Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.
Take a few minutes to reflect on someone who inspires you, and how you can embody the values you admire in them.
You can also listen to this episode in Spanish here:
How To Do This Practice:
- Find a quiet moment and settle your body: Sit or stand somewhere you feel safe and comfortable. Take a few slow breaths and let your body soften, releasing the noise of the day.
- Bring to mind someone who embodies “moral beauty”: Think of a person whose kindness, courage, humility, or integrity has genuinely inspired you. Choose one specific moment when their character moved you.
- Visualize an act that inspired you: Recall exactly what the person did. Picture the scene, their actions, their choices. Notice why this moment stood out as meaningful or brave or good.
- Notice how your body responds: As you hold this image, tune into your body: warmth, openness, tenderness, or even tears. Allow yourself to feel the emotional impact of their moral beauty.
- Reflect on why this matters to you: Ask yourself: What does this moment reveal about the values that matter most to me? What purpose does it awaken? What did this person teach me about how I want to live?
- Choose one small aligned action for today: Identify one thing you can do—big or small—that expresses the value or purpose this person embodies. Carry that intention with you into the rest of your day.
Today’s Happiness Break Guide:
DIANA PARRA is professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is also a registered mindfulness and yoga teacher who focuses on sharing these practices with the Latino immigrant community in St Louis.
Learn more about Diana Parra’s work:
Related Happiness Break episodes:
Embodying Resilience:
Loving Kindness Meditation:
How to Do Good for the Environment (And Yourself):
Related Science of Happiness episodes:
Why We Should Seek Beauty:
How To Ground Yourself in Nature:
Pause to Look at the Sky:
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Transcription:
DACHER KELTNER: Welcome to Happiness Break, where we take a short break to try a practice shown by science to help us live a happier and more meaningful life. I’m Dacher Keltner, and today’s meditation is a special one for me. It’s a grounding practice, where we’ll use lab tested mindfulness techniques to drop into a calmer frame of mind and quell our reactive and ruminative thought patterns so we can enjoy this present moment.
Mindfulness practices help us handle the stresses of life from PTSD to the daily stresses that can occupy our minds. They help our bodies. They can elevate vagal tone and reduce pain symptoms. And then mindfulness practices help our social relationships. They make us more empathetic and forgiving with other people.
But the reason this meditation’s so special is because for the first time we’re offering it in both English and Spanish. And we’re working on more Spanish language resources as well. So stay tuned. If you’re a Spanish speaker, check out the Spanish version of this meditation in our thread. And share it with your Spanish speaking friends and family.
Our meditation guide today is Diana Parra.
Diana is a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, in Missouri. She’s also an experienced mindfulness and yoga teacher.
So find somewhere comfortable and settle in. Here’s Diana.
DIANA PARRA: Hello, everybody. My name is Diana Parra, and most of my efforts for the past ten years have been in bringing many of these practices, such as yoga and mindfulness meditation to communities that have been traditionally excluded. particularly the Latino immigrant population here in St. Louis, where I have adapted many practices that they can use when they are dealing with issues that come up in their immigration journey.
So what I’m going to share with you today is a meditation that I call the grounding land meditation. And for this practice, you find yourself in a very comfortable position that feels very uplifted for you, whether that is sitting on a chair or perhaps sitting on the floor or even laying on on a couch, or on a hard surface.
I want you to bring attention to the bottom of your feet and make sure they’re rooted.
And also for this practice, you do not necessarily have to close your eyes. You can keep them open. You can maybe just lower your gaze slightly towards the floor.
And as you do this, first just beginning to notice your breath.
Noticing the air coming in and out through your nose.
Noticing the movements of expansion and contraction of your chest and your belly as the air goes in and out.
And as we do this, you might find distractions in this practice. You might find, perhaps, noises outside or in the room you’re in. And if this happens, just bring an awareness back to your breath.
Bringing awareness back to your feet, particularly the bottom of your feet.
Sensing that connection between the earth, how you can let the weight of your body just be held and sustained.
Remembering to focus on the breathing or on the contact against the land, whenever you get distracted.
Noticing the inhale,
noticing the exhale.
Noticing one more time the surface underneath,
the ground beneath your feet,
maybe even sensing the points of pressure,
the points of contact between your body and the ground.
And to end this practice, we take a few minutes of gratitude.
Gratitude for being able to practice this together today.
Gratitude for the earth that sustains us.
For the nourishment it provides to us.
And for this connection that we have and can find whenever we feel off center or unbalanced. Knowing that we can always ground ourselves in the land.
And if your eyes were closed, very gently beginning to open the eyes. And perhaps looking around you, if there is a window near you, looking out the window. Looking at the walls behind you. The walls surrounding you. The ceiling. And lastly, again, back to the earth. To the ground. To your feet. In gratitude for being able to do this practice today. Thank you for practicing with me today.
DACHER KELTNER: That was Diana Parra, a mindfulness and yoga teacher and professor at Washington University. And a reminder that we have a Spanish version of this meditation led by Diana in our feed as well. You can find it on Spotify or wherever you’re listening right now. So if you’ve got any Spanish speaking friends and family who might enjoy it, please share it with them. And keep an eye out for more Spanish language resources to come.
I’m Dacher Keltner, thank you for grounding with us on this happiness break. Our show is a production of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and PRX. Have a wonderful day.
