Who better to write a book about meditation than a beginner, a skeptic, someone who thought, “meditation is for people who like incense, crystals and John Tesh music.” An ABC News anchor that couldn’t understand what Depak Chopra was talking about, couldn’t believe what Eckhart Tolle was saying and called B.S. on the experts highlighted in The Secret.
10% Happier by Dan Harris is perhaps the most honest account of meditation found in hardcover. There are no major breakthroughs, no miracle cures, just an honest account of a person who has found meditation to make them 10% happier – a 10% that has slowly but surely changed his life.
In the video clip below from Nightline, the ABC news program Harris co-anchors, he walks the viewers through his path to meditation. While done in a slightly overproduced manner, the story is powerful in that it illustrates how so many of us find meditation, the incremental ups and downs of life that lead to something so simple it can be easily dismissed or overlooked.
There are no transformational trips to Bali in this story, no epic tails of monasteries or gurus, just a guy seeking a bit more happiness in everyday life – even if only 10% more.