Hey everyone. Welcome to being well. I'm Forrest Hansen. You might be asking yourself,

wait a second, wasn't there already an episode this week and why yes there was. And I hope you took the time

to listen to our conversation on Monday that was focused on the natural experiences of

sadness and disappointment that are pretty common for many people this time of year.

And they're probably particularly common during this uniquely strange holiday season.

I've wanted to add the occasional second episode a week for a while now to create the space for something a little different from our normal long-form conversations.

This might include meditations and practices, like the one that you'll find in this episode today

or what I'm tentatively calling 10 good minutes, which will be relatively short,

you know, 10 minute explainer episodes where I'll give an overview of a particular topic or some key psychological practice or idea.

If there's something else you'd like to see from these second episodes, you can let me know through one of our social accounts or you can send us an email at

contact at being well podcast dot com.

So today given the holiday it felt appropriate to start with a guided meditation from

Rick focused on finding and taking pleasure. Even in the course of a very

good life we all experience suffering. And even when we're surrounded by challenges, much else is also true. This could include the kindness, other people

extend to you, it could be having a safe place to sleep at night, and many of the everyday

things that are actually pretty miraculous when you start thinking about them,

whether it's water that falls from the sky or light that appears at the flick of a switch or whatever else.

You can also take pleasure in your own good efforts and your own good heart. You can be grateful for those things.

Before we start, I want to emphasize that taking pleasure isn't just a self-centered

exercise. Gratitude comes with a host of psychological benefits. Many of these benefits insulate us against challenging times, like the one we're in now.

And when we become more resilient ourselves, it's so much easier to help other people as they experience their own challenges.

So on that note, I hope that you enjoy this short guided meditation from Rick. Here we go. This is a meditation on taking pleasure through experiencing wholesome pleasures that we internalize,

...