10% Happier with Dan Harris

Buddhist tools for forgiveness, boredom, worry, and getting out of your head.
Meditation teacher Bart van Melik leads a live community Q&A — and the questions that come in are ones most meditators have quietly wrestled with for years.
Bart is the guiding teacher at Community Meditation Center in New York, where he leads weekly sessions grounded in Buddhist tradition. In this episode, he takes on four of the most common sticking points in practice: forgiveness, boredom, disconnection from the body, and the spiral of anxious "what if" thinking.
His approach throughout is warm, precise, and grounded — less about achieving a particular state and more about learning to hold whatever arises with curiosity and kindness.
Topics covered:
Forgiveness — why forcing it can backfire, what it means to "bypass" difficult emotions, and the reframe that changes everything: forgiveness as giving up all hope for a better past

Boredom — how to get genuinely curious about it instead of fighting it, and what it can teach you about why you reach for your phone

Getting into your body — why embodiment looks different for everyone, and how to find the activities (yes, even mindful salsa dancing or vacuuming) that make it easier

Worry and "what if" thoughts — the Buddhist framing of worry as an obstacle to clear seeing, and a simple breathwork technique from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche — exhale heavy, exhale calm — that works even in the hardest moments

Community as practice — the Buddha's teaching that friendship and community isn't half the path. It's the whole thing.

 
About Bart van Melik: Bart van Melik is a meditation teacher and guiding teacher at Community Meditation Center, a global and local community that meets weekly via Zoom. Monthly sessions are donation-based and open to all. Learn more at https://www.cmc-ny.org/.



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Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.

Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.

 
To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

Six steps to reclaim your brain, find purpose, and escape the doom loop.
 
Arthur Brooks is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness. Brooks is the author of 15 books, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers, Build the Life You Want, co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, and From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. His latest book is The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. 



In this episode we talk about:
The three essential components of a meaningful life
Getting comfortable with boredom 
Why we need to be asking questions that google can't answer
The neuroscience behind "authentic love" 
Strategies for finding meaning in your work 
What Arthur means when he says "don't waste your suffering"

 
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Additional Resources: 
Office Hours with Arthur Brooks


 
Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.
 
This episode is sponsored by:
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Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson — A podcast exploring ADHD, neurodivergence, and mental health through conversations with scientists, doctors, and researchers. Search for Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson wherever you get your podcasts.
To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

The Dalai Lama's longtime collaborator on achieving fundamental okayness, transforming daily annoyances, and rewiring your brain.
Richard J. Davidson, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also the Founder & Director of the Center for Healthy Minds and Founder of the non-profit Humin.
Cortland Dahl, PhD, is a scientist, author, translator, and meditation teacher for the Tergar community. 
Davidson and Dahl's latest book is Born to Flourish. They also author the Substack newsletter, Dharma Lab.
In this episode we talk about:
What it really means to flourish 
How difficult emotions like anxiety, fear, or grief can coexist with well-being
Why flourishing is a trainable skill set, not a personality trait or a self-improvement project
An introduction to the Healthy Minds Framework and its four pillars: awareness, connection, insight, and purpose
Why short, informal "micro-practices" can be just as effective as formal meditation
How to cultivate purpose
Related Episodes:
How a Buddhist Monk Deals With Anxiety | Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
The View of American Turmoil from the Other Side of the World | Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

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Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.

Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here. 
This episode is sponsored by:
Fast Growing Trees — America's largest online nursery, with plants guaranteed to arrive healthy. Get 20% off your first purchase with code HAPPIER at https://www.fastgrowingtrees.com
BetterHelp — Online therapy, matched to your needs. Get 10% off your first month at https://www.betterhelp.com/happier
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What if the most meaningful thing you did for your mental health wasn't something new — but a return to what already brings you joy?
Dan recently sat down with journalist and broadcaster Sam Sanders on the Sam Sanders Show to explore exactly that idea. Sam has a concept he calls "modern scriptures": the movies, albums, and TV shows you return to again and again because they ground you, center you, and remind you what matters. Dan shares the pop culture that never fails to lift his spirits — and along the way, the two get into why beauty and art are actually central to human flourishing, why Ferris Bueller is more Buddhist than you might think, and what the research says about making resolutions stick — including the one upstream habit that makes everything else easier.
The Sam Sanders Show is a co-production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions. Sign up for Sam's newsletter for behind-the-scenes extras from every episode.



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Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.

Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.

To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris

Plus, how the bestselling author writes his way out of despair.
 
John Green is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, and The Anthropocene Reviewed. With his brother, Hank, John has co-created many online video projects, including Vlogbrothers and the educational channel Crash Course. His most recent book is Everything Is Tuberculosis.

 
In this episode we talk about:
John's toolkit for managing thought spirals and dispair
Why he wrote a whole book about the thing that terrifies him 
How he maintains hope in a chaotic and unfair world
Finding the "self"
 Shame reduction through naming
What John learned from his time as a chaplain in a pediatric hospital 
His current view of God
And the question of how much––or how little––we should be sharing about ourselves with other people
 
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Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.
 
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.
This episode is sponsored by:
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LinkedIn Ads — Reach the right professionals with precision targeting. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit at http://www.linkedin.com/happier
 
To advertise on the show, contact [email protected] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris