Book Review of ‘10% Happier’

This week I’ve done a book review of 10% Happier by Dan Harris.

Hi, today I’m reviewing 10% Happier by Dan Harris. How I tamed the voice in my head, reduced stress without losing my edge and found self-help that actually works, a true story. Well, that sounds promising, right? And actually, I started the book and almost didn’t get past the first chapter because at first I was, I think, a little turned off by the guy. And I think Dan Harris himself would acknowledge the reason, the possible reasons for that. He certainly seems to do so throughout the book. In any case I kept going, and he and I do have certain things in common. I suspect that I’m not nearly as competitive as he is and I’m not nearly as ambitious, but there’s a certain feeling of wanting to do well. That goes a lot with being a lawyer, frankly. There’s a lot of this desire to be excellent at whatever.

And anyway, there’s a lot of anxieties that I think we share. And the funny thing is that for the very first time possibly I really understand some of the principles of mindfulness. I do a lot of reading on this cause it’s a very important subject to me. And for the first time I think I really understand what you’re doing when you meditate. Even though I have been meditating for a long time, on and off. I actually recently took it up again after a very long gap of not, you know, not doing it. And I think it helps a lot. And this book really takes you through what I thought was a very good explanation for the cynics or the doubtful out there because that’s where I was. I mean, at various points in my life, I’ve been quite cynical about various things and well, sometimes. Anyway there’s a lot of stuff in the appendix, too.

It absolutely just looks great and I just think it’s a really good book. Okay. Buddhism for instance, you know, so I’m interested in Buddhism, but I’ve never really quite grasped it. For the first time, I feel like I grasp it—kind of. So anyway, I like this book a lot. I hope you got that impression. How could you not get that impression? Right? Okay. I’m done. Right. So thanks for listening and really try out this book. If you really want to try to understand mindfulness, meditation, just as a way of life and a way of feeling better about things. That’s it for now.