Happiness Break: Moving Through Space, With Dacher Keltner

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Moving meditations can help reduce stress and boost self-awareness. Improve your ability to sense your body in space with this 7-minute proprioception meditation.

Link to episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/ynkdywbn

How to Do This Practice:

Find a comfortable place where you can move your arms freely. This practice can be completed sitting or standing. If you choose to stand, avoid locking your knees by bending them slightly.
Begin by taking deep breaths, drawing your attention to your body in the present moment.
Balance your posture by grounding evenly through your feet, leveling your pelvis, and straightening your back.
Focus your attention on your arms, starting from your shoulders down to your fingertips. Bring your palms to touch in front of your heart, inhale and lift them upwards to meet above your head. Exhale and bring them towards your heart.
Repeat this cycle 2-3 more times, focusing on noticing how your body moves through space.

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Dacher Keltner is the host of the award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness and is a co-instructor of the GGSC’s popular online course of the same name. He’s also the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the UC, Berkeley.

Check out Dacher’s most recent book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/4j4hcvyt

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

Finding Delight Through Your 5 Senses (The Science of Happiness Podcast): https://tinyurl.com/3bszfww2

How to Gain Freedom from Your Thoughts: https://tinyurl.com/hp8s5wv6

10 Steps to Savoring the Good Things in Life: https://tinyurl.com/y9636sku

Why Physical Touch Matters for Your Well-Being: https://tinyurl.com/m2ea524m

How to Deal with Sensory Overload as a Sensitive Person: https://tinyurl.com/y7epvsmu

We love hearing from you! How did you find this moving meditation? Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/525rtxt9

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/525rtxt9

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

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0:00.0	Welcome to Happiness Break, where we take a break to try practice shown to support our
0:10.4	well-being, from cultivating more compassion to being more present in the body.
0:15.4	I'm Dacker Keltner.
0:18.2	Today we'll try a moving meditation and it's actually an extension of last week's episode
0:23.9	of The Science of Happiness, where we explore ways to enhance our five senses, to get more
0:29.6	enjoyment out of the world.
0:32.9	We're going to explore our ability to sense where our body is in space, proprioception.
0:40.0	In moving embodied meditations like yoga or Tai Chi, we often use this sense as a pathway
0:45.4	towards mindfulness.
0:47.1	By contemplating the movement of our bodies through space in the present moment, we cultivate
0:51.6	a higher body awareness, and that can lead to less anxiety and depression.
0:57.0	It helps us manage the daily stresses of life, it even helps us sleep better and seek
1:01.3	out more exercise.
1:03.1	So find somewhere you feel comfortable moving your arms.
1:05.9	We're going to go through a series of gentle movements.
1:10.1	You can do this practice sitting or standing.
1:15.7	Let's begin.
1:19.2	If you're standing, bring a slight bend to your knees, just so you're not locking
1:23.4	them.
1:25.1	Now together, let's take a few deep breaths.
1:44.6	As we move through this practice, you might notice some thoughts floating into your mind.
1:49.5	That's okay.
	...

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