This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, gang, how we doing? I think a lot about how I would talk to the version of me at 30 or 35, a guy who was kidless, obsessed with fitness, obsessed with his career, massively ambitious.

That dude would have been deeply skeptical of the idea of speaking to himself lovingly, which is what we're going to talk about on the podcast today.

So what would I say to that version of myself?

I think what I would say is, bro, get over yourself.

There is a ton of scientific evidence to show that rewiring your inner dialogue and counter programming against your inner critic has pretty serious psychological and physiological benefits.

It'll probably help you with your overall fitness and your career and your general levels of happiness.

I might also quote something I heard secondhand from a meditation teacher.

This is apparently something a meditation teacher said to a frustrated student who didn't like loving kindness meditation.

The teacher said, if you can't be cheesy, you can't be free.

So anyway, that's, I think, what I would say to the old me.

And it's what I would say to you, if you have any skepticism about the seemingly cheesy,

but very much evidence-based notion of rewiring your inner dialogue. Today, we're going to talk

about a four-part Buddhist practice designed to help you change your relationship with yourself,

not in a self-indulgent way, but in a way that makes you a better and more

constructive player in the world. As it's often said, if you can't transform your demons,

you're just going to transmit them. The aforementioned four-step process is called

Beginning an New, and our guide for this process is Sister D. She's an incredible person. She's got

an incredible story. She was born in Vietnam during the war, the daughter of a Vietnamese mother and American soldier. She lost her mom at the age of 12 and then immigrated to the U.S. where she lived in foster homes, learned English, and went on to get a medical degree from the University of California and San Francisco. After practicing medicine

for many years and dealing with even more hardships in her life, she ultimately became a Buddhist

nun in the plum village tradition founded by the late Zen master, Tignat Khan.

Sister Dee has written several books, including healing and also mindfulness as medicine.

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