AI transcript
0:00:04 Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of
0:00:09 The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode is a brand new experiment called Meditation Monday. That means,
0:00:14 in addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday, I will be bringing you a short 10
0:00:19 minute or so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week. Over this four-episode
0:00:24 series, you’ll develop a Zen toolkit specifically to help you find greater calm, peace, and effectiveness
0:00:29 in your daily life. The teacher, Henry Schuchman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one
0:00:34 of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach what is called Sambo Zen,
0:00:38 and I have found this particularly interesting and effective. And now he’ll be your teacher.
0:00:46 I’ve been using Henry’s app The Way once, often twice a day for the last few months, and it has
0:00:51 lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible. As a listener of the show, you yourself can get
0:00:57 30 free sessions by visiting thewayapp.com/tim. So if you like what you hear in these meditations,
0:01:01 which will be valuable in and of themselves, you can get 30 free sessions by going to
0:01:07 thewayapp.com/tim. And for the time being, please enjoy this Meditation Monday with Henry Schuchman.
0:01:16 Welcome back to Meditation Monday with me, Henry Schuchman. Thank you for joining.
0:01:23 So I’ve already said that meditation can be an extraordinary journey of discovery. I believe
0:01:30 that its deepest purpose is to reveal aspects of who we are and what our true relationship
0:01:36 to the world really is, which can kind of blow our minds when we taste them. And of course,
0:01:41 meditation is not the only way of finding out that kind of stuff, but it’s an incredible way
0:01:46 of grounding it into our lives and integrating it into the way we actually live. However,
0:01:55 the vast majority of us, myself included, come to meditation not for those reasons, but to handle
0:02:01 stress. We may not even realize we’ve got stress. We’re just kind of miserable. I was in that category
0:02:07 in my early to mid-20s when I started meditating. I was just really unhappy and had a good friend who
0:02:14 meditated who was much less unhappy than I was, and I decided to try out what he was doing,
0:02:19 and it changed my life. Here’s what we’re going to do today. The tool we’re going to be picking up
0:02:27 is around how to handle stress, how to recognize stress and what to do about it through meditation.
0:02:36 And essentially, the main thing we’re going to be working on is recognizing the signatures of stress
0:02:44 in our bodies, coming into the body, getting to know it in the body, and just that recognition
0:02:52 starts to dial it right down. So let’s come into our comfortable seated position.
0:02:57 You can close your eyes or you can lower your gaze.
0:03:04 And as always, we’re going to start by really arriving,
0:03:15 so kind of catching up with ourselves. You know, here we are with this little space,
0:03:26 this little gap in our day when we get to be still and quiet, and really it can be a kind of refuge.
0:03:34 So just take stock. You know, how are you doing right now?
0:03:43 So we’ve all just jumped in from our busy lives outside this space.
0:03:52 What are we carrying? What’s in our bodies right now? What kind of momentum from the day?
0:04:03 We’re not seeking to get rid of anything or change anything. We’re just starting to recognize
0:04:11 what’s going on for us, catching up with ourselves.
0:04:22 Now let’s give the body a chance to relax, to come into some kind of rest.
0:04:27 So letting your shoulders settle.
0:04:34 Letting the seat receive the weight of your body.
0:04:42 Letting the floor beneath you receive the weight of your legs.
0:04:52 Letting your whole upper body be at rest, so either balanced or really giving
0:04:56 giving the weight of your upper body to whatever support it has.
0:05:02 You get to unwind right now.
0:05:12 You get to sort of unbind yourself from the threads of your days, your busy days.
0:05:23 So now we may not particularly want to think about stress right now, but it’s really helpful to
0:05:30 in this space. It’s kind of shelter almost of meditation.
0:05:38 We can get to know what happens in our bodies when we feel anxious or stressed.
0:05:52 You might just think about some minor stress or like there’s an email you haven’t answered yet or
0:05:59 a phone call or maybe the tire pressure on your car needs to be checked.
0:06:10 Just some minor thing and just feel what happens in your chest or your diaphragm just below the chest.
0:06:13 Or perhaps in your throat.
0:06:25 Is there some sensation that you can notice in your torso
0:06:33 that seems to associate correlate with stress?
0:06:41 Just do a kind of gentle scan of your torso.
0:06:50 Is there some kind of energy, some kind of sensation, could be a tension,
0:07:01 tightness, might be a sense of heat or some kind of agitation.
0:07:11 Sometimes there’s a certain density or it might be more like weather.
0:07:18 There’s a little high pressure system in the torso.
0:07:29 Whatever you’re finding or even if you’re not finding much of anything, let it be the way it is.
0:07:44 While keeping one part of your attention open to whatever’s going on in your torso,
0:07:49 at the same time let your shoulders be soft.
0:07:55 Let the flanks of your body be soft.
0:08:04 Let it almost be like the whole of your torso is made of warm wax.
0:08:15 There’s a warmth surrounding your chest area, your diaphragm area.
0:08:21 Feel that warmth like warm wax.
0:08:33 And feel how it can hold any uncomfortable feeling within.
0:08:42 If there is a tightness or a heat or a density, any kind of unease.
0:08:52 Notice that there’s a softness, a warmth in your body as well.
0:09:01 That can welcome and hold any discomfort.
0:09:17 We’re learning to let things be, not to get rid of them, to let things be.
0:09:28 To be with our sometimes anxious troubled hearts.
0:09:36 We don’t need to banish them or suppress them or change them.
0:09:49 We ourselves can learn to allow them to bring a kindness towards our discomforts.
0:10:05 So just resting a moment with a soft body and a sense of allowing
0:10:18 of kindness and patience toward any stress we might be feeling.
0:10:33 That we really can kindly welcome it and sort of tend it.
0:10:45 As if we might almost be rediscovering a kind of kind attentiveness
0:10:48 that we’ve always had.
0:10:59 And can turn it toward ourselves, our own experience.
0:11:23 Okay, so let’s in your own time come out of the meditation, come back to space you’re in.
0:11:32 Sometimes people like to stretch a little bit after coming out of a sit, whatever feels good for you.
0:11:45 So another tool as we’re proceeding with these sessions, this time probably or maybe
0:11:51 a counterintuitive one. When we’re feeling stress, we don’t try to get rid of it.
0:11:58 Instead we try to recognize it as sensation in the body and do maybe the last thing we want
0:12:07 to do which is welcome it, allow it, let it be part of what our experience currently actually is.
0:12:13 And in doing that we discover that we ourselves have a greater capacity than we might have
0:12:21 remembered to give ourselves loving, kind awareness. Thanks so much for joining me.
0:12:25 See you on the next Meditation Monday.
0:00:09 The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode is a brand new experiment called Meditation Monday. That means,
0:00:14 in addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday, I will be bringing you a short 10
0:00:19 minute or so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week. Over this four-episode
0:00:24 series, you’ll develop a Zen toolkit specifically to help you find greater calm, peace, and effectiveness
0:00:29 in your daily life. The teacher, Henry Schuchman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one
0:00:34 of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach what is called Sambo Zen,
0:00:38 and I have found this particularly interesting and effective. And now he’ll be your teacher.
0:00:46 I’ve been using Henry’s app The Way once, often twice a day for the last few months, and it has
0:00:51 lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible. As a listener of the show, you yourself can get
0:00:57 30 free sessions by visiting thewayapp.com/tim. So if you like what you hear in these meditations,
0:01:01 which will be valuable in and of themselves, you can get 30 free sessions by going to
0:01:07 thewayapp.com/tim. And for the time being, please enjoy this Meditation Monday with Henry Schuchman.
0:01:16 Welcome back to Meditation Monday with me, Henry Schuchman. Thank you for joining.
0:01:23 So I’ve already said that meditation can be an extraordinary journey of discovery. I believe
0:01:30 that its deepest purpose is to reveal aspects of who we are and what our true relationship
0:01:36 to the world really is, which can kind of blow our minds when we taste them. And of course,
0:01:41 meditation is not the only way of finding out that kind of stuff, but it’s an incredible way
0:01:46 of grounding it into our lives and integrating it into the way we actually live. However,
0:01:55 the vast majority of us, myself included, come to meditation not for those reasons, but to handle
0:02:01 stress. We may not even realize we’ve got stress. We’re just kind of miserable. I was in that category
0:02:07 in my early to mid-20s when I started meditating. I was just really unhappy and had a good friend who
0:02:14 meditated who was much less unhappy than I was, and I decided to try out what he was doing,
0:02:19 and it changed my life. Here’s what we’re going to do today. The tool we’re going to be picking up
0:02:27 is around how to handle stress, how to recognize stress and what to do about it through meditation.
0:02:36 And essentially, the main thing we’re going to be working on is recognizing the signatures of stress
0:02:44 in our bodies, coming into the body, getting to know it in the body, and just that recognition
0:02:52 starts to dial it right down. So let’s come into our comfortable seated position.
0:02:57 You can close your eyes or you can lower your gaze.
0:03:04 And as always, we’re going to start by really arriving,
0:03:15 so kind of catching up with ourselves. You know, here we are with this little space,
0:03:26 this little gap in our day when we get to be still and quiet, and really it can be a kind of refuge.
0:03:34 So just take stock. You know, how are you doing right now?
0:03:43 So we’ve all just jumped in from our busy lives outside this space.
0:03:52 What are we carrying? What’s in our bodies right now? What kind of momentum from the day?
0:04:03 We’re not seeking to get rid of anything or change anything. We’re just starting to recognize
0:04:11 what’s going on for us, catching up with ourselves.
0:04:22 Now let’s give the body a chance to relax, to come into some kind of rest.
0:04:27 So letting your shoulders settle.
0:04:34 Letting the seat receive the weight of your body.
0:04:42 Letting the floor beneath you receive the weight of your legs.
0:04:52 Letting your whole upper body be at rest, so either balanced or really giving
0:04:56 giving the weight of your upper body to whatever support it has.
0:05:02 You get to unwind right now.
0:05:12 You get to sort of unbind yourself from the threads of your days, your busy days.
0:05:23 So now we may not particularly want to think about stress right now, but it’s really helpful to
0:05:30 in this space. It’s kind of shelter almost of meditation.
0:05:38 We can get to know what happens in our bodies when we feel anxious or stressed.
0:05:52 You might just think about some minor stress or like there’s an email you haven’t answered yet or
0:05:59 a phone call or maybe the tire pressure on your car needs to be checked.
0:06:10 Just some minor thing and just feel what happens in your chest or your diaphragm just below the chest.
0:06:13 Or perhaps in your throat.
0:06:25 Is there some sensation that you can notice in your torso
0:06:33 that seems to associate correlate with stress?
0:06:41 Just do a kind of gentle scan of your torso.
0:06:50 Is there some kind of energy, some kind of sensation, could be a tension,
0:07:01 tightness, might be a sense of heat or some kind of agitation.
0:07:11 Sometimes there’s a certain density or it might be more like weather.
0:07:18 There’s a little high pressure system in the torso.
0:07:29 Whatever you’re finding or even if you’re not finding much of anything, let it be the way it is.
0:07:44 While keeping one part of your attention open to whatever’s going on in your torso,
0:07:49 at the same time let your shoulders be soft.
0:07:55 Let the flanks of your body be soft.
0:08:04 Let it almost be like the whole of your torso is made of warm wax.
0:08:15 There’s a warmth surrounding your chest area, your diaphragm area.
0:08:21 Feel that warmth like warm wax.
0:08:33 And feel how it can hold any uncomfortable feeling within.
0:08:42 If there is a tightness or a heat or a density, any kind of unease.
0:08:52 Notice that there’s a softness, a warmth in your body as well.
0:09:01 That can welcome and hold any discomfort.
0:09:17 We’re learning to let things be, not to get rid of them, to let things be.
0:09:28 To be with our sometimes anxious troubled hearts.
0:09:36 We don’t need to banish them or suppress them or change them.
0:09:49 We ourselves can learn to allow them to bring a kindness towards our discomforts.
0:10:05 So just resting a moment with a soft body and a sense of allowing
0:10:18 of kindness and patience toward any stress we might be feeling.
0:10:33 That we really can kindly welcome it and sort of tend it.
0:10:45 As if we might almost be rediscovering a kind of kind attentiveness
0:10:48 that we’ve always had.
0:10:59 And can turn it toward ourselves, our own experience.
0:11:23 Okay, so let’s in your own time come out of the meditation, come back to space you’re in.
0:11:32 Sometimes people like to stretch a little bit after coming out of a sit, whatever feels good for you.
0:11:45 So another tool as we’re proceeding with these sessions, this time probably or maybe
0:11:51 a counterintuitive one. When we’re feeling stress, we don’t try to get rid of it.
0:11:58 Instead we try to recognize it as sensation in the body and do maybe the last thing we want
0:12:07 to do which is welcome it, allow it, let it be part of what our experience currently actually is.
0:12:13 And in doing that we discover that we ourselves have a greater capacity than we might have
0:12:21 remembered to give ourselves loving, kind awareness. Thanks so much for joining me.
0:12:25 See you on the next Meditation Monday.
This episode is part of a new experiment called Meditation Monday. The teacher, Henry Shukman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach Sanbo Zen, and now, he’ll be your teacher.
In addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday I’ll bring you a short 10-minute or so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week.
Over this four-episode series, you’ll develop a Zen toolkit to help you find greater calm, peace, and effectiveness in your daily life.
Henry’s app, The Way, has changed my life since I first started using it. Unlike other meditation apps, where you’re overwhelmed with a thousand choices, The Way is a clear step-by-step training program guided entirely by Henry. Through a logical progression, you’ll develop real skills that stick with you.
I’ve been using it daily, often twice a day, and it’s lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible.
As a listener of my podcast, you can get 30 free sessions by visiting https://thewayapp.com/tim and downloading the app.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.