatic facilitator. They are the author of the national bestseller What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World, and host of the acclaimed podcasts Finding Our Way and Becoming the People. Prentis is also the Co-founder of The Embodiment Institute (TEI), a training and research organization that applies somatic practices to individual, organizational and collective care through a healing justice framework.
In this episode we talk about:
What embodiment really means  
How our bodies may be communicating more information to our brains than we realize
Practices to feel more at home in your body and regulate your nervous system
The "head, heart, gut" way of listening to different kinds of intelligence
Why so many of us are pulled out of our center in modern life
Micro-interdependence 
Simple, everyday ways to humanize one another in an era of mass vilification 
How cultural pressures contribute to anxiety and burnout
How to set boundaries
Identifying what you truly care about

Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.

Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here. 
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This episode is sponsored by:
Rosetta Stone — Language learning that's immersive and intuitive. Start your journey at https://www.rosettastone.com/happier
Fatty 15 — The first essential fatty acid discovered in over 90 years, designed to support healthy aging at the cellular level. Get 15% off a 90-day starter kit at https://www.fatty15.com/happier with code HAPPIER
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Practical tools to break "automatic habits" and take back your agency.
 
Gabor Maté is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver's Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of five books, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. 
 
In this episode we talk about:
Practical strategies for dealing with both our addictive tendencies and scattered minds
The real question to ask yourself when it comes to addiction 
Maté's relationship with ADHD
The relationship between ADHD and addiction
Tools for conscious harm reduction 
The practice of "Compassionate Curiosity"
"Re-parenting" practices for your nervous system 
And more
 
Related Episodes:
Modern Life Is Making You Sick, but It Doesn't Have To

 
Get the 10% with Dan Harris app here
Sign up for Dan's free newsletter here
Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
 
Additional Resources:
Rethinking ADHD
The Myth of Normal
Scattered Minds



Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.
 
To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

Buddhist tools for forgiveness, boredom, worry, and getting out of your head.
Meditation teacher Bart van Melik leads a live community Q&A — and the questions that come in are ones most meditators have quietly wrestled with for years.
Bart is the guiding teacher at Community Meditation Center in New York, where he leads weekly sessions grounded in Buddhist tradition. In this episode, he takes on four of the most common sticking points in practice: forgiveness, boredom, disconnection from the body, and the spiral of anxious "what if" thinking.
His approach throughout is warm, precise, and grounded — less about achieving a particular state and more about learning to hold whatever arises with curiosity and kindness.
Topics covered:
Forgiveness — why forcing it can backfire, what it means to "bypass" difficult emotions, and the reframe that changes everything: forgiveness as giving up all hope for a better past

Boredom — how to get genuinely curious about it instead of fighting it, and what it can teach you about why you reach for your phone

Getting into your body — why embodiment looks different for everyone, and how to find the activities (yes, even mindful salsa dancing or vacuuming) that make it easier

Worry and "what if" thoughts — the Buddhist framing of worry as an obstacle to clear seeing, and a simple breathwork technique from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche — exhale heavy, exhale calm — that works even in the hardest moments

Community as practice — the Buddha's teaching that friendship and community isn't half the path. It's the whole thing.

 
About Bart van Melik: Bart van Melik is a meditation teacher and guiding teacher at Community Meditation Center, a global and local community that meets weekly via Zoom. Monthly sessions are donation-based and open to all. Learn more at https://www.cmc-ny.org/.



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Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.

Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.

 
To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

Six steps to reclaim your brain, find purpose, and escape the doom loop.
 
Arthur Brooks is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness. Brooks is the author of 15 books, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers, Build the Life You Want, co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, and From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. His latest book is The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. 



In this episode we talk about:
The three essential components of a meaningful life
Getting comfortable with boredom 
Why we need to be asking questions that google can't answer
The neuroscience behind "authentic love" 
Strategies for finding meaning in your work 
What Arthur means when he says "don't waste your suffering"

 
Get the 10% with Dan Harris app here
Sign up for Dan's free newsletter here
Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
 
Additional Resources: 
Office Hours with Arthur Brooks


 
Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.
 
This episode is sponsored by:
LinkedIn Ads — Reach the right professionals with precision targeting. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit at http://www.linkedin.com/happier
BetterHelp — Online therapy, matched to your needs. Get 10% off your first month at https://www.betterhelp.com/happier
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Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson — A podcast exploring ADHD, neurodivergence, and mental health through conversations with scientists, doctors, and researchers. Search for Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson wherever you get your podcasts.
To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris