Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

Harris (10% Happier), an ABC Nightline coanchor, teams up with Warren, a meditation teacher, in this entertaining and useful guide for the beginning meditator. Following Harris’s on-air panic attack in 2004, he embarked on a quest for an effective antianxiety cure, eventually hitting on meditation due to the studies testifying to its effectiveness and his realization that there is nothing “weird” about mindfulness meditation, a “simple, secular exercise for your brain.” This book offers a number of carefully crafted meditation practices explained in detail by Warren (such as the “Walking Meditation” and the “Giving a Shit About Yourself Meditation”). Harris’s first-person narrative also follows him and Warren on the 11-day cross-country 10% Happier Meditation Tour as they pay calls on folks who might particularly benefit from a crash course in mindfulness (e.g., former prison inmates, cops, military trainees). Throughout, Harris also ponders the nature and value of meditation, sharing with readers, among other things, his fear of losing his edge at his highly competitive job. Meditation newbies will particularly benefit from the topics covered: how to find time, how to sit, how to overcome self-judgment, and other FAQs about the powerful, life-changing practice the authors strive to unpack and promote in this clever guide. Agent: Luke Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit. (Dec.)