Feel Your Feelings, Drop the Story | Sebene Selassie
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why forcing the breath backfires and how to use the four elements to get out of your head.
Breath meditation sounds simple in theory. In practice, many meditators find that the moment they pay attention to their breathing, it starts to feel forced, shallow, or just plain weird. In this live session, Dan and Sebene Selassie dig into why that happens — and what to do about it.
They also answer subscriber questions on shame and how to work with it skillfully, the RAIN technique, breaking the cycle of rumination, and Sebene's beloved elements practice as a tool for embodiment. Plus: an unexpectedly lively digression on colonoscopy prep and the nature of being with discomfort.
If you want to go deeper with Dan and Sebene, check out their Audible Original, Even You Can Meditate, available now.
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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. Grab your in-person spot here, or sign up to livestream here!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:07.9 | Hello, party people. How are we doing today? Today we're going to talk about how to deal with shame, what to do when your mind won't stop ruminating, a technique for managing strong negative emotions, an ancient Buddhist practice for getting out of your head and into your body, and how to handle it when you feel like you cannot meditate on your breath. |
| 0:38.3 | There is also in this conversation a fairly extended detour into colonoscopy prep that I did not see coming, |
| 0:44.6 | but you'll understand when we get there. |
| 0:46.8 | My guest is the meditation teacher and author, Sabine Selassi. |
| 0:51.2 | Seb and I recently co-wrote and co-recorded an Audible, so an audio book that you can get over on Audible. |
| 0:57.5 | It's called Even You Can Meditate. |
| 0:59.6 | You should go check it out over on Audible. |
| 1:01.7 | What you're about to hear, though, is a live Q&A that Seb and I did with subscribers to my newish meditation app, 10% with Dan Harris. |
| 1:10.6 | If you haven't done it already, you can sign up for |
| 1:12.4 | the app over at Danharris.com. Also, heads up if you want to meditate with me in person. I've got two |
| 1:18.0 | events coming up on May 17th. I'll be at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. I'll guide a meditation |
| 1:23.6 | and take your questions. Then on October 16th through 18th, Sabine and I, along with our friend Jeff Warren, |
| 1:30.5 | will be doing our annual meditation party retreat. |
| 1:33.8 | It's a weekend thing up at the Omega Institute in upstate New York. |
| 1:37.3 | Links for both events are in the show notes. |
| 1:40.5 | All right. |
| 1:40.8 | We'll get started with Sabine Selassi right after this. |
| 1:47.1 | Hello, Sabine Selassi. How we doing? |
| 1:49.5 | Hey, Dan Harris. I'm good. |
| 1:51.3 | We got a lot of questions about meditating on the breath. This is an issue I've had myself. |
| 1:58.1 | So I'll just read some of the questions and then said you can respond on the back end. This first one's from Tom. I've been doing one form of meditation or another |
... |
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