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

Dan Harris

Mar 2014 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

#1 New York Times Bestseller

REVISED WITH NEW MATIERAL

Winner of the 2014 Living Now Book Award for Inspirational Memoir

"An enormously smart, clear-eyed, brave-hearted, and quite personal look at the benefits of meditation."

—Elizabeth Gilbert

Nightline anchor Dan Harrisembarks on an unexpected, hilarious, and deeply skeptical odyssey through the strange worlds of spirituality and self-help, and discovers a way to get happier that is truly achievable.

After having a nationally televised panic attack, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure involving a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists. Eventually, Harris realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had propelled him through the ranks of a hypercompetitive business, but had also led him to make the profoundly stupid decisions that provoked his on-air freak-out.

Finally, Harris stumbled upon an effective way to rein in that voice, something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation, a tool that research suggests can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain. 10% Happier takes readers on a ride from the outer reaches of neuroscience to the inner sanctum of network news to the bizarre fringes of America’s spiritual scene, and leaves them with a takeaway that could actually change their lives.

Ratings and reviews

There was a lot of background of his life he talked about and his career so I was just always waiting for him to explain the 10% happier part... However its interesting to see that someone like him who's on tv& rich who you would assume is having the best life had a terrible mindset. he realized it and wanted to fix it. So he looked for a solution and it was meditation he had to practice it and incorporate it into his life. If he didn't care about fixing it, his life would have never changed

An interesting look at a skeptic's journey into meditation. He starts not believing any of it and slowly through practice comes to terms with at minimum the mechanical aspects of it for mental clarity. Worth a read if you're skeptical like him or me. He eases into it and allows you a skinny line into the open mind necessary to attempt mindfulness. He's also not wrong in it being difficult or beneficiary.

Not a bad read. I have to give credit to Dan Harris for putting it all out there. This book is just however his outlook on meditation and mindfulness, something which is perceived differently by each person. I do not regret reading it, but it would not be my first choice recommendation as an intro to mindfulness. The writing seemed somewhat bland to me at times, sprinkled with almost forced down to earth phrases. All in all though decent information on the subject and an autobiography of Dan Harris.

About the author

Dan Harris is the coanchor of Nightline and the weekend editions of Good Morning America. He regularly reports for 20/20, World News with Diane Sawyer, and the weekday editions of Good Morning America. Before joining ABC News fourteen years ago, he worked for local news outlets in Boston and Maine. He lives with his wife, Bianca, in New York City. This is his first book.