Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to 10% happier early and ad-free right now.

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

It's the 10% Happier podcast.

I'm Dan Harris. Hello, everybody, time for a bonus meditation. Today we're going to focus on the body, specifically the jaw, which is a place many of us hold tension, even when we're not aware of it.

Our meditation teacher du jour, my great friend Jay Michelson, is going to walk you through the different points of the jaw where you may be clenching, and you may find that this relaxes your mind as well.

A little bit more about Jay.

He's a writer and journalist, rabbi and meditation teacher, keynote speaker and scholar of religion.

He really does it all. He's also written 10 books. Most recently, The Secret That Is Not a Secret,

10 heretical tales. His 2022 book, The Heresy of Jacob Frank, won the National Jewish Book Award

for scholarship. He holds a JD from Yale, a PhD, a Jewish thought from Hebrew

University, and a non-denominational rabbinic ordination. Here we go now with the polymaths, Jay Michelson.

Hi, this is Jay. A lot of time in meditation, it's the little things. In this guided meditation, I'm going to show you

a very little thing, relaxing tension in the jaw, but it's the single most effective tool in my

personal meditation toolkit. Now, in this meditation, we're going to move very slowly, so try not to jump ahead.

We'll begin by settling into the present moment.

Find a comfortable, still posture.

Maybe close the eyes or not as you prefer.

Feel the physical sensations of the body in stillness,

the breath rising up the body to the jaw.

Again, try not to change anything just yet.

Just check out the physical sensations along the jawbone.

Start at the center.

...