10% Happier with Dan Harris Folgen

Do you find yourself overeating during this stressful time? Maybe drinking or smoking more than you would like? What about shopping or gambling? And how's your relationship to your phone these days? Our guest this episode, Dr. Judson Brewer, is an addiction psychiatrist - with a special interest in how mindfulness can help. He says we all sit somewhere on the spectrum of addiction. And when you add stress into the system- in this time of pandemic, recession and racial strife- many of us move the wrong way along the spectrum, toward hardcore addiction. And of course, for people who already have full blown addictions, the current conditions can be an utter disaster. But again, Jud has good news. He's used mindfulness and meditation to treat people with addictions to cigarettes, food, and opioids. He is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center at the School of Medicine at Brown University. He has written a book, called The Craving Mind, and founded three apps to help people with eating, smoking cessation, and anxiety. Before we dive in, I want to mention that we recorded this episode a few weeks ago - right before the recent protests. As you will hear, though, this conversation is still fully relevant. With that said, here we go with Jud Brewer. Where to find Jud Brewer online: Website: https://drjud.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/judbrewer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/judson.brewer.9 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6bQu-Df7Wh2x3gFT5a8aw Other Resources Mentioned: Borkovec's model of GAD - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3073849/#:~:text=Borkovec's%20model%20of%20GAD%20 Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors: A Clinician's Guide - https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Based-Relapse-Prevention-Addictive-Behaviors/dp/1606239872 New Research Shows Results for Smartphone Intervention for Obesity - https://osher.ucsf.edu/news/new-research-shows-results-smartphone-intervention-obesity Eat Right Now - https://goeatrightnow.com/ Craving to Quit - https://www.cravingtoquit.com/ Unwinding Anxiety - https://www.unwindinganxiety.com/ Additional Resources: Ten Percent Happier Live: https://tenpercent.com/live Coronavirus Sanity Guide: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide Free App access for Frontline Workers: https://tenpercent.com/care Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/jud-brewer-258

I had always known Harriet Tubman as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, repeatedly risking her own life to lead slaves out of the South. But in this episode, my friend, the great meditation teacher Spring Washam, draws the link between Tubman and the Buddha, who also made it his business to lead people to freedom. Spring is teaching a new, five-week, online course called The Dharma of Harriet Tubman, through the East Bay Meditation Center. In the course, and in this interview, she uses stories from Tubman's life to teach the kind of meditation that will equip us with both the ferocity and warmth that we need in these trying times. Spring is one of the most important teachers for me in my own personal practice. We are an odd couple - she freely uses words such as "heart" and "soul." She likes to get all ooey-gooey and touchy-feely, with a giant side dish of shamanism. In fact, I often suspect that, since she knows this kind of talk makes me a little uncomfortable, she triples down on it when I'm around. But make no mistake, Spring is hardcore - both in terms of her meditation practice and her personal background. You can go back and listen to some of the prior episodes with her (we will put links in show notes), but the short version is that, in her upbringing, she experienced divorce, poverty, addiction, abuse, and racism - and emerged to be a meditation teacher and author (her book is called "A Fierce Heart"), and one of the most impressive human beings I have personally encountered. So if someone as badass as Spring is drawing inspiration from Harriet Tubman, so can we. Quick note: this conversation was initially scheduled just to be a personal phone call, but when I saw an email from Spring announcing the Harriet Tubman course, I asked her to let us use our scheduled time to record a podcast. Where to find Spring Washam online: Website: https://www.springwasham.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/springwasham Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teacher.springwasham/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/springwasham/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvoIv70jZKKXT2-ctKGhr7A Book Mentioned: A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage, and Wisdom in Any Moment https://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Heart-Finding-Strength-Courage/dp/1401959393?tag=smarturl-20 Check our our new, free collection of meditations called Relating to Race in the Ten Percent Happier app: https://10percenthappier.app.link/RelatingToRace Other Resources Mentioned: Register to Spring's course, The Dharma of Harriet Tubman & The Underground Railroad: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-dharma-of-harriet-tubman-and-the-underground-railroad-tickets-107495600234 Samsara: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra The Eightfold path: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path Siddhartha: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha Harriet (2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqoEs4cG6Uw Bodhisattva: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva The Underground Railroad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad Mahayana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana Bodhicitta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhicitta Additional Resources: Ten Percent Happier Live: https://tenpercent.com/live Coronavirus Sanity Guide: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide Free App access for Health Care Workers: https://tenpercent.com/care Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/spring-washam-257

In this episode, we go there. All the way there. All those horrifying little thoughts that white people might have - eg: Have you ever felt superior to, or suspicious of, black people? - let's drag them out of the subconscious and look at them. We don't need to submerge them or swat them away. But here's the thing: can we do it with some semblance of mindfulness and even friendliness? This isn't an exercise in ritual shaming; guilt and shame are just self-centeredness cul-de-sacs. After all, we didn't summon these thoughts; they were injected into us by the culture. So fellow white people, instead of just looking at the race discussion as something supremely discomfiting, let's also look at it as an opportunity to do what we've been attempting to do in meditation all along: to know our minds better so that we don't blindly act out all of our conditioning. Our guest this week is the magnificent Shelly Graf. Shelly was recommended to me by my TPH colleague, Matthew Hepburn. Shelly is a social worker and a staff dharma teacher at the Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis. To be clear, Shelly doesn't pretend to be an expert who has it all figured out - simply a meditation teacher who has committed to deeply engaging on the issue of race. So in that spirit, here we go: Shelly Graf. Where to find Shelly Graf online: Website: https://commongroundmeditation.org/ STwitter: https://twitter.com/cgmed Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CommonGroundMeditation/ Check our our new, free collection of meditations called Relating to Race in the Ten Percent Happier app: https://10percenthappier.app.link/RelatingToRace Other Resources Mentioned: Refuge (Buddhism) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refuge_(Buddhism) Karma in Buddhism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Buddhism Maitr? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitr%C4%AB Ruth King - https://ruthking.net/ Episode 164: Ruth King, Being Mindful of Race - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5p3BTgqKgke7PYSUbzvPrR Three Marks of Existence: Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence M?na - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81na Common Ground Meditation Center - https://commongroundmeditation.org/ The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture - https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-supremacy-culture-characteristics.html Detour-Spotting for White Anti-Racists - https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/olson.pdf List of resources from Resmaa Menakem - https://www.resmaa.com/resources Racial Affinity Group Development Program - https://ruthking.net/learning-with-ruth/ra-gdp/ Additional Resources: Ten Percent Happier Live: https://tenpercent.com/live Coronavirus Sanity Guide: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide Free App access for Health Care Workers: https://tenpercent.com/care Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/shelly-graf-256