10% Happier
Author: Dan Harris
Rating: ā 5/5
Date Read: 2015/01/26
Pages: 256
This book was far, far better than I expected. Actually, Iām not sure what I expected: the title, 10% Happier, suggested to me something akin to Gretchen Rubinās somewhat inane Happiness Project, which I didnāt care for. Turns out, the original title for 10% Happier was āThe Voice in My Head is an Asshole,ā which is both far more amusing and a better description of the actual content of the book. Still, though, it doesnāt convey the fact that the book is really a memoir of Dan Harrisās life in broadcast news, of trying to replace the high of war correspondence with cocaine, and of attempting to be happier through meditation. The happier through meditation thing is tough for Harris, though, because he finds it easy to jump to conclusions about soft-spoken hippies named Spring who exhort everyone to love all living beings.
Iāve already bought into meditation, hippies named Spring or no, but I havenāt really been able to incorporate it into my life as much as Iād like. I started practicing through yoga, and enjoyed the peace of mind I got at the end of every yoga class. Incorporating this into life, though, was hard. I was lucky enough to go to graduate school in department that had a number of people examining meditation from a cognitive neuroscience point of view, so I also didnāt need to be convinced of the science. That didnāt mean I had started a serious meditation practice, but at the very least it had wormed its way onto the long list of things I knew I should be doing.
Harrisās description of the sheer difficulty involved in meditation is spot on. When left to its own devices, my brain seems to bounce between random thoughts (I wonder what the demographics of Antananarivo are like), productive-sounding distraction (it would be a wonderful idea to learn all of the most important viticultural areas in Germany right now, letās do that, maybe Austria too!!!) and unfounded worry (I canāt believe I still havenāt responded to that email, Iām a terrible person and Iām going to ruin my career and my life, and I wonāt even be able to afford to live in the Bay Area anymore so Iām going to have to move to somewhere terrible like Kentucky or New Mexico or at the very least Southern California and Iāll never have a job again and probably In-n-Out wouldnāt even take me as a line cook because theyāre all religious and stuff).
I recommend this book for anyone whoās interested in self-improvement, but who doesnāt want to hear woo-woo crap about cosmic synchronicity. Although I listened to the well-produced audiobook, Iām planning on buying myself a physical copy to use as reference!