#844: Be Still — Guided Meditation with Zen Master Henry Shukman

9 min

•Jan 5, 20263 months ago

Summary

Tim Ferriss launches a new "Meditation Monday" series featuring Zen Master Henry Shukman, offering guided 10-minute meditations designed to reduce anxiety and improve daily performance. The first episode is a body scan meditation focused on achieving physical stillness and nervous system regulation through progressive relaxation techniques.

Insights

Guided meditation can be an effective tool for anxiety reduction and nervous system regulation in professional settings
Short-form meditation content (10 minutes) is positioned as a sustainable practice for busy professionals to integrate into daily routines
Body scan techniques and progressive relaxation are foundational meditation practices for beginners seeking calm and improved performance
Zen meditation practices are gaining mainstream adoption among high-performance individuals and business audiences
Mobile app-based meditation delivery enables consistent daily practice and measurable engagement metrics

Trends

Wellness and mental health content integration into business-focused podcastsSerialized short-form meditation content as a complement to long-form interview formatsZen and Buddhist meditation practices gaining credibility in performance optimization discourseAnxiety management and nervous system regulation as key wellness metrics for professionalsSubscription-based meditation apps as alternative to traditional therapy or wellness interventionsMindfulness and meditation positioned as performance enhancement tools rather than purely spiritual practices

Topics

Guided Meditation TechniquesZen Buddhism and Sambo Zen PracticeAnxiety Reduction MethodsNervous System RegulationBody Scan MeditationProgressive RelaxationMindfulness for PerformanceDaily Meditation Practice Stress ManagementMeditation App TechnologyCalm and Peace DevelopmentMeditation for Busy Professionals

Companies

The Way

Meditation app developed by Henry Shukman; Tim Ferriss endorses using it once or twice daily for anxiety reduction

People

Henry Shukman

Zen Master and one of only a few dozen authorized Sambo Zen teachers worldwide; leads the meditation series

Tim Ferriss

Podcast host and entrepreneur; launches Meditation Monday series and endorses Henry Shukman's meditation app

Quotes

"Only be still. Only be still. It doesn't matter where you've come from. It doesn't even matter where you think you want to go. For now, all that matters is your being still."

Henry Shukman•Meditation opening

"I've been using Henry's app, The Way, once, often twice a day, and it has lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible."

Tim Ferriss•Introduction

"Looseness is our guidepost here, becoming softer and kind of floppier in the body, even while we may be sitting upright."

Henry Shukman•Body scan meditation

"This is the first of a little set of four meditations, and it's designed to help you find a moment of peace in the midst of a busy day, or possibly at the end of a long, tiring day, or before your day starts."

Henry Shukman•Meditation introduction

Full Transcript

Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode is a brand new experiment called Meditation Monday. That means in addition to my long-form interviews each week, every Monday, I will be bringing you a short 10-minute or so meditation, which will help you for the rest of the week. Over this four-episode series, you'll develop a Zen toolkit specifically to help you find greater calm, peace, and effectiveness in your daily life. The teacher, Henry Shuchman, has been on my podcast twice before. He is one of only a few dozen masters in the world authorized to teach what is called Sambo Zen. And I have found this particularly interesting and effective. And now he'll be your teacher. I've been using Henry's app, The Way, once, often twice a day, and it has lowered my anxiety more than I thought possible. As a listener of the show, you yourself can get 30 free sessions by visiting thewayapp.com slash Tim. So if you like what you hear in these meditations, which will be valuable in and of themselves. You can get 30 free sessions by going to thewayapp.com slash tim. And for the time being, please enjoy this Meditation Monday with Henry Shookman. Hello, and welcome to this meditation with me, Henry Shookman. I'm really delighted and honored and quite humbled to be offering this to you. This is the first of a little set of four meditations, and it's designed to help you find a moment of peace in the midst of a busy day, or possibly at the end of a long, tiring day, or before your day starts. Any time you feel a little intervention to help your nervous system would be a good thing for you. So we're just going to do a simple body scan basically which grounds us centers us brings us back into the heart of our own being which then helps us to function and perform better in the course of our day with more peace and a better regulated nervous system so come into any comfortable seated position if you want to recline no problem Lie down If that available to you that also just fine I'm going to assume that you're sitting in the guidance that I offer. So just get comfortable. Close your eyes or lower your gaze. Let your hands rest in your lap or on your thighs or perhaps by your side. We're going to start with a little very short poem just to bring us in. Only be still. Only be still. It doesn't matter where you've come from. It doesn't even matter where you think you want to go. For now, all that matters is your being still. Whatever catastrophe or grief or yearning or hope or promise has brought you here to this very seat just now, put them aside, Set them aside. For now, all that matters is your being still. So let your body become still. Yeah, many of us carry some tension in our jaw. to see if you can let your jaw slide forward and down just a little bit. It may only go a millimeter. That can make all the difference. Release the jaw. Can you find a kind of softness in your throat? Jaw and throat, soft at ease. Let your arms hang be slack be loose Bring your awareness now into your chest area, your rib cage, and see if you can just get a taste of it being warm and soft, like warm wax. just a general sense of warmth and softness in the upper body, especially the chest area. And likewise the belly, let the belly be soft and warm and loose. sense the pressure of your upper body in your buttocks where they meet the seat. Let them relax. Let your hips spread just a little tiny bit. Looseness is our guidepost here, becoming softer and kind of floppier in the body, even while we may be sitting upright. Now the upper legs, let them also be warm and soft. They don't need to be doing anything right now. They're just at ease. And the lower legs, let them also be soft, relaxed. ankles and feet at ease. Hands hands are slack limp resting Face let face be soft Let the whole head, the cranium, the top of the skull, the back of the skull, the sides of the skull, whole head at ease. Resting. so now the entire body is still at rest at ease perhaps you can get a sense of the whole body being enveloped in a in a warmth in a kind of energy field of warmth or as if in a subtle cloud of ease and warmth, that you're granted this possibility just now of having your whole body find its way to restful ease. Okay, we'll gently come out of the meditation now. So bring some movement into your fingers. Just wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes. Open your eyes, raise your eyes. Come back into the space that you're in. Great. thank you so much for joining me in this little mini journey into the ease that's actually always here waiting for us if we just learn a few skills to help us tap into it. Next time, we'll be exploring how doing less can help us do more. Thank you very much indeed for joining me.