Happiness Break: A Meditation on Playfulness, With Dacher Keltner

We all have a playful side, and research shows acting on it can help us when we need to move through challenging emotions, manage conflict, and be more creative.

Link to episode transcript: http://tinyurl.com/4bxtn9ek

How to Do This Practice:

1. Find a comfortable position to begin the practice. Focus on breathing deeply.

2. Think back to a moment of play during your childhood. Recall specific details like your age, what you were doing and who you were with. As you remember, notice how the memory is affecting you in the present moment.

3. Next, focus on a recent memory of play – maybe with your partner, friends, or family. Fully recall the moment, again bringing to mind specific details. Notice how this memory makes you feel.

4. Take note of how reflecting on play has affected your breathing. Did it affect the tight areas in your body? How about the relaxed and open ones?

5. As you refocus your attention on your breath, make a commitment to add play into your busy schedule going forward.

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: *