Dan Harris traces his experience finding a quieter, more peaceful mind, and life, through the unlikely pursuit of meditation. Deeply skeptical, he’s ultimately convinced by the scientific research showing meditation’s benefits. Harris says the voice in his head, the “inner narrator” he seeks to quiet, is a “total pill”—a voice that “comes braying in, heckling us all day with an air horn.” Unfortunately, his own narration has a way of grating on the ear, especially when he’s describing meditation with a cynical, yet-to-be converted eye or taking a competitive approach to mindfulness. Eventually, the ear adjusts and listeners can absorb interesting glimpses into Harris’s life as a broadcaster and his journey with meditation. However, some still may prefer to read the book to themselves. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
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
Narrated by Dan Harris
Dan HarrisUnabridged — 7 hours, 50 minutes
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
Narrated by Dan Harris
Dan HarrisUnabridged — 7 hours, 50 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
Already Subscribed?
Sign in to Your BN.com Account
Related collections and offers
FREE
with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription
Overview
Nightline anchor Dan Harris embarks 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 on Good Morning America, 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 both propelled him through the ranks of a hyper-competitive business and also led him to make the profoundly stupid decisions that provoked his on-air freak-out.
We all have a voice in our head. It's what has us losing our temper unnecessarily, checking our email compulsively, eating when we're not hungry, and fixating on the past and the future at the expense of the present. Most of us would assume we're stuck with this voice - that there's nothing we can do to rein it in - but Harris stumbled upon an effective way to do just that. It's a far cry from the miracle cures peddled by the self-help swamis he met; instead, it's something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation. After learning about research that suggests meditation can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain, Harris took a deep dive into the underreported world of CEOs, scientists, and even marines who are now using it for increased calm, focus, and happiness.
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.
Editorial Reviews
With startling, provocative, and often very funny candor, Dan Harris tells the story of why he urgently needed to tame the strident voice in his head, and how he did it. His argument for the power of mindfulness—which he bases both on cutting-edge science and his own hard-won experience—will convince even the most skeptical reader of meditation’s potential.” — Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
“10% Happier is useful, helpful, and hilarious. And if you are skeptical about meditating at all, know that Dan Harris was the biggest skeptic of all.” — Hugh Jackman
“An enormously smart, clear-eyed, brave-hearted, and quite personal look at the benefits of meditation that offers new insights as to how this ancient practice can help modern lives while avoiding the pitfall of cliché. This is a book that will help people, simply put. I know a lot of very powerful, very stressed-out, type-A personalities who will be getting this book from me as a gift this year.” — Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
“10% Happier is a spiritual adventure from a master storyteller. Mindfulness can make you happier. Read this to find out how.” — George Stephanopoulos
“Harris’s journey of discovery brought back lessons for all of us about our lives, too.” — Diane Sawyer
This brilliant, humble, funny story shows how one man found a way to navigate the non-stop stresses and demands of modern life and back to humanity by finally learning to sit around doing nothing. — Colin Beavan, author of No Impact Man
“In 10% Happier, Dan Harris describes in fascinating detail the stresses of working as a news correspondent and the relief he has found through the practice of meditation. This is an extremely brave, funny, and insightful book. Every ambitious person should read it.” — Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith
A compellingly honest, delightfully interesting, and at times heart-warming story of one highly intelligent man’s life-changing journey towards a deeper understanding of what makes us our very best selves. As Dan’s meditation practice deepens, I look forward to him being at least 11% happier, or more. — Chade-Meng Tan, author of Search Inside Yourself
Part-science, part-memoir, and part self-help, Harris outlines specific ways he learned to, well, chill the f#%k out. — GQ
“A self-help guide even skeptics will embrace . . . Harris crushes stereotypes about meditation and recounts how it slashed his stress and quieted his anxious mind.” — Parade
Revealing . . . I’d recommend this to anyone. — USA Today, Pop Candy
Harris never loses his sense of humor as he affably spotlights one man’s quest for internal serenity while concurrently navigating the slings and arrows of a hard-won career in the contemporary media spotlight. Friendly, practical advocacy for the power of mindfulness and enlightenment. — Kirkus Reviews
“Lively . . . part reporting, part personal experience . . . By letting us hear the voice in his head - before and after he starts meditating—Harris makes a convincing case that if he can do it, we can, too.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
Nightline co-anchor Dan Harris is an unlikely ambassador for mindfulness, but his new book . . . might be just the thing that gets people to unplug and recognize that all this multitasking is making us miserable and unhealthy. — xoJane
The science supporting the health benefits of meditation continues to grow as does the number of Americans who count themselves as practitioners but, it took reading 10% HAPPIER to make me actually want to give it a try.
A self-help guide even skeptics will embrace . . . Harris crushes stereotypes about meditation and recounts how it slashed his stress and quieted his anxious mind.
10% Happier is a spiritual adventure from a master storyteller. Mindfulness can make you happier. Read this to find out how.
Startling, provocative, and often very funny . . . [10% HAPPIER] will convince even the most skeptical reader of meditation’s potential.
This brilliant, humble, funny story shows how one man found a way to navigate the non-stop stresses and demands of modern life and back to humanity by finally learning to sit around doing nothing.
Part-science, part-memoir, and part self-help, Harris outlines specific ways he learned to, well, chill the f#%k out.
An enormously smart, clear-eyed, brave-hearted, and quite personal look at the benefits of meditation that offers new insights as to how this ancient practice can help modern lives while avoiding the pitfall of cliché. This is a book that will help people, simply put.
In 10% Happier, Dan Harris describes in fascinating detail the stresses of working as a news correspondent and the relief he has found through the practice of meditation. This is an extremely brave, funny, and insightful book. Every ambitious person should read it.
10% HAPPIER is hands down the best book on meditation for the uninitiated, the skeptical, or the merely curious. . . . an insightful, engaging, and hilarious tour of the mind’s darker corners and what we can do to find a bit of peace.
A compellingly honest, delightfully interesting, and at times heart-warming story of one highly intelligent man’s life-changing journey towards a deeper understanding of what makes us our very best selves. As Dan’s meditation practice deepens, I look forward to him being at least 11% happier, or more.
Nightline co-anchor Dan Harris is an unlikely ambassador for mindfulness, but his new book . . . might be just the thing that gets people to unplug and recognize that all this multitasking is making us miserable and unhealthy.
Lively . . . part reporting, part personal experience . . . By letting us hear the voice in his head - before and after he starts meditating—Harris makes a convincing case that if he can do it, we can, too.
Revealing . . . I’d recommend this to anyone.
Harris’s journey of discovery brought back lessons for all of us about our lives, too.
Revealing . . . I’d recommend this to anyone.
Harris never loses his sense of humor as he affably spotlights one man’s quest for internal serenity while concurrently navigating the slings and arrows of a hard-won career in the contemporary media spotlight. Friendly, practical advocacy for the power of mindfulness and enlightenment.
Startling, provocative, and often very funny . . . [10% HAPPIER] will convince even the most skeptical reader of meditation’s potential.
2014-02-13
How meditation relieved an award-winning journalist's stress and depression. In 2004, when Nightline co-anchor Harris filled in on Good Morning America, he suddenly suffered a debilitating panic attack during the live broadcast. That event was the culmination of years spent overextending himself personally, with recreational drug experimentation, and professionally, working for various news outlets across the country as well as stints in war-torn Iraq. The on-air meltdown spurred Harris to research nonmedicinal therapeutic remedies. Though Harris' journalistic assignments would bring him face to face with influential self-help spiritualists Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra, neither dispensed the precise amalgam of assurance and credibility necessary to truly diffuse his afflictions. After his wife Bianca's success with books by sage psychiatrist Mark Epstein, Harris found himself connecting with the good doctor's Buddhist leanings, befriending him and swiftly embracing the art of meditation, instead of debunking it as the hokey "exclusive province of bearded swamis, unwashed hippies, and fans of John Tesh music." For the author, the effects of meditation were evident almost immediately: "The net effect of meditation…was striking….It became a way to steel myself as I moved through the world." After a 10-day retreat, chronicled in the book's most entertaining section, Harris began applying this new calm, centered approach to his hectic livelihood in the media and began adopting a new attitude and approach toward instances of negativity and misfortune. That was soon put to the ultimate test during a precarious interview with Paris Hilton. Harris never loses his sense of humor as he affably spotlights one man's quest for internal serenity while concurrently navigating the slings and arrows of a hard-won career in the contemporary media spotlight. Friendly, practical advocacy for the power of mindfulness and enlightenment.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172921582 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 03/11/2014 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
