Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Unstoppable Friendliness | Bonus Meditation with Pascal Auclair

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

When we abandon preconceived ideas, we all get freer. Learn to embrace others' full humanity through this liberating practice of acceptance.About Pascal Auclair:Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where he is now enjoying teaching retreats. Pascal teaches in North America and in Europe. He is a co-founder of True North Insight and one of TNI’s Guiding Teachers.To find this meditation in the Happier Meditation app, you can search for “Unstoppable Friendliness.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to 10% happier early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. It's the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Happy Valentine's Day. It's time for a bonus meditation. When I first heard the phrase loving kindness, I thought it was inexcusably cheesy. So sometimes I prefer to call it friendliness. Our meditation teacher du jour, Pascal Eau Claire, takes that one step further by using

the phrase unstoppable friendliness. And in today's meditation, he's gonna help you get a taste of it. Just a little bit more about Pascal before we jump in here. He's based in Canada. He's trained with the great Joseph Goldstein at the Insight Meditation Society, and he's the co-founder of True North Insight.

Here we go now with Pascal Eau Claire. Hello you, it's me, Pascal. Loving kindness or unstoppable friendliness, as Anoushka Fernandou-Pouli calls it, can be nurtured by abandoning what is blocking it. Follow me on this unexpected and liberating journey. First, let's settle in a comfortable posture, where you'll feel supported and stable. A little moment of solitude and introspection. What a blessing. Okay, let's reflect for a moment on the attitudes in our minds that sometimes keep us from being

able to wish well to ourselves and others. To be kind. Isn't it true that judgments, expectations, demands, or resentments sometimes get in the way of our love and appreciation? Bring someone to mind, a family member or friend. Imagine them here with you. Now just as an exploration in your mind, you might say to them something like, I free you at least for a moment from my limiting views about you. Try it out. Just as an experiment, just to feel how it feels, I free you from my expectations at least for a moment. Reflect on these phrases or offer your own. And now, we could also see if we can remove, at least for a moment, what gets in the way of

wishing ourselves well. Reflecting to yourself, I free myself from all the demands I put on myself. I free myself from all expectations I have about me, from my harshness towards myself and all the demands I put on myself. I give myself a break just for a moment to see how it feels. Continue this reflection on your own for a little while. Sometimes these meditations are helpful, liberating. Sometimes they can bring stuff up. It's part of the healing journey. See if you can abandon the obstacles to unstoppable friendliness as you meet folks or think of them today.

Take good care of yourself and others today. Thank you, Pascal. You can find more meditations like this one over on the Happier Meditation app. Just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. If you like 10% happier, and I hope you do, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.