Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

We spend a lot of energy trying to optimize our time, but what happens when we're forced to surrender to it? Writer, meditation teacher and lifetime student of Buddhism Sebene Selassie has been living with cancer for more than twenty years. In that time, she's learned something most of us spend a lifetime avoiding: how little control we actually have, and how to find joy anyway. This is the third and final episode in our month-long series on time. We’ve discussed how we spend our minutes, our days, our months and our years. Today you’ll hear about how we make the most of all of it..

In this episode, Jessi and Sebene discuss:


Why a cancer diagnosis at 34 became the entry point to a deeper spiritual life, and eventually, to teaching

The tight relationship between fear and control, and how Sebene has spent twenty years slowly loosening her grip on both

What Sebene’s ticking clock has taught her about the present moment

The difference between joy and happiness, and why joy is available even in the hardest moments

Why meditation isn't about feeling better, and what the saccharine corporate version gets wrong

The paradox at the heart of Sebene’s book You Belong: A Call for Connection

How grasping for time is often just grasping for control, and what we miss when we do this

What it means to show up to life openhearted, fully as yourself


Follow Sebene Selassie and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn.

Join us this Wednesday at 3pm EST for the return of Office Hours!