How To Handle 4 AM Worry Spirals | Bart van Melik

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.6 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2026

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A conversation with self-described "worry warrior" Bart van Melik about working skillfully with everyday anxiety.

Bart is a guiding teacher at the Community Meditation Center in New York and our Teacher of the Month for January. In this conversation with executive producer DJ Cashmere, he gets refreshingly honest about his own tendency to worry — and shares a bunch of practical tools for when your mind won't stop spinning through worst-case scenarios.

We talk about:

Why mindful breathing sometimes doesn't work (and what to do instead)
The practice phrase "this wants to be seen right now"
How to work with your aversion to worrying (which can be worse than the worry itself)
Why talking about your fears with other people is so crucial
The question "what is this?" as a low-barrier entry point to awareness
How the Buddha's teaching on clinging shows up in anxious thinking
Why community and sangha aren't optional extras

If you want more from Bart, check out the 10% with Dan Harris app where he's got meditations and live sessions throughout January.

Get the 10% with Dan Harris app here

Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.
0:19.9	Hey, gang, today we are talking about one of my favorite hobbies, worrying.
0:24.3	Our guest is so good at worrying that he calls himself a worry warrior.
0:29.9	However, said guest is also a veteran Dharma teacher, which means he also has a bunch of tools for working with worry skillfully.
0:37.4	The guest in question is
0:38.5	Bart Van Mellick. He's a guiding teacher at the Community Meditation Center in New York. He's also
0:44.3	our teacher of the month over on our new app, 10% with Dan Harris, which means Bart will be
0:50.2	creating new meditations and also appearing in some of our weekly live meditation and Q&A sessions.
0:56.5	If you want to sign up, head on over to Dan Harris.com.
0:59.4	There's a free 14-day trial if you want to try before you buy.
1:03.0	We'll get started with Bart Van Mellick in conversation with the executive producer of this show, DJ Kashmir, right after this.
1:11.1	It's a new year, and I want to recommend a podcast to you hosted by a friend and somebody I
1:16.5	really admire. It's called The Happiness Lab with Dr. Lori Santos. And she's got a whole series
1:23.4	running right now that I think will be very useful for anybody interested in using the
1:30.0	beginning of this year to start healthy habits or end unhealthy ones. Many of us feel stuck right
1:35.7	now, caught in routines, habits and thought patterns that are just not working. On the latest
1:40.6	season of the Happiness Lab, they're diving into the science of getting unstuck,
1:44.8	improving your energy, embracing change, sparking creativity, and finding more meaning in everyday life.
1:50.8	Each week features a different expert, Dr. Diana Hill on using your energy wisely, Maya Shunker,
1:56.4	on navigating change, David Brooks on The Power of Connection, George Newman on creative breakthroughs,
2:02.2	and Bill Burnett and Dave Evans on designing a more purposeful year.
2:06.0	If you want 2026 to feel different, listen to the Happiness Lab and start the new year with a fresh mindset.
	...

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