This is the 10% Happier Podcast.

I'm Dan Harris.

Hello, everybody. How we doing? Today it's a brief, funny, and very useful conversation with the Dharma teacher Vinnie Ferraro, who's a fan favorite and a favorite of mine. We talk about how to handle stress with curiosity instead of judgment, whether it's possible or wise to cultivate compassion for people who've done real harm in the world, how to meditate

when you can't sit still, how to meditate without striving or overthinking, and the surprising

power of meditating with other people, even online. What you're about to hear is a recording

of one of our weekly live sessions that we do over on dan harris dot com these sessions are for our

paying subscribers but we're dropping this one for free as you'll hear it starts with a quick guided

meditation called a soft belly practice which is great for calming your nervous system and then we take

your question so if you don't want to meditate right now you can just fast forward through that

if you do want to meditate do that and then you can listen to the questions. Dealers' choice. By the way, if you want to come to our weekly live meditation and Q&A sessions, you can sign up over at Dan Harris.com. We do them every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. Our next one is on December 2nd. It will be me and our December teacher of the month, Jeff

Warren. All right. We'll get started with Vinnie Ferraro right after this. So we do like 10

minutes? Whatever you're feeling. If you feel like you want to go longer,

okay. All good. So my invitation is to let your attention turn inward.

If you want to close your eyes, it's a good way to do it.

If you want to just soften your gaze, it's another way to do it.

Just let awareness feel your body.

Feel your feet on the floor.

Contact with the chair of the cushion.

And don't try to meditate.

Just arrive.

Please rest. As we welcome ourselves into the present moment,

the first thing we do is soften any demands we have on this moment

...