How To Handle Exhaustion, Disconnection, and Physical Pain | Meditation with Bart van Melik

A short, gentle body scan meditation from Bart van Melik https://www.bartvanmelik.com/, our Teacher of the Month for January. This isn't about fixing anything or achieving some special state. It's about finding one small place in your body that feels okay—not great, just okay—and seeing what happens when you meet that experience with a little bit of kindness. Bart is a meditation teacher and psychotherapist who has trained in Insight Meditation and Buddhist psychology. He's worked extensively in clinical settings with people dealing with stress, anxiety, and harsh self-talk. He's the guiding teacher for the Community Meditation Center https://www.cmc-ny.org/our-team in New York City. Check out more meditations from Bart throughout January in the 10% with Dan Harris app http://app.danharris.com/. Related episodes: Buddhist Strategies for Protecting Yourself from Everyday Chaos | Bart van Melik https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/10-happier-with-dan-harris/id1087147821?i=1000744661523 Join Dan's online community here http://www.danharris.com/ Follow Dan on social: Instagram https://bit.ly/3tGigG5, TikTok https://bit.ly/3FOA84J Subscribe to our YouTube Channel https://bit.ly/3FybRzD To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Dan Harris?

  This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

• 0:19Dan Harris?

  Hello, everybody. Today, we've got a short guided meditation from my friend Bart Van Melik, who is our Teacher of the Month for January over on the 10% app, our meditation app. Fair warning, nothing dramatic is going to happen here. You're not aiming for bliss, or insight, or an upgrade of your personality. The practice we're going to do today is simple. It's about just noticing the body as it is, finding one small place that feels okay. Not great, just okay. And then we're going to see what happens when you can relate to that experience with just a little bit of kindness. So there's no fixing, no forcing, no pressure here. This is a low-key meditation. Just a little bit more about Bart. He's a

• 1:03Dan Harris?

  meditation teacher and psychotherapist, who comes at all of this stuff in a very practical way. He has trained in insight meditation and Buddhist psychology, and he's worked in clinical settings with people dealing with stress, anxiety, and a lot of harsh self-talk. If you want to get more meditations from Bart and many of the other amazing teachers we work with, check out my new meditation app, 10% with Dan Harris. You also get this podcast with no ads, and weekly live meditation and Q&A sessions with me and many of the aforementioned teachers. Come join us. We're going to take a quick break, and we'll be right back with Bart's meditation.

• 1:45Dan Harris?

  If you care about supporting independent media, and if you care about being a node of sanity in an insane world, there are a few quick, easy, and free ways that you can support me and my team, which I would be really grateful for. One way to do it is to sign up for my newsletter, which comes out on Monday mornings. It's a little dose of sanity in your inbox at the beginning of a busy week. The second way to do it is to follow and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening or watching right now. That really helps. Three, share your favorite episode with a friend. This is a great and low stakes way to connect with somebody in your orbit. And not for nothing, it also helps us grow. And all of these things take about 30 seconds and they really do help. You will be supporting me and my team and our mission.

• 2:30Dan Harris?

  And I, as I said, would be immensely grateful. You can find everything we do at danharris.com. It's all right there. Thank you. I mean that seriously. We'll be right back with more show. If you care about supporting independent media and if you care about being a node of sanity in an insane world, there are a few quick, easy and free ways that you can support me and my team, which I would be really grateful for. One way to do it is to sign up for my newsletter, which comes out on Monday mornings. It's a little dose of sanity in your inbox at the beginning of a busy week. The second way to do it is to follow and subscribe to the show wherever you're listening or watching right now. That really helps. Three, share your favorite episode with a friend.

• 3:12Dan Harris?

  This is a great and low stakes way to connect with somebody in your orbit. And not for nothing, it also helps us grow. And all of these things take about 30 seconds and they really do help. You will be supporting me and my team and our mission. And I, as I said, would be immensely grateful. You can find everything we do at danharris.com. It's all right there. Thank you. I mean that seriously. We'll be right back with more show.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  And take a slow, gentle breath in.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  And as you exhale, feel the body landing wherever it is.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  And let gravity do its work.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  And pause.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Noticing the weight of the body being supported by the chair, the floor, the bed.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  Feeling the contact points.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  And maybe there's warmth or pressure tingling.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Maybe there's nothing much at all. That's okay.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Even here, just by being,

• 4:47Speaker 01

  the body's already doing so much.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  The heart is beating.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  The lungs are moving.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  Pause.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Now see if you can find one small area that feels okay right now.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  Not amazing, not blissful, just okay.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  Maybe it's the hands.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  Or the feet.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Or the face.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  Perhaps it's the shoulder or the belly.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Letting awareness rest there.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Letting kind awareness rest there.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  Feel what it's like to let something be good enough.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  And can you let that small pocket of ease spread, just a little?

• 7:05Speaker 01

  Imagine it moving like sunlight across the skin.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Or like a soft hand resting on the lap.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Pause.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Relax.

• 7:52Speaker 01

  Now bringing to mind this question. What would kindness do right now?

• 8:07Speaker 01

  If kindness were breathing this breath, how would it breathe?

• 8:23Speaker 01

  If kindness were sitting in this body, how would it sit?

• 8:40Speaker 01

  If kindness were looking at this body, what tone of voice would it use?

• 8:56Speaker 01

  What would kindness do right now?

• 9:31Speaker 01

  There's nothing to fix, nothing to attain,

• 9:37Speaker 01

  nothing to push through,

• 9:41Speaker 01

  only curiosity,

• 9:44Speaker 01

  only care.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Just this kind awareness that knows the body is alive right now.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  What happens to your experience of the body

• 10:36Speaker 01

  when you meet it with kindness and awareness?

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Is there a release or a softening?

• 10:47Speaker 01

  Perhaps a judgment?

• 10:50Speaker 01

  Can all be known right here, right now?

• 11:24Speaker 01

  What would kindness do? Right now?

• 11:31Speaker 01

  You're resting in this reflection.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Knowing the body is right here with you. It's real.

• 11:58Speaker 01

  Can you offer it kindness, appreciation, or gratitude?

• 12:04Speaker 01

  Not because it looks or performs in a certain way, but because it lets you be here.

• 12:31Speaker 01

  Take one more slow, kind breath.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  Feel the whole body as a single living field. Messy, tender, miraculous.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  When you're ready, opening your eyes or lift your gaze.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  Don't have to move or stretch or run.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  Just notice that you are embodied.

• 13:12Dan Harris?

  Big thank you to Bart. Again, don't forget to sign up for my new meditation app, 10% with Dan Harris. You can get it at danharris.com or wherever you get your apps. There's a free 14-day trial if you want to try before you buy. Lots of great stuff over there. Guided meditations, this podcast ad-free, and weekly live video guided meditations and Q&A sessions with me and many of the other teachers. Really, it's a great way this app is to do meditation as a team sport, to do it in the carpool lane with me and the meditation teachers and all of the other members. It's just a super supportive community, which the research shows is a great way to create an abiding habit. Join the party.

• 13:57Dan Harris?

  And thank you to everybody who worked so hard to make this show. Our producers are Tara Anderson and Eleanor Vasili. Our recording and engineering is handled by the great folks over at Pod People. Lauren Smith is our managing producer. Marissa Schneiderman is our senior producer. DJ Cashmere is our executive producer. And Nick Thorburn of the band Islands wrote our theme.

• 14:25Speaker 02

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