10% Happier
Dan Harris was co-anchoring Good Morning America when he had a panic attack live on air, an event that forced him to look at the anxiety, cocaine use, and workaholism that had been quietly running his life. This book tracks what he did next, from covering evangelical Christianity and New Age self-help as a network correspondent to meeting the neuroscientists and Buddhist teachers who convinced him meditation was worth taking seriously. Harris writes as a skeptic who resents being sold to, which makes his eventual conversion to a daily practice unusually persuasive. He interweaves reporting on the science of contemplative practice with reporting on the personalities inside American Buddhism, and lands on a modest promise the title states plainly. The book helped move meditation out of the wellness aisle and into ordinary lives, and became the seed of a meditation app and podcast of the same name.
What you might want to know about 10% Happier
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
ABC News anchor Dan Harris chronicles how a live televised panic attack led him, reluctantly, to meditation and a career reporting on the science of mindfulness.
Attia has recommended the book as the best entry point for skeptical high-performers who resist the language of mindfulness, because Harris arrives at the practice through journalism and evidence rather than belief.
No. The book works as a memoir on its own terms, though most readers finish it curious enough to try the app that grew out of it.
10% Happier was written by Dan Harris, published in 2014 by It Books.
10% Happier is 256 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, 10% Happier takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
10% Happier is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
