What To Do When Life Won't Let Up | Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren

4/10/20261 hr 2 min

What does it actually mean to "trust life" — especially when life is handing you something genuinely hard? In this Meditation Party episode (originally aired in 2024), Dan, Sebene Selassie, and Jeff Warren dig into that question from multiple angles: as a personal mantra, a philosophical stance, and a daily practice. Plus: listener questions on rumination, work-life balance, and the eternal napping-vs.-meditating debate.

"Trust Life" vs. "This Is the Curriculum" — Sebene shares the origin of her tattoo and what the mantra has meant through years of health challenges.
The three timescales of practice — Jeff breaks down how meditation works in the moment, over months and years, and across the arc of a whole life. The third one is where things get interesting.
Obsessive thinking / rumination — Practical tools from all three, including one from Sebene involving a trampoline, and one from a clinical psychologist that will make you feel ridiculous in the best way.

Sebene Selassie describes herself as a "writer, teacher, and immigrant-weirdo." She teaches meditation on the ten percent happier app and is the author of a great book called You Belong. She's based in Brooklyn.

Jeff Warren is also a writer and a meditation teacher. He and Dan co-wrote the book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. He also hosts the Consciousness Explorers podcast. He's based in Toronto.

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Clips

Trusting Life Amid Cancer

This Is The Curriculum

Astrology, Mystery, And Trust

Go Where The Love Is

Move Toward Your Values

Stir Then Sit

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

Dan Harris· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is the Ten Percent Happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. [upbeat music] Hello, everybody. How we doing? We've got a fascinating and often very funny discussion today, and we cover a lot of ground. How can you be cool with literally anything that happens? Does everything happen for a reason? Is there any truth to that old cliché? We also take your voicemails with questions on work-life balance, obsessive thinking, and meditation versus napping. This episode is part of an occasional series we do here on the show called Meditation Party. It features two of my old friends, Geff Warren and Sebene Selassie. If you are not familiar with those guys, uh, here's a little bit more information about them. Sebene describes herself as a writer, teacher, and immigrant weirdo. She's the author of a great book called You Belong. She's based in Brooklyn in NYC. Geff Warren is also a writer and meditation teacher. He and I co-wrote a book called Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, and he hosts his own podcast called The Mind-Bod Adventure Pod. Geff is based in Toronto. He's my favorite Canadian, as I often say. Three quick housekeeping notes before we dive in. First, this conversation first aired back in twenty twenty-four, but we're bringing it back because it's really good, as you will hear. Second, if this episode leaves

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