10% Happier

HARRIS, DAN

Dan Harris always believed the restless, relentless, impossible-to-satisfy voice in his head was one of his greatest assets.

How else can you climb the ladder in an ultra-competitive field like TV news except through nonstop hand-wringing and hypervigilance? For a while, his strategy worked. Harris anchored national broadcasts and he covered wars.

Then he hit the brakes and had a full-blown panic attack live on the air. What happened next was completely unforeseen. Through a bizarre series of events - involving a disgraced evangelical pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a fateful gift from his wife - Harris stumbled upon something that helped him tame the voice in his head: meditation. At first, he was deeply suspicious.

He had long associated meditation with bearded swamis and unwashed hippies. But when confronted with mounting scientific evidence that just a few minutes a day can rewire the brain for focus, happiness, and reduced reactivity, Harris took a deep dive.