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It's the 10% Happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, hey, everybody, Dan here.

I've got a solo podcast for you today.

No guest.

It's just me.

I have whipped up a holiday survival guide for you, a series of evidence-based strategies for navigating what can be a tricky time of year. Let me say from the jump here that I actually

love the holidays, although, of course, there are lots of complications. I'm aware, however,

that some of you find nothing redeeming in the holidays, and for you, this season is holistically

horrible. So I have tried to whip up something that will work for everybody no matter where you stand on the holidays.

What I want to do, no matter where you stand, is to reframe the holidays.

You've heard me make this move before.

I did this the last time I recorded in an episode on election stress, for example.

I like to reframe difficult patches

in my life, and by extension your life as a test, as a gym, as a dojo, as a place to practice

all of these strategies that we know work to help us do our lives better. So let's think about the holidays in that regard, or at least

try to. During the course of this episode, I'm going to talk about nine pain points, nine ways in

which the holidays can suck, including navigating political differences around the dinner table,

overeating, overwhelm, travel indignities, social anxiety, difficult family members, et cetera, et cetera.

I've identified nine different pain points, and I'm going to share with you a bunch of strategies pulled from

ancient wisdom and modern science. Before I dive in, my usual caveats, I'm going to throw a lot of

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