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It's the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello my fellow suffering beings how we doing we've got a bonus meditation for you today that addresses a very common

issue in meditation boredom. Our meditation teacher du jour is Joseph Goldstein

many of you know him but just a little bit of information for the

uninitiated here. He co-founded the Insight Meditation Society back in the 1970s alongside

Sharon Salzburg and Jack Cornfield. He's written many books including a great book that is entitled quite simply mindfulness and he has been my meditation teacher for coming on 15 years now.

Here we go now with Joseph Goldstein.

Hello, this is Joseph.

Today we're going to be working with boredom as an object of meditation in our practice.

We often see boredom as a problem, but really this feeling is a useful feedback because boredom is not inherent in the

object itself but in the quality of our attention to it. We'll begin again by settling into the

awareness of the body, the body posture, making the soft mental note of sitting, sitting.

Become aware of your body breathing, making a soft mental note of in and out or rise and fall. Be mindful of different bodily sensations as they become predominant and call your attention.

Pressure, tightness, vibration, heat, cold, whatever the sensation may be. Notice and note is note different thoughts of emotions that may become predominant.

Noting thinking. noting thinking or

or planning or judging. paying particular attention to the feeling of boredom when it might arise.

Making a note, boredom, so we're acknowledging its presence.

And then bringing the wisdom of understanding boredom to our practice, understanding that boredom is coming from half-hearted attention. You're going to see. when you're feeling bored, after acknowledging it and opening to it.

See if you can bring your attention in closer to whatever the object may be.

Whether it's the breath or sensations.

What different thoughts and emotions? You're going to see? These investigations focus our attention and lead us to a closer experience of whatever the object may be.

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