TIME Ideas psychology How to Be 10% Happier

Shane Parrish writes Farnam Street

Think you had a bad day?

Dan Harris had a panic attack on live TV in front of millions of people.

Something had to change. He knew it. Almost immediately after the panic attack on the air he was assigned to cover religion, which introduced him to meditation, which made him, as he puts it, 10% happier.

He wrote about his on-air panic attack in great detail in his fascinating book 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually WorksA True Story.

Harris argues that meditation has a PR problem.

largely because its most prominent proponents talk as if they have a perpetual pan flute accompaniment. If you can get past the cultural baggage, though, what youll find is that meditation is simply exercise for your brain. Its a proven technique for preventing the voice in your head from leading you around by the nose. To be clear, its not a miracle cure. It wont make you taller or better-looking, nor will it magically solve all of your problems. You should disregard the fancy books and the famous gurus promising immediate enlightenment. In my experience, meditation makes you 10% happier. Thats an absurdly unscientific estimate, of course. But still, not a bad return on investment.

Originally Dan wanted to call his book The Voice in My Head Is an A******. We all have that voice.

To be clear, Im not talking about hearing voices, Im talking about the internal narrator, the most intimate part of our lives. The voice comes braying in as soon as we open our eyes in the morning, and then heckles us all day long with an air horn. Its a fever swamp of urges, desires, and judgments. Its fixated on the past and the future, to the detriment of the here and now. Its what has us reaching into the fridge when were not hungry, losing our temper when we know its not really in our best interest, and pruning our inboxes when were ostensibly engaged in conversation with other human beings. Our inner chatter isnt all bad, of course. Sometimes its creative, generous, or funny. But if we dont pay close attention which very few of us are taught how to do it can be a malevolent puppeteer.

Excerpt from:
How to Be 10% Happier