Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

A 10% Happier How-to Book

By: Dan Harris, Carlye Adler, Jeffrey Warren

Narrated by: Dan Harris, Jeffrey Warren

This book will get you to meditate. Minus the pan flutes.

ABC News anchor Dan Harris used to think that meditation was for people who collect crystals, play Ultimate Frisbee, and use the word namaste without irony. After he had a panic attack on live television, he went on a strange and circuitous journey that ultimately led him to embrace a practice he'd long considered ridiculous. Harris discovered that meditation made him more focused and less yanked around by his emotions. According to his wife, it also made him significantly less annoying. He wrote about his experiences in the bracingly candid and extremely funny memoir 10% Happier, which became a number one New York Times best seller and landed Harris in the entirely unexpected position of being one of meditation's most vocal public proponents.

Here's what he's fixated on now: Science suggests that meditation can lower blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain, among numerous other benefits. And yet there are millions of people who want to meditate but aren't actually practicing. What's holding them back? In Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Harris and his friend Jeff Warren, a masterful teacher and "Meditation MacGyver", embark on a cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that stop people from meditating. They rent a rock-star tour bus (whose previous occupants were Parliament Funkadelic) and travel across 18 states, talking to scores of would-be meditators - including parents, military cadets, police officers, and even a few celebrities. They create a taxonomy of the most common issues ("I suck at this", "I don't have the time", etc.) and offer up science-based life hacks to help people overcome them.

The book is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions. You'll also get access to the 10% Happier app, where you can listen for free to guided audio versions of all the meditations in the book. Amid it all unspools the strange and hilarious story of what happens when a congenitally sarcastic, type-A journalist and a groovy Canadian mystic embark on an epic road trip into America's neurotic underbelly as well as their own.

Includes two bonus guided meditations.

©2017 Dan Harris, Carlye Adler, Jeffrey Warren (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"If you're intrigued by meditation but don't know how to begin - or you've benefited from meditation in the past but need help to get started again, Dan Harris has written the book for you. Well researched, practical, and crammed with expert advice, it's also an irreverent, hilarious page-turner." (Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project)

"The ABC News anchor, a 'defender of worrying' who once had an anxiety attack on air, offers a hilarious and stirring account of his two-steps-forward-one-step-back campaign to sort 'useless rumination' from 'constructive anguish' via mindfulness, along with invaluable suggestions for following in his footsteps." (O: The Oprah Magazine)

"If your mind has a mind of its own, this is the book for you! With humor, generosity, and devastating candor, Dan Harris makes meditation make sense. This is news we can all use." (Mark Epstein, MD, author of Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart)

I will read/listen to this one again and again.

I could not be happier with this purchase, well maybe 10 percent happier. now to put it into practice.

very useful

This title transfers well to audio format and is well read by the authors. The book is a great introduction to meditation. I 100% recommend it.

Good place to start

I liked it a lot. It gives you tools to start your meditation practice as well as tips to stick with it and resources to deepen your knowledge.

Relax and reflect

Sincere, approachable text demystifies meditation and opens door to real (albeit marginal) increase in happiness.

A journey to happiness through meditation

An amazing entry point for newbies, a revelation to skeptics. It is a journey to happiness through meditation, a must.

good book

this is an excellent read if your on the fence about mediating. This book is for you.

perfect title: very accessible book

Very well narrated, particularly the parts by Jeff Warren. The encompassing story about the tour per se is not super relevant but the chapters are built around common struggles and the authors maintain a dialog addressing them. The meditations are great not only per se but also so we can better understand the attitude one can have toward living in a mindful manner.

Practical and Useful

I have been meditating on for about six months. I started on my own with a couple of apps, but I wasn’t sure that I was doing it right. This book gave me some real confidence and I am on the right track and some new ideas to think about and some new techniques to try. I would highly recommend it for anybody that is looking for a practical nonsense

Jazzercise

I did not expect to laugh out loud nearly as much as I did. Dan’s words and delivery are hilarious, personal, authentic and touching. This book shows that no matter your background, upbringing, current personal or professional status- anyone can benefit from a meditation practice. Excellent work.

Mindfulness

Helped me implement a meditation habit when I really needed it all along. After this book I see myself meditating for the distant future.