Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-to Book

Written by Dan Harris, Jeffrey Warren and Carlye Adler

Narrated by Dan Harris and Jeffrey Warren

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF 10% HAPPIER

Too busy to meditate? Can’t turn off your brain? Curious about mindfulness but more comfortable in the gym? This book is for you.

You’ll also get access to guided audio meditations on the 10% Happier app, to jumpstart your practice from day one.

What exactly is meditation? 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 become one of meditation’s most vocal public proponents.
 
Harris found that meditation made him more focused and less yanked around by his emotions. According to his wife, it also made him less annoying. Science suggests that the practice can lower your blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain. So what’s holding you back?

In Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Harris and Jeff Warren, a masterful teacher and “Meditation MacGyver,” embark on a gonzo cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that keep people from meditating. It is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions—all of which are also available (for free) on the 10% Happier app. This book is a trip worth taking.

*Includes two bonus guided meditations

Praise for Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

“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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9780525631026

Dan Harris

Dan Harris is host of the 10% Happier Podcast. For 21 years, he worked at ABC News, where he was the co-anchor of Nightline and the weekend editions of Good Morning America. He also reported from all over the world, including war zones and presidential campaigns. Before joining ABC, he worked for local news outlets in Boston and Maine. He lives in New York with his wife, son, and a gaggle of rescue cats. 

Reviews for Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

[steve02476 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ok book. Harris can be pretty funny and self deprecating but the book doesn’t really hold together so well. There were some good ideas for meditators (or would-be meditators) in there but a lot of other stuff that didn’t seem so interesting, like details about their road show promoting meditation (or their app anyway).

Liked his previous book better.

[tgraettinger_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Meh. Had some bits that were captivating, but not enough to propel me thru the entire book.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This covers all the basics. It may be aimed a little more at the skeptics rather than the fidgeters. =D So it wasn't as helpful for me. But it's a good introduction for someone.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There’s quite a bit of wisdom in this book, written for those who struggle to make meditation a part of their lives or doubt that they have the time or ability to “do it.” ABC News Anchor Dan Harris teams up with a team led by meditation guru Jeff Warren to give profound yet down-to-earth advice that could truly be life-changing. There were times when I wished the book hadn’t been as detailed as it was on the process involved, e.g. the 10% tour, the app, how the book was written, etc, but some of the frustrations from the real-life events from that are turned around into lessons which may make it more relatable, as is Harris’s regular joking around.

Sorry what follows is so long, but it was helpful for me to review/summarize/process it this way. Some of the nuggets of wisdom the book includes, in addition to its many sample meditations:

- Seeing the internal narrator in one’s head as not the same as oneself, and largely boring/negative/self-referential. Mindfulness being the ability to see thought patterns as characters (even naming them), or visualizing the mind as if from behind a waterfall, in order to respond wisely in situations instead of reacting impulsively. “When we are mindful, we watch thinking play out from the vantage point of awareness. Awareness is the wider perspective. Most people don’t realize it’s the wider perspective because thinking feels so similar to awareness. It’s perfectly camouflaged.”

- An interesting acronym related to difficult emotions that come up is RAIN: recognize, accept, investigate, and non-identification. Getting adept at recognizing the tip-offs for these things, accepting them (because “what you resist persists”), investigating why they are happening almost like a curious 3rd party detective, and then (a remarkable thought for me), not identifying oneself so directly with them, e.g. not taking your own emotions personally. “How does it change your experience to note that anger is happening, the way you might note a thunderstorm is happening?”

- “Meditation does not require you to stop thinking.” The mind wandering is normal, noting this and then returning to concentration is in itself the practice of meditation. Simply feel satisfaction at having noticed this in the first place, and continue on. One of the meditations encourages simply saying “Welcome to the party” when you’ve noticed the mind wandering or an insistent thought while meditating.

- Be kind to yourself, as much as you are to others. When stressed or overwhelmed, to not only see emotions clearly, but also “do it in a way that’s sort of more generous.” And the meditation with the simple short phrase, “May I be well.”

- In being compassionate to others, “The idea is to connect to the very reasonable desire for this person’s hurt and challenge to end. We are not looking to create an emotional response, although emotions can happen and are welcomed. Nor are we trying to fix the person or ‘the problem.’ Your compassion isn’t dependent on any kind of outcome. It’s caring for its own sake. We simply wish for the person to be well.”

- “Equanimity is the capacity to let your experience be what it is, without trying to fight it and negotiate with it. It’s like an inner smoothness or frictionlessness.” Later: “Let go of judgments. Let go of any bracing or rigidity. Let go of all the ways you may be subtly trying to control the experience.”

- Also let go of things you cannot control.

- As for desires, “Using noting here can really help: wanting, wanting, wanting. If you can stay with this feeling, a very liberating and powerful moment can sometimes happen: the wanting passes, and you realize you are actually fine. More than fine, happy. Content with how things are. And you realize how many hundreds of hours you have been – and will be again – lost in this pattern, robotically indulging your novelty-seeking, when, had you just thought to look, the urge would eventually pop like an empty soap bubble and you could relax.” And note that “desire can mask loneliness, agitation can cover fear, and sleeplessness can be a form of avoidance.”

- From Shinzen Young: “Suffering = Pain x Resistance. Pain is an inevitable part of life. Suffering (in his definition) is not. It comes from fighting or resisting some uncomfortable sensation or emotion or whatever. When we do this, there’s a snowball effect: tension spreads, and the original insult starts to reverberate through the whole mind-body tract, leading to even more discomfort, stress, and reactivity. The suffering amplifies.”

- The Buddhist parable about the “second arrow.” “A man is walking through the woods and he gets hit by an arrow. He immediately engages in a round of self-pitying thoughts: ‘Who shot me with an arrow? Why am I always the one who gets hit be an arrow? … These painful thoughts are the second arrow.” “We can have really old stories too: some arrowhead got snapped off years before, and it’s still festering in our chest, radiating out into our experience in the form of grudges and avoidances and lifelong convictions about how things are and should be. These patterns are reactions. We can live inside them without any memory or awareness of what they once reacted to.”

- Relative to worry, from Joseph Goldstein: “When for the eighty-seventh time you find yourself chewing over, say an impending deadline or your rival’s promotion, maybe ask yourself one simple question: ‘Is this useful?’”

- Relative to opinions, from Bernie Glassman: “When you go into any situation, think, don’t know.” Warren explains: “As in, don’t pretend you know what’s up or what’s really going on. Chill for a bit in the situation, watching, learning. There’s a humility here that is really helpful.”

- Relative to keep it going, “You should view failure as inevitable and even a healthy part of the process.” Moreover even 10 good breaths in any situation or mental state can be a useful meditation; it can be interspersed/integrated into daily activities. “Your breath is your best friend in life and in meditation. Breathing in and up can raise your energy when you are low, and breathing out and down can lower your energy when you are high.”

- You can age badly, and you can age well. I know affable old folks who sit in the park and watch the kids play, and they’ve got that good-natured, easygoing quality. A serious practice just makes that happen sooner in your life.”

- Finally this: “The truth is, I was born on third base, the recipient of an incalculable amount of unearned privilege.” It may not be true for all readers (or at least, as extreme), but what fantastic recognition and perspective by Dan Harris. Another is “These are the good old days.”

[clara53_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent follow up to Dan Harris's "10% Happier..." book about mindfulness meditation. Here we have actual mindfulness meditation instructions by Jeff Warren, a very skillful mindfulness meditation teacher, alongside with Dan Harris's unending wit and hilarious comments (I couldn't help but burst out laughing out loud at times!). The instruction is directed to everybody - either starting on the journey of mindfulness meditation or in the process of mastering it. I found it tremendously helpful, as I listened to this audiobook. I felt like listening to some chapters again and again. I have to say that I was very impressed with how Jeff Warren expanded the notion of mindfulness meditation - he offers a variety of techniques for all personality types, as well as for extremely busy people. Just as the title implies - even skeptics will get on board!

[mm_jones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Informative guidance for folks new to the skills of mindfulness meditation. Even better for those who have sampled the practice, but judged themselves unsuccessful. A real beginners book. Thoughtful, generous and humorous, a real antidote to one's "fallacy of uniqueness". This book clarifies many of the misconceptions people have about meditation; shows how it can be practiced by anyone.

[1randal-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reading this is like having your own, personal meditation coach. One who understands how easily distracted a person can be, and relates to you like a friend. Who takes the time to tell you it's okay to not be the perfect Buddha. It's given me a lot to think about, and is very encouraging!