Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-to Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF 10% HAPPIER
Too busy to meditate? Can’t turn off your brain? Curious about meditation 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.
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.
Here’s what he’s fixated on now: Science suggests that meditation can lower blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain, among numerous other benefits. And yet there are millions of people who want to meditate but aren’t actually practicing. What’s holding them back?
In Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Harris and his friend Jeff Warren, a masterful teacher and “Meditation MacGyver,” embark on a cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that stop people from meditating. They rent a rock-star tour bus (whose previous occupants were Parliament Funkadelic) and travel across eighteen states, talking to scores of would-be meditators—including parents, military cadets, police officers, and even a few celebrities. They create a taxonomy of the most common issues (“I suck at this,” “I don’t have the time,” etc.) and offer up science-based life hacks to help people overcome them.
The book is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions. Amid it all unspools the strange and hilarious story of what happens when a congenitally sarcastic, type-A journalist and a groovy Canadian mystic embark on an epic road trip into America’s neurotic underbelly, as well as their own.
Too busy to meditate? Can’t turn off your brain? Curious about meditation 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.
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.
Here’s what he’s fixated on now: Science suggests that meditation can lower blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain, among numerous other benefits. And yet there are millions of people who want to meditate but aren’t actually practicing. What’s holding them back?
In Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Harris and his friend Jeff Warren, a masterful teacher and “Meditation MacGyver,” embark on a cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that stop people from meditating. They rent a rock-star tour bus (whose previous occupants were Parliament Funkadelic) and travel across eighteen states, talking to scores of would-be meditators—including parents, military cadets, police officers, and even a few celebrities. They create a taxonomy of the most common issues (“I suck at this,” “I don’t have the time,” etc.) and offer up science-based life hacks to help people overcome them.
The book is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions. Amid it all unspools the strange and hilarious story of what happens when a congenitally sarcastic, type-A journalist and a groovy Canadian mystic embark on an epic road trip into America’s neurotic underbelly, as well as their own.
What I thought:
Pretty sure this book was written for me. Fidgety skeptic. Yep, that's me.
It delves into the benefits of meditation (and all the excuses not to meditate) and still manages to stay grounded, rarely meandering into the lofty gray area of woo-woo stuff. And it does it with a dry, witty, irreverent humor that perfectly fits the narrative.
I highly recommend MEDITATION FOR FIDGETY SKEPTICS for anyone even the tiniest bit interested in gaining a little more inner peace. And also for those wishing to avoid social interactions. Because, seriously, "sorry I have to meditate" is the best excuse for pretty much anything.
Rating: **** ( 4 1/2 stars)
Rating: **** ( 4 1/2 stars)
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RATING SCALE:
5* = OMFG loved it. Will read it again. Touch my book and I will cut you.
4* = Really good. Highly recommend. Miiiight reread. Maybe. Don't touch my book.
3* = Good. I liked it. Go ahead and touch it.
2* = Not for me, finished but struggled. Didn't connect. Here, have a book.
1* = DNF. Couldn't do it.
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Click on the cover to link to Goodreads and leave your book recs in my comments. Oh, yeah, and find me on twitter: @ChellyPike
Sounds like a great book. I think I read another book by this author. And I've been meditating for over 30 years.
ReplyDeleteReally good. I haven't read his other book yet. I think it's 10% Happier, but now I need to. :D
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