In the first episode in our series Climate, Hope and Science, we explore how embracing uncertainty enables us to move beyond climate anxiety and despair to hope and action, with author and activist Rebecca Solnit.

What does it take to be aware of what’s really happening, without falling into despair? How do we find hope? Do small, individual actions really matter? What happens to our minds and hearts when we connect with nature, and how can that actually protect the climate? We find the links between crisis, hope, happiness, and action.

Look for new episodes April 27 and March 11. Plus, we’ll share climate-focused Happiness Breaks in the weeks following those episodes.

Episode summary:

When you think about climate change, do you feel hope? On this episode of our special series, Climate, Hope and Science, we examine what it means to feel hopeful for the future of our planet. Renowned writer and activist Rebecca Solnit joins Dacher to share why she loves uncertainty, what gives her hope, and how hope empowers her. Later, we hear from climate scientist Patrick Gonzalez about why he believes climate hope is scientifically sound, and how much power we truly have to create meaningful change.

Today’s guests:

Rebecca Solnit is an award-winning author and activist whose works have explored numerous themes including technology, feminism, the environment and social change. Her latest book, which she co-edited, is It's Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility. https://www.nottoolateclimate.com/

Learn more about Rebecca: http://rebeccasolnit.net/biography/

Read Rebecca’s article “Ten ways to confront the climate crisis without loosing hope”: https://tinyurl.com/2p92e2h6

Follow Rebecca on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RebeccaSolnit

Follow Rebecca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccasolnit/

Follow Rebecca on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.solnit

Patrick Gonzalez is a climate scientist and forest ecologist at UC Berkeley. His work inspired numerous policy changes focused on forestry protections around the world.

Learn more about Patrick and his work: http://www.patrickgonzalez.net/

Follow Patrick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pgonzaleztweet?lang=en

Follow Patrick on Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/mvn98ear

More Resources on Climate Hope:

Greater Good Mag - More Resources on Science Center https://tinyurl.com/ytna663b

University of Michigan - Climate crisis: 4 reasons for hope in 2023: https://tinyurl.com/5n7hhpu8

United Nations - 8 reasons not to give up hope - and take climate action: https://tinyurl.com/3wzrebyy

Australian Psychological Society - Coping with climate change distress: https://tinyurl.com/43jhkbjw

How do you feel when you think about climate change? Where do you derive hope? Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness!

Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Happiness Break: Sketching Serenity with Chris Murchison

A guided drawing meditation to help you break out of stale thought patterns and maybe even enter a state of flow. No talent required.

How to Do This Practice:

1. Grab a piece of paper and something to draw with.

2. Find a comfortable place and start by taking some deep, mindful breaths

3. Take a few moments to take in your environment. What colors, shapes, and objects do you see? 

4. Set a timer and for the next two minutes, draw something that caught your attention. Don’t worry about how it looks and try to stay in the moment. 

5. Once time is up, spend a moment appreciating what you drew. Think about the impact of slowing down and doing something fun has had on your day. 

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Chris Murchison is a meditation teacher, artist and speaker. He currently works as an independent advisor for organizations interested in improving their work cultures.

Check out Chris’s GGSC profile: https://tinyurl.com/32htut6n 

Learn more about Chris’s art and other work: https://chrismurchison.com/about

Follow Chris on Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/4auxk3ur 

Follow Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/murchisonchris?lang=en

Add Chris on LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/253x83ty 

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

Doing Something Creative Can Boost Your Well-Being: https://tinyurl.com/4pcwxhsf 

What is Creative Mortification and How Can You Overcome It: https://tinyurl.com/583kswfw

Does Art Heal? https://tinyurl.com/3ttybzpm 

Everyday Art: https://tinyurl.com/mstemcsf

7 Ways to Foster Creativity: https://tinyurl.com/ycn5majv 

How to Combat America’s Creativity Crisis: https://tinyurl.com/yckzm8se

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of drawing this week. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — 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 — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day. 

Is there such a thing as good stress? Our guest learns to welcome her stress by understanding how it can actually help her, plus tips and tricks to not feel too much of it.

Episode summary:

Like many of us, our guest Yana Leventon has dealt with a fair amount of stress in her life. But after living through the COVID-19 pandemic and grappling with the ongoing war in Ukraine (with relatives on both sides of the border) Yana’s stress levels reached a new high. This week’s episode is all about how we can reframe our relationship with stress. Yana spent one week trying a new practice each day. All 7 of the practices were aimed at managing different aspects of stress, from physically metabolizing her stress through exercise to visualization and breathing techniques. These exercises helped her regain a sense of clarity about what is truly not in her control, and agency over what is. She began to see stress as a normal and necessary part of life that can actually be beneficial in the right amount. Later, we hear from the psychologist who developed this stress management tool, Elissa Epel. She discusses the importance of developing a positive relationship with stress, and how we can use stress to feel a sense of empowerment.

Practice:

Day 1. Embrace Uncertainty: Releasing Embodied Stress

Day 2. Let Go of What You Can’t Control: Stress Inventory

Day 3. Find Excitement in Challenges: Stress Shield

Day 4. Metabolize Body Stress: Hormetic Stress

Day 5. Immerse Yourself in Nature: Sensory Absorption

Day 6. Experience Deep Rest: Breath for Restoration

Day 7. Create Bliss Bookends: Start and End Full of Joy

For more information on each of the daily practices, check out Elissa Epel’s book, The Stress Prescription.

Today’s guests:

Yana Leventon was a refugee in Austria and Italy before migrating to the United States from the former USSR when she was 10 years old.

Elissa Epel is a psychologist who specializes in stress, aging and well-being. She has developed self-care practices rooted in scientific research to improve how we cope with stress.

Learn more about Elisa and her work: https://www.elissaepel.com/

Read Elissa’s book, The Stress Prescription: https://tinyurl.com/yt66t3b3

Follow Elissa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dr_Epel

Follow Elissa on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TelomereEffect

Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

How to Transform Stress into Courage and Connection: https://tinyurl.com/n49fzhf7

Seven Ways to Have a Healthier Relationship With Stress: https://tinyurl.com/mr3yy6b5

Is Stress Making You Withdraw from People? https://tinyurl.com/4kkesr7s

Could Stress Help You Find Your Purpose in Life? https://tinyurl.com/2ssz7mck

The Surprising Benefits of Stress: https://tinyurl.com/3uynfkf2

More Resources on Managing Stress:

National Institute for Mental Health - I’m So Stressed Out! Fact Sheet: https://tinyurl.com/4hr3eawc

TED - How to make stress your friend: https://tinyurl.com/y5bsj3ks

Harvard Business Review - Turning Stress into an Asset: https://tinyurl.com/3fdzfx3v

Johns Hopkins - Sleepless Nights? Try Stress Relief Techniques: https://tinyurl.com/mw6jxbvz

Do you struggle with managing your stress levels? What’s your go-to stress management tool? Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness!

Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

How to Do This Practice:

1. Find a comfortable place to do this practice. Once you feel ready, relax your shoulders and close your eyes. Focus on your breathing, and take a few slow, deep breaths. 

2. Think about the world around you. If you could change one thing in society, what would it be? 

3. Imagine this ideal world. Visualize it manifesting before you. Notice what you see and how you feel in as much detail as possible.

4. Is there anything that you can do to make this a reality? It can be anything, no matter how small. Think of some manageable steps you can take to get a little closer to what you’ve imagined.

5. Return your focus to your breathing to close out this practice.

6. If you have the time, jot down your thoughts and goals. 

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Dacher Keltner is the host of the Greater Good Science Center’s award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness and is a co-instructor of the GGSC’s 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.

Check out Dacher’s most recent book, *Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life: *<https://tinyurl.com/4j4hcvyt](https://tinyurl.com/4j4hcvyt)

Find the full practice at our Greater Good in Action website: 

https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/magic_wand

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

How to Find Purpose in Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/yc4dd5ff

Living with Purpose Changes Everything: https://tinyurl.com/m28uvsjn

The Purpose Challenge: https://tinyurl.com/53zykj8a

How Strong is Your Sense of Purpose in Life? https://tinyurl.com/2r3yr3hr

Purpose in Life Quiz: https://tinyurl.com/mrxys77h

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of finding purpose. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — 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 — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day. 

Why should you be nice? Our guest explores how small, daily acts of kindness can produce meaningful life changes.

Episode summary:

When you’re kind to someone, the positive impact doesn’t stop with them. In fact, the effect of your kind action can ricochet back to you by improving your physical health and outlook on life. This week’s episode is all about how kindness has the power to strengthen our sense of self within a larger community. Our guest Aaron Harvey is an activist and UC Berkeley alumni who performed five random acts of kindness in one day. He found that practicing kindness allowed him to develop deeper relationships with those around him and shifted the way he views his role in society. Later, we hear from Oliver Scott Curry, the Research Director at Kindlab, to learn about why humans are evolutionarily designed to be kind and how practicing kindness can positively affect our physical and mental state of being.

How to Do This Practice:

1. Choose a day of the week to perform 5 random acts of kindness throughout that day.

2. These acts don’t have to be big or small or even for the same person. Just aim to perform a variety of acts of kindness. This could include helping a friend with a chore or providing a meal to a person in need.

3. After each act, write down what you did in at least one or two sentences and reflect on how it made you feel.

Learn more about this practice at Greater Good In Action:

https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/random_acts_of_kindness

Today’s guests:

Aaron Harvey is a UC Berkeley Underground Scholar alumnus and activist. After facing the possibility of life in prison, Aaron successfully proved his innocence due to a lack of evidence.

Learn more about Berkeley Underground Scholars: https://undergroundscholars.berkeley.edu/

Oliver Scott Curry is the Research Director for Kindlab at kindness.org. He uses scientific  research to better understand topics like kindness, human morality and cooperation.

Learn more about Oliver and his work: https://www.oliverscottcurry.com/

Learn more about Kindlab: https://kindness.org/kindlab

Follow Oliver on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Oliver_S_Curry

Follow Oliver on Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/yc29nn62

Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

Random Acts of Kindness: https://tinyurl.com/jxafbdm4

How to Start a Kindness Revolution: https://tinyurl.com/3fr68t6v

Three Strategies for Bringing More Kindness into Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/22cx7w9f

How Kindness Fits Into a Happy Life: https://tinyurl.com/h8mspz37

How to Be a Kindness Role Model for Your Kids: https://tinyurl.com/3cjkp785

Where Does Kindness Come From? https://tinyurl.com/hkv94anp

Is There an Altruism Gene? https://tinyurl.com/5n8r7eh5

More Resources on Kindness

MasterClass - How to Be Kind to Yourself: 5 Ways to Practice Kindness: https://tinyurl.com/ycx7uysu

The New York Times - The Unexpected Power of Random Acts of Kindness: https://tinyurl.com/ycxxd7af

TED Talk - Mark Kelly: How one act of kindness a day can change your life: https://tinyurl.com/u2n3t3s

Have you ever tried practicing random acts of kindness? Ever been the recipient of one? Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness!

Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

What if you could tap into your inherent resilience at any time? Prentis Hemphill guides a meditation to turn good memories into a state of resilience.

How to Do This Resilience Practice:

Find a position that is comfortable for you, whether that is sitting, laying down or even standing. Don’t feel pressured to remain still for this practice. If you feel like you need to move or make sounds to stay present, feel free to.

1. Think of something that brings you a sense of resilience.

2. While in this memory, what are you doing with your body? What does your body feel like?

3. Try to intensify those feelings. Notice how that feels in your body and in the experience of that memory.

4. Take yourself back to how the memory was at the beginning of this practice, at a lower intensity. Notice how you’re able to make that change.

5. Thinking about the day ahead or the day that you’ve had, ask yourself how much space do you want the day to take up in this moment?

6. Once you’re ready, move from that comfortable position. See if you can take this experience with you throughout your day.

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Prentis Hemphill is the founder of the Embodiment Institute, and a writer and therapist who prioritizes the body in their approach to healing.

Learn More About the Embodiment Institute: https://www.theembodimentinstitute.org/about

Check out Prentis’ website: https://prentishemphill.com

Follow Prentis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/prentishemphill

Follow Prentis on Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/4d99f4xs

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

How to Hardwire Resilience into Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/26mff6hf

Four Ways Social Support Makes You More Resilient: https://tinyurl.com/34ntce8u

Evidence Mounts that Mindfulness Breeds Resilience: https://tinyurl.com/2u6k6mkh

Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress at Work: https://tinyurl.com/yrujmwxs

Three Ways to Boost Your Resiliency as a Parent: https://tinyurl.com/w6f3w3ak

How Tuning into Your Body can Make You More Resilient: https://tinyurl.com/yv5yzper

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of this resilience meditation. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — 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 — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.

We all overestimate how much we know. Our guest tries a practice in slowing down to ask more questions, and finds it leads to higher quality connections.

Episode summary:

What happens when we pause and open up to ideas that we didn’t think of ourselves? This episode is about intellectual humility, the ability to surrender to the idea that we might not have all the information or may not be right. Our guest is Kelly Corrigan, a best-selling author and host of PBS talk show Tell Me More and podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders. Her teams look to her for direction, but she wanted to see what would happen if she paused more to ask them questions, and found it totally changed her approach to both her work and family life. We also explore science around the subtle ways we react differently to people we disagree with, and how intellectual humility can change that.

Try this practice: Cultivate Intellectual Humility

If you can, write out your answers.

1. When you encounter information or an opinion that contradicts your opinion or worldview, ask yourself questions like these:

2. Why do you disagree?

3. Are you making any assumptions? Might those assumptions be wrong?

4. How did you come to your opinion?

5. Think about the scenario from the perspective of a person who disagrees with you. Try to imagine how they came to believe what they believe:

6. What information might they be basing their opinion off of?

7. What values do you think they’re weighing in how they think about this topic?

8. Can you imagine how they came to hold those values?

3. Tap into your intellectual humility:

1. Identify places where, before, you didn’t acknowledge the limitations of what you know

2. Now that you’ve worked to see this issue from another person’s point of view, do you see more value in their perspective?

Today’s guests:

Kelly Corrigan is the author of five books. She’s also the host for PBS’s longform interview show, Tell Me More and Kelly Corrigan Wonders*.*

Check out Kelly’s website: https://www.kellycorrigan.com

Follow Kelly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/corrigankelly

Follow Kelly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellycorrigan/

Mark Leary is a psychologist and emeritus professor at Duke University.

Learn more about Mark and his work: https://sites.duke.edu/leary/

Check out Mark’s research on Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/p8ayz8dn

Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

What Does Intellectual Humility Look Like? https://tinyurl.com/5n949h69

Five Reasons Intellectual Humility is Good for You: https://tinyurl.com/2ce3jrmc

Intellectual Humility Quiz: https://tinyurl.com/574k99fs

Three Reasons for Leaders to Cultivate Intellectual Humility: https://tinyurl.com/2s4ecda6

How to Know if You’re Actually Humble: https://tinyurl.com/y8js44v

More Resources on Intellectual Humility

Vox - Intellectual humility: The importance of knowing you might be wrong: https://tinyurl.com/2cryd336

Financial Times - Why Intellectual Humility Matters: https://tinyurl.com/5n84hsh7

Psych Central - How Humility Strengthens Your Relationship: https://tinyurl.com/2fj9a4wh

University of Notre Dame - To Make Better Decisions, Get More Comfortable Saying “I Don’t Know”  https://tinyurl.com/3npysxh8

Tell us about your thoughts on intellectual humility. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness!

Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

This episode was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, as part of our project on "Expanding Awareness of the Science of Intellectual Humility." For more on the project, go to www.ggsc.berkeley.edu/IH.

Take a moment to appreciate the beauty and vastness of the sky. Dacher Keltner guides us through a practice of pausing to turn your gaze to the sky as a pathway to awe, creativity and wonder.

Practice:

1. Go someplace where you feel safe and also have a nice view of the sky.

2. First, focus on your breathing. Take a few slow inhales and even slower exhales. As you breathe in and out, relax your shoulders, your hands, and your face.

3. On the next breath in, look up at the sky. Notice how vast it is.

4. Breathing naturally, notice everything you can about the sky. What colors are present? Are there any clouds? Do you see any gradation of light?

5. Expand your gaze to get the fullest view and sense of the sky that you can. Spend a few moments taking it in.

6. On the final deep breaths in and out, reflect on how doing this practice has made you feel.

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Dacher Keltner is the host of the Greater Good Science Center’s award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness and is a co-instructor of the GGSC’s 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.

Check out Dacher’s most recent book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life:  https://tinyurl.com/4j4hcvyt

Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

Why we Should Look up at the Sky (Podcast): https://tinyurl.com/fn3bttw6

Six Ways to Incorporate Awe into Your Daily Life: https://tinyurl.com/3j5hdtj7

How to Choose a Type of Mindfulness Meditation: https://tinyurl.com/py6b729h

How Nature Can Make You Kinder, Happier, and More Creative:  https://tinyurl.com/2fmpdpkj

Why is Nature so Good For Your Mental Health? ​​https://tinyurl.com/23zavth3

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of looking up. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — 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 — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.

Episode summary:

Having strong relationships is vital to our well-being. We tend to be happier and healthier when we’re involved with community. Today’s guest is the world-famous scientist Temple Grandin. She was born with autism, which led her to be socially isolated from her peers. Join us on this episode of The Science of Happiness to hear about how Grandin credits her support networks for her success and making her into the person she is today. We’ll also look at the science behind the health repercussions of not having strong social networks.

Today’s guests:

Temple Grandin is a leading animal behaviorist, prominent author and speaker on autism and animal behaviors. Today, she teaches courses at Colorado State University. Her latest book is Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions.

Temple’s Website: https://www.templegrandin.com

Follow Temple on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drtemplegrandin?lang=en

Check out Temple’s Latest Book: https://tinyurl.com/3tftxpck

Tegan Cruwyis is a clinical psychologist at The National Australian University who studies social connection and how loneliness and chronic isolation are literally toxic.

Learn more about Cruwyis and her work: https://tinyurl.com/3etuvket

Follow Cruwyis on Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/yc5ujhaj

Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

Four Ways Social Support Makes You More Resilient https://tinyurl.com/34ntce8u

What is Social Connection? https://tinyurl.com/nk8crbbz

Is Social Connection the Best Path to Happiness? https://tinyurl.com/4wxc66tn

Why are We so Wired to Connect? https://tinyurl.com/uttppd3p

More Resources for Improving Social Connections

Emotional Wellness Checklist https://tinyurl.com/4wxc66tn

How to Strengthen Social Relationships https://tinyurl.com/5fdv8ra9

The Science of Social Connection https://tinyurl.com/3tftxpck

Tell us about your experiences with building social connections. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness!

Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Try this body-scan meditation to ground your mind in the present moment and in your body, guided by Spring Washam.

How to do this practice:

1. Find a comfortable seat where you can relax your body.

2. Beginning with the top of your head, relax any sense of tension, one body part at a time.

3. Slowly scan down to your face, neck, upper arms, hands, feeling their presence.

4. You might want to place your hands on your belly to feel your breath and let go.

5. End by placing your hand on your heart and offer your body some kindness.

Today’s Happiness Break Host:

Spring Washam has been a devoted Buddhist practitioner in both the Theravada and Tibetan schools of Buddhism for more than 25 years. She is a founding teacher of The East Bay Meditation Center and has spent more than a decade studying Shamanic indigenous healing practices. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground.

Learn more about Spring and her book: https://www.springwasham.com/

Follow Spring on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/springwasham/

Check out Spring’s YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/22njyd29

More Resources from the Greater Good Science Center:

Six Minutes to Connect with Your Body:  https://tinyurl.com/2337f85e

How a Body Scan Can Help with Strong Emotions: https://tinyurl.com/58wfsvnd

Krista Tippett on Being Grounded in Your Body: https://tinyurl.com/59pkp324

Turning Into Your Body Can Make You More Resilient: https://tinyurl.com/5av68v62

Your Anxiety Might Be Coming From Your Body: https://tinyurl.com/dwb9vvue

What Self-Compassion Feels Like in Your Body: https://tinyurl.com/2p9rdepk

Seven Ways to Have a Healthier Relationship with Stress: https://tinyurl.com/m6mbv2np

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of embodiment meditation. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

We’re living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — 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 — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.