10% Happier 10th Anniversary: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story

About this time last year I decided I wanted to learn how to meditate. I came to the conclusion that my stressful work days and busy personal life filled with relentless obligations had started to make me lose my cool. Seemingly small things would cause me to erupt like a volcano and I would find myself wondering just what the hell happened a few minutes later. In short, I was becoming my dad who would yell obscenities for a few minutes in our kitchen just because he dropped his spoon. The thought of one day becoming that made me grimace. Plus I didn't want my wife being one of those women who complained about her husbands' temper during a girls’ night out. I knew I had to do something.My searches around the net for meditation information was more confusing than enlightening. Vague words like mindfulness, heart chakras, and loving-kindness were thrown around like crazy and then I tried to read one of the most critically acclaimed and loved books on being present and what I thought was about meditation but turned out it wasn’t, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, only to be disappointed again by vague concepts, made up woo woo terminology that truly did not make any sense at all, and no concrete advice given to gain Tolle’s “enlightenment.” I lost count of the times I had to go back and re-read a sentence or even a paragraph just to understand what the heck Tolle was saying. Don’t get me wrong there were certainly strong points to the text but it just felt like I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get to something of practical substance. And then I found Victor Davich’s 8 Minute Meditation and Dan Harris’ 10% Happier and cut through all the crap and started meditating every day and have never looked back.I’m much more focused, creative, and relaxed than before. Don’t get me wrong it definitely took a while to get where I’m at. The first couple of weeks were a pain in the butt. Trying to get over the fact that yes my mind wanders and that it’s really not that big of a deal takes time. You learn to forgive yourself and you try to gain focus again, even if for only a short while. That’s really what meditation is all about and that’s why I couldn’t wait to read this book by Mr. Harris. I’m pretty sure his story of becoming a meditator is very similar to a lot of people’s out there, just on a much grander (and funnier) scale. I can relate to his panic attack that he suffered on air. I suffered one not that long ago in a hotel bedroom in Boise, Id. His search for help with his anxiety is also something I’m sure everyone has experienced only to be let down by traditional western medicine’s answer of a pill that will solve all your problems. And lastly I’m sure you’ll find, just as he did, that if you stick with it long enough this meditation thing really isn’t that complicated but that it really does have a lot to offer.So maybe you haven’t gone through all this stuff yet like Harris, myself, and a bunch of other people already have. First, count yourself lucky and second, save yourself the confusion and anxiety and just read this book in advance before you really need it. Like me, I’m sure you’ll be glad you did. Lastly take his instructions and tips at the end of the book seriously and practice them religiously. He’s giving you pearls here and these techniques and mindsets are a godsend. Thank you Dan for writing your hysterical, honest, and most importantly insightful story.

Near the middle of this well-written, engaging, useful book, the author is describing persons at a meditation retreat as looking like they are from "the loony bin". It is a funny book, and I know he was going for humor, but.....please. (My mother, who was born in 1923, used this expression. No one should be using it in 2014.) Dan Harris is an intelligent reporter, knowledgeable about so many subjects, and I'm sure he must have an awareness of brain disorders and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, for which people often need to be hospitalized. If not, he can get info from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) about their excellent "Stigma Busters" program. (Maybe he could do a story about this for ABC.) As someone who has worked and volunteered in psychiatric hospitals for many years, it saddened me to see this carelessness and implied disrespect for people who, through no fault of their own, are ill. He wouldn't say cancer patients are from "a malignancy bin"!!! Language is powerful; there are many ways to be funny without harm.OK, off my soapbox. It really is a wonderfully informative book and it held my interest from page 1. I loved his personal story, and the honesty with which he moves it forward. He is great at description and anecdotes, and he writes about other people in the news business, and about meditation experts, with candor and just enough restraint. Highly recommended. Mary Lee MoserPS A week or so later--my husband is reading it now, and we have both started to meditate in the mornings, inspired by this book.

Dan Harris makes a huge contribution to the field of mindfulness meditation in 10% Happier. In a way that only a former war correspondent and Nightline news anchor could, Harris has created a lens to look at the phenomenon of mindfulness with a kind of sharpness that is unparalleled in popular or academic literature on this subject.With wit and humility, Harris openly shares his struggles with anxiety in his life and career in front of a camera. Starting with his on-the-air panic attack in 2004, Harris recounts how his ambition-fueled, perfectionist, non-stop work ethic left him subject to emotional meltdowns that led him to use cocaine to self-medicate. Forced to examine his inner life, he recounts his highs and lows navigating the maze of self-help and professional help to find inner peace without sacrificing his competitive edge.Along the way you are treated to gems of observation the likes of which you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in print, even in someone’s private email, but especially in a book so enthusiastic about mindfulness. Yet it’s Harris’ realism and, undoubtedly, his discipline at finding unique angles to report that makes this book so special.For example, commenting about something many people have probably thought but no one has dared to speak, he says: “Turns out, mindfulness isn’t such a cute look. Everyone is in his or her own world, trying very hard to stay in the moment. The effort of concentration produces facial expressions that range from blank to defecatory.”Then there’s this nugget, when he refers the practice of some of his fellow retreat participants to bow to a statue of the Buddha: “I’m still bowing to the Buddha, but mostly for the hamstring stretch.”As a psychotherapist and teacher of mindfulness-based counseling techniques, I am highly recommending 10% Happier to both my clients and student/colleagues. Here’s why. Harris is a synthesizer, rendering the dense subjects of mindfulness culture, science, and meditation-user experience into a three-part harmony that immediately makes you want to hear more. His stories pull you in. Before you know it, you’re in the story yourself, identifying with one of the zillions of facets that emerge in his writing.Whether it’s his reporting of and friendship with Ted Haggard, the fallen-from-grace evangelical church leader, or his confessions of insecurity working among television giants like Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer, Harris uses a running psychoanalysis of himself as the instrument which carries the reader deeper into contemplation of their own psyche.Admittedly, this book isn’t a how-to for meditation, nor is it a scientific discourse about neurobiology. (Bookstores are already filled with these.) But as I like to say about the healing work of psychotherapy, it moves the ball down the field. For experienced meditators, perhaps it challenges some of the sacred attachments (a nice way of saying “ruts”) you have in your current practice. For beginners, moving the ball down the field might look like the simple act of attending your first yoga session and having the confidence to know you don’t need to learn Sanskrit or wear spandex (but hey, spandex is cool too).After reading 10% Happier, I feel closer to the amazingly diverse and rich community of mindfulness practitioners that I might not have learned about if I kept my literary diet fixed on those from the same mindfulness “tribe” I’ve trained and practiced with. Thanks to Dan’s investigative narrative and personal prose, his book is a powerful resource to help you wake up from life on automatic.As Leo Tolstoy once said: “In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” Dan Harris will help you do this. 10% more.

What a pleasure it was to tag along as a reader on Dan Harris’ funny, smart, self-deprecating, and very personal journey of discovery of the power and possibilities of including meditation in your life. A joy to read.

Really enjoyable and honest insight into an individuals desire to better one self. Felt that the book provided practical advice as well as compassionate critiques into some high profile self improvement gurus/theories.

Eine interessante Geschichte mit einer schönen Message dahinter und praktischen Tipps, der Schreibstil ist sehr sehr lehrreich aber nicht trocken

i'm satisfied with the product

Un libro bastante útil para todas aquellas personas que estén interesadas en explorar los beneficios de la práctica de la meditación. Dan Harris sabe exponer de manera muy práctica y amena las dudas e inquietudes de una persona común y corriente pero con la suficiente calidad intelectual y consciencia como para darse cuenta de que existe otro camino para poder evitar caer en las trampas de la mente al enfrentarse a las vicisitudes de la vida cotidiana.