Think You Suck at Meditation? This Conversation Could Help. | Ofosu Jones-Quartey

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Dan Harris, Health & Fitness, Mindfulness, Dharma, Mental Health, Meditation

4.6 • 12.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How to (constructively) lower the bar on your meditation practice.

Ofosu Jones-Quartey is a meditation teacher, hip-hop artist, and author based in the DC area. He’s a certified teacher with over 20 years of experience bringing mindfulness, self-compassion, and creativity to people of all ages. His stage name is “Born I,”, and his new book is called Lyrical Dharma: Hip-Hop as Mindfulness.

In this episode we talk about:

The definition of open-awareness meditation
How it differs from classical concentration practices (such as focusing on your breath, or loving kindness phrases)
Why Ofosu chose open-awareness meditation (in direct response to his struggles with OCD)
How you can practice open-awareness meditation
The benefits of a technique called “mental noting”
The “practice self-assessment tapes” that we run in our mind
Self-compassion and “lowering the bar” in your meditation practice
The relationship between neurodiversity and meditation in general
How to depersonalize the experience of suffering
And we hear some of Ofosu’s music and the life experiences that inspired it

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Additional Resources:

Lyrical Dharma Music Playlist

Get ready for another Meditation Party at Omega Institute! This in-person workshop brings together Dan with his friends and meditation teachers, Sebene Selassie, Jeff Warren, and for the first time, Ofosu Jones-Quartey. The event runs October 24th-26th. Sign up and learn more here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% Happier Podcast.
0:07.0	I'm Dan Harris.
0:08.0	Hey, gang, how we doing? One of the most common refrains I hear from people who come up to me on the street or at the airport is, I suck at meditation.
0:27.6	This is what people say to me all the time.
0:29.3	I suck at it.
0:30.0	I've tried it, but I can't do it.
0:31.7	Or I do it once in a while, but I'm no good.
0:34.5	If that's you, this episode is for you. My guest today is a prominent meditation teacher
0:40.2	who also suffers with obsessive compulsive disorder. In other words, his brain is not necessarily
0:45.2	the most hospitable place for meditation. And yet, he's been able to find a style of practice
0:51.5	and a general attitude about practice that have genuinely helped him.
0:56.2	And that I strongly suspect will help you.
0:59.6	To be clear, this conversation will be helpful, even if you feel like your meditation practice is singing.
1:04.2	We're going to get a little bit technical about a form of practice known as open awareness,
1:08.4	which is something I do myself pretty much every day.
1:10.6	My guest is
1:11.3	Afosu Jones Cortay. He's a meditation teacher, hip hop artist, an author and friend of mine. He's
1:17.6	based in the D.C. area. He's the male voice on the balance meditation app and a certified
1:22.0	teacher with over 20 years of experience, bringing mindfulness and self-compassion and
1:26.6	creativity to people of all ages.
1:29.0	Afosu is also, as I mentioned, a moment ago, a hip-hop artist. His stage name is born I. His music
1:36.4	has been streamed millions of times. In fact, he's got a new book of his Buddhist-inflicted lyrics
	...

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