10% Happier with Dan Harris

The title is The Good Enough Job and it's an allusion to this theory that was devised by this British pediatrician named Donald Winacott in the mid-20th century.

And so thinking about a job as good enough way to support the life that you want to live as opposed to the central access around which the rest of your life orbits might be formula for more fulfillment and happiness in the long run.

And I think the argument that I'm making is about the value of diversifying our sources of identity and meaning.

So many Americans are turning to the place where they spend the majority of their time, the workplace to fulfill all of these needs of belonging and community and identity and purpose. And I argue that this isn't necessarily a burden our jobs are designed to bear.

And I think what I'm trying to advocate for is a middle path for a way to treat our jobs as a way to support our vision of a life well lived as opposed to the other way around.

It's been made to me by previous guests like Alex Sujong Kim, who wrote a book called Rest and he talked about how Rest and Work are two sides of the same coin and by Rest he doesn't mean just napping he means also active Rest hobbies could be for woodworking or hiking or exercise or whatever that will make you better at your job.

He and I co-wrote a book called Meditation for Figuity Skeptics.

he has written a bunch of books one of them is called Tattoos on the Heart anyway I asked him once about this and he said I don't believe in evil I believe in bad behavior

Our first guest is a guy named Simone Stahlsoff author of a new book called The Good Enough Job

Her first book was called There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather, a Scandinavian mom's secret for raising healthy, resilient and confident children.

So that's where the saying There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather only bad clothing comes in which is frequently used over here especially with children who don't want to go outside.

I wrote my first book, There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather and it just started advocating and speaking about the importance for children to be outside all year around but it's not just for kids, it's important for us adults too.

She's written several books including The Little Book of Being and the book that we will be talking about today which is called Fully Present, The Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness. She co-authored that with Susan Smiley and it's now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

In your newly reissued book you talk a little bit about mindfulness as a trait and mindfulness as a state can you untangle those two concepts?

sure okay so the book is Fully Present the science art and practice of mindfulness co-written with Sue Smalley which was published first about 10 years ago and now we have a second edition that's come out with a new afterward updating some of the science and just about the mindfulness feel

I have also written the little book of being practices and guidance for uncovering your natural awareness I have a course on that called glimpses of being that's like more of an audiobook and then Wide Awake a Buddhist guide for teens which I wrote 20 years ago and I'm going to update that because there's nothing about technology in it 20 years ago

But with people like Jack Cornfield, the Path With Heart, Sharon Salzburg, Levinge Kindness.

In fact, he wrote a whole book on the power of mindfulness called Healing America

and he has a special talent for talking about the benefits of the practice in an utterly unaffected and down to earth way.

were almost at every event somebody would come up and say, hey, I read your book

Together, they're out with a new book called The Power of Awe: Overcome Burnout & Anxiety, Ease Chronic Pain, Find Clarity & PurposeIn Less Than 1 Minute Per Day.

This was after she read the book that was written by the two guests today.

I think their work is going to revolutionize mindfulness.

The book is called The Power of Awe and then the subtitle is Overcome Burnout and Anxiety, Ease Chronic Pain, Fine Clarity in Purpose in less than a minute per day. And I read that I was like, really?

So I get it publishers are well intentioned but sometimes misguided.

These rude, brute facts about the human animal I think are a big part of why so many people who want to meditate do not actually meditate in the nearly 9-1,5 years since my first book 10-percent happier came out.

Our guests Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen talk about their new book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.

The way they use the word it's basically interchangeable with beauty so it can encompass not only a death march through a huge museum but also music, dance, books, plays, movies, TV, food, architecture, gardening, humming in the shower and being in nature.

Just 20 minutes of art a day is as beneficial as exercise and mindfulness.

participating in one art experience per month can extend your life by 10 years.

The book is called Your Brain on Art how the arts transform us and we have a website www.yourbrainonart.com which we post and share stories and we have a place where we'd love to hear your stories.

Alex Sujung Kim Pang who wrote a book called Rest that had a huge impression on me we'll put a link to his interview in the show notes

One of my most influential teachers, Narayan Liebinson, at times describes the confidence she's developed from a lifetime of meditation practice as feeling don'tless.

What she means is that if we don't know how we're going to face the challenges life will inevitably throw at us, thinking about our future is going to feel daunting.

But when we've learned the meditative approach of taking it one moment at a time, we begin to recognize that we can take on anything life throws at us. Come what may as she likes to say.

We fed all of it into the world's most advanced AI GPT-3 and then they asked GPT-3 some big questions about the meaning of life and how to do life better and they described the resulting book which is called What Makes Us Human and Artificial Intelligence answers life's biggest questions.

I took a whole bunch of different spiritual texts that would have appealed to someone like my mom who was very spiritual. I had a text from the Bible, the Dalt-Aching, the poetry of Rumi, some Lena Cohen lyrics and I said to you know how do I explain death to my children. And it came back with this incredibly poetic response.

The book came out What Makes Us Human.

I think the appeal of AI and the fact that it speaks as a crowd is appealing but it's an illusion.

Well the book is called What Makes Us Human. It was published by Sons True. It's available I think everywhere so please go out and get it.

my novel look at me is actually connected to goons squad and candy house

a gothic thriller called The Keep

and a story collection Emerald City

God the name of the movie is a good person. This is something I've asked myself a lot am I a good person.

I wanted to write something about these feelings. I didn't know the story that would come out of it. I didn't want to tell them my specific stories but I wanted to write about grief. I wanted to write about standing back up. I wanted to write about hope.