meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Science of Happiness

Happiness Break: A Meditation for Groundedness, With Diana Parra (English & Spanish)

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.41.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Take a moment to ground yourself with this meditation that helps bring awareness to the relationship between ourselves and the earth beneath us.

También tenemos esta meditación en Español: está en nuestro podcast dondequiera que estés escuchando ahora mismo."

Link to episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/2p8vub46 (English)

https://tinyurl.com/muc82hj3 (Spanish)

How to Do This Practice:

  1. Find a comfortable position to start the practice, ensuring that your feet feel grounded.

  2. Focus on your breath, and how the air moves from your chest out through your nose.

  3. Notice how the bottoms of your feet are connected to the earth, and how your body is supported and sustained by the earth beneath you.

  4. If any distractions arise, refocus your attention on your breathing and the points of contact between your body and the surface beneath you.

  5. Complete this practice by expressing a sense of gratitude for the earth and our ability to reground ourselves within it.

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Diana Parra is professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is also a registered mindfulness and yoga teacher who focuses on sharing these practices with the Latino immigrant community in St Louis.

Learn more about Diana Parra’s work: https://tinyurl.com/4acc7nsv

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

Five Ways Mindfulness Meditation Is Good for Your Health: https://tinyurl.com/3f79nsav

Can Mindfulness Help When You’re Depressed? https://tinyurl.com/yc7heja3

Does Mindfulness Make You More Compassionate? https://tinyurl.com/4beawh8b

How to Practice Mindfulness Throughout Your Work Day: https://tinyurl.com/y8ftbcrz

How Mindfulness Improves Sleep: https://tinyurl.com/2tunpkjb

We love hearing from you! Did this practice help you feel more grounded? Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus

Help us share Happiness Break! Rate us and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — we all could use a break to feel better. That's where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Happiness Break, where we take a short break to try a practice shown by science

0:07.8

to help us live a happier and more meaningful life.

0:10.8

I'm Dacker Keltner, and today's meditation is a special one for me.

0:15.2

It's a grounding practice where we'll use lab-tested mindfulness techniques to drop into

0:21.4

a calmer frame of mind and quell our reactive and reminitive thought patterns so we can

0:26.7

enjoy this present moment.

0:29.9

mindfulness practices help us handle the stresses of life from PTSD to the daily stresses

0:35.5

that can occupy our minds, they help our bodies, they can elevate vagal tone and reduce

0:41.9

pain symptoms, and then mindfulness practices help our social relationships.

0:45.9

They make us more empathetic and forgiving with other people.

0:50.3

But the reason this meditation is so special is because for the first time we're offering

0:54.6

it in both English and Spanish, and we're working on more Spanish language resources

0:59.4

as well, so stay tuned.

1:01.7

If you're a Spanish speaker, check out the Spanish version of this meditation in our thread,

1:06.2

and share it with your Spanish-speaking friends and family.

1:09.3

Our Meditation Guide today is Deanna Potter.

1:12.2

Deanna is a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

1:15.7

She's also an experienced mindfulness and yoga teacher, so find somewhere comfortable

1:20.5

and settle in.

1:24.6

Here's Deanna.

1:30.4

Hello everybody, my name is Deanna Barra.

1:36.1

Most of my efforts for the past 10 years have been in bringing many of these practices,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PRX and Greater Good Science Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of PRX and Greater Good Science Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.