Ten Percent Weekly
Ten Percent Happier’s free weekly newsletter, the Ten Percent Weekly, features original essays by our teachers on happiness, meditation, and the mindful life, plus updates on new content in the app, new podcast episodes, and upcoming events. Enter your email to subscribe – your address will not be shared with anyone else.
Featured Weekly Articles
The Power Of Equanimity
In today's society, “equanimity” probably doesn't describe what people are striving for. But what power does embracing equanimity through mindfulness hold?
Mindfulness vs Meditation: What's the Difference Between Meditation and Mindfulness?
Mindfulness vs Meditation: Explore the difference between meditation and mindfulness at Ten Percent Happier. Learn about meditation and mindfulness exercises here.
Accepting Life’s Ups and Downs
Recently, we asked Ten Percent Happier app subscribers what topics they most wanted to hear about. One of the responses we received the most, in various forms, was “how can I be more accepting of life’s ups and downs?”
To me, this simple-on-its-surface response says quite a lot about the relationship of meditation to, well, just plain advice. And why, at least in my experience, meditation has a lot more to offer.
Write a Forgiveness Letter
Forgiveness isn’t about excusing someone else’s behavior. It’s about letting go of resentment.
The Moldy Fridge of Shame
What can you do if you get walloped by an attack of shame? Seized by the talons of a poisonous inner critic? When you’ve had a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day,” as the classic children’s book puts it? These are my favorite tweaks:
No Mud, No Lotus
The lotus flower, a symbol of awakening in Buddhist and other spiritual traditions, blooms in the muckiest, muddiest swamps. Its roots begin under the swamp water and its buds reach their way to the surface where they burst forth into stunning pink or white flowers. If you want the beauty of the lotus flower, there is no getting around the mud.
Pain x Resistance = Suffering
This may sound weird, but meditation has taught me that you can have joy even when you have pain.
In the beginning, most of us start meditating to eliminate our pain. I know I did. I wanted to get rid of my sadness and fear. But meditation doesn’t eliminate pain -- it eliminates suffering.
What’s the difference?
Meditation and Neuroscience: Unlocking the Science Behind Mindfulness
Studies in the field of neuroscience have shed light on the tangible effects meditation can exert on the brain and even help with reducing chronic pain. From the first studies in Western scientific literature in the 1950s and 60s to the present, scientists have investigated meditation’s effects on the body and mind.
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An Introduction to Walking Meditation
When meditation is depicted visually, it’s almost always in a picture of someone sitting down, usually with eyes closed. And, it’s true, sitting and paying attention to your breath is probably the most common form of meditation today.
But sitting has a serious downside: it takes time and space to do it. Whether you’re devoting five minutes or forty-five minutes to meditation, that’s time you’ve got to carve out of your day.
Don't Try to Avoid the Mud
In Vermont, where I live, there are six seasons—the usual four, plus stick season (that long stretch from mid-October to the first snows, when the trees are bare and the landscape grey) and mud season, which is now.
May I Meet This, Too, With Kindness
Author and meditation teacher Amanda Gilbert shares a simple phrase to help you meet every thought, every moment, and every person with kindness.
Meditation and Neuroscience: Unlocking the Science Behind Mindfulness
Studies in the field of neuroscience have shed light on the tangible effects meditation can exert on the brain and even help with reducing chronic pain. From the first studies in Western scientific literature in the 1950s and 60s to the present, scientists have investigated meditation’s effects on the body and mind.
Sacred Rest
Experiencing peace need not be an arduous journey of endless work, but rather a moment-by-moment effort of resting.
Caring for Trauma with Compassion
In a recent study of over 3,000 people, the American Psychological Association reported that we are now seeing a nation impacted by collective trauma, which can follow dramatic events or long-term circumstances—such as the millions of deaths from the pandemic, climate-related disasters, global conflicts, and racism. In one way or another, trauma touches us all.
Get Your Hopes Up
When you’ve told yourself not to get your hopes up, were you totally fine when you didn’t get what you wanted because you had reminded yourself, ad nauseum, to not get your hopes up?
Lessons from a Year of Solitude
At the end of the summer of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, rising global temperatures and raging wildfires, in the midst of a hot mess of violence and protests on the streets of America, I set out on a solitary meditation retreat for a year. I brought with me my own hot mess: a body run down and twisted in knots from having had Lyme disease for eight years, and a mind that was angsty and foggy—like a feral-but-tranquilized cat.
What to Do When Your Mind Wanders
If you’ve ever meditated, you may have noticed that your mind likes to wander. In fact, many people who subscribe to this very newsletter tell us that they can’t meditate because their mind is always wandering.
But this is a myth! And if it’s keeping you from meditation, please read on.
Meditation in Troubled Times
There’s an old Zen saying: “The world is topsy-turvy.”
Who is not aware of this today? The state of the world is painful to everyone. The world careens onward in its topsy-turvy course, causing a pervasive sense of inward dread many of us can’t afford to entertain.
4 Questions to Diffuse the Inner Critic
“Is my heart open or closed? Am I suffering or am I free? Am I feeling empowered or disempowered? And am I feeling connected or disconnected?
Opening to the Fullness of Life
In our New Year’s Challenge, a member of the Ten Percent Happier community drops the hard truth of what it means to get into meditation. We’re sharing an excerpt about her experience below, along with follow up from meditation teachers Matthew Hepburn and Cara Lai.
Freedom from the Infinite Scroll
“I don’t have time,” I tell my friends, “to do anything anymore.” When I’m not taking care of the baby, I’m cleaning something. When I’m not working, I’m trying to catch up on sleep. But I conveniently fail to remember the 45 minutes (or was it an hour and 45 minutes?) I spent on my phone today, reading reviews for electric toothbrush heads on Amazon, looking at old photos, and asking Google questions like “does Raffi have kids?” and “is it normal to pee every hour?” .
Help for the Holidays
We are approaching the longest nights of the year, and, not coincidentally, the time when many cultures and religions celebrate light, love, and the sacred.
For many people, the good cheer and family time of the holiday season brings light to the darkness outside. Yet for many others, the holiday season can be profoundly challenging. Some of us are alone, while others are with family members with whom we have difficult relationships. Some of us love Christmas music, decorations, and shopping, while others feel alienated or excluded by those things. Despite what commercials suggest, there’s no one right way to feel at this time of year!
Wherever you find yourself this holiday season, I want to encourage you to bring mindfulness and meditation with you – and Ten Percent has resources that can help.
The Power of Joy
I’m mildly obsessed with joy. I like to say that suffering is what brought me through the door to meditation, but joy is what has kept me around.
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2020
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