Happiness Break: Awe for Others, with Dacher Keltner
The communities we create are one of the most awe-inspiring parts of our lives. Host Dacher Keltner guides us in a meditation on awe and togetherness in this week\u2019s Happiness Break.
\n\nLink to episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/3783rkmj
\n\nHow to Do This Practice:
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Find a comfortable, safe, place where you can close your eyes and relax. Notice your breathing and begin to take deep, intentional breaths.
\nThink about a community you are a part of \u2013 work, recreation, spiritual, any group you\u2019re a part of. Cultivate a sense in your mind of being with that community.
\nReflect for a few minutes on the faces of the people in this community; bring them into your mind\u2019s eye and notice the details of their eyes, smiles, perhaps even their tones of voice or the sounds of their laughter.
\nThink about this remarkable quality of communities: That all of these separate individuals create one hole.
\nThink about how each person contributes to this community to create that whole.
\nContemplate how everyone in this community is connected, and how they\u2019re mutually influencing each other.
\nThink about what value unites all these people share, what they have in common.
\nImagine yourself within this network of connected individuals. Cultivate a sense of what connects you with them, think of them as threads of mutual influence. It doesn\u2019t all have to be good; tension is a part of being a community, too.
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Today\u2019s Happiness Break host:
\n\nDacher Keltner is the host of the Greater Good Science Center\u2019s award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness and is a co-instructor of the GGSC\u2019s popular online course of the same name. He's also the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
\n\nHis new book is Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.
\n\nMore resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
\n\nWhy Do We Feel Awe? https://tinyurl.com/3xms3dm2
\n\nHow Awe Brings People Together: https://tinyurl.com/2p8m2tyk
\n\nEight Reasons Why Awe Makes Your Life Better: https://tinyurl.com/2p8ccav2
\n\nSix Ways to Incorporate Awe Into Your Daily Life: https://tinyurl.com/3emucdez
\n\nHow Music Bonds Us Together: https://tinyurl.com/329scmf6
\n\nCan a Sense of Awe Improve Our Arguments? https://tinyurl.com/pb2eh8c6
\n\nWe love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience contemplating your communities. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
\n\nFind us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap
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\n\nWe're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout \u2014 we all could use a break to feel better. That's where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more \u2014 what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.