10% Happier by Dan Harris

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a surprisingly wonderful book! I picked this up by accident because I thought it was a popular science book about the phenomenon of our happiness set point and the small change we're able to make to those set points. A few pages in, I realized I was reading a memoir about a news anchor who was not the kind of person I find it easy to relate to usually. I checked on Goodreads and saw some not-so-positive reviews, and I almost gave up reading the book. I'm so glad I didn't.

The author first takes us on his journalistic investigation of religion, especially Evangelical Christianity, which then leads to his own spiritual quest. He skeptically interviewed some self-help gurus. He then went off in a different direction by examining Buddhism. This leads to a significant portion of the book examining the practice, purpose, and pitfalls of mindfulness and meditation. All the while, the author is describing how his quest helped him grow as a person, and I realized how much I can and do connect with the author.

I'm not sure if I could have totally understood the value of this book two years ago, but since then I've also regularly practiced (with some inconsistency) and read widely about meditation. This is one of my new favorite books about meditation. Harris has a very non-guru approach which was very refreshing to me because I am also not a meditation guru. He had every skeptical thought I had in my early learning process, but more importantly, he addressed problems that I had not yet resolved in my own practice. He provided information that was new to me despite the books I've read about meditation and mindfulness, and this has encouraged me to go back to practicing more regularly and possibly for longer sessions. I think I also want to go to one of those multi-day meditation retreats now.

View all my reviews