Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-to Book
Written by Jeffrey Warren and Carlye Adler
Narrated by Jeffrey Warren
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
This book will get you to meditate. Minus the pan flutes.
ABC News anchor Dan Harris used to think that meditation was for people who collect crystals, play Ultimate Frisbee, and use the word "namaste" without irony. After he had a panic attack on live television, he went on a strange and circuitous journey that ultimately led him to embrace a practice he'd long considered ridiculous. Harris discovered that meditation made him more focused and less yanked around by his emotions. According to his wife, it also made him significantly less annoying. He wrote about his experiences in the bracingly candid and extremely funny memoir 10% Happier, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller and landed Harris in the entirely unexpected position of being one of meditation's most vocal public proponents.
Here's what he's fixated on now: Science suggests that meditation can lower blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain, among numerous other benefits. And yet there are millions of people who want to meditate but aren't actually practicing. What's holding them back?
In Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Harris and his friend Jeff Warren, a masterful teacher and "Meditation MacGyver," embark on a cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that stop people from meditating. They rent a rock-star tour bus (whose previous occupants were Parliament Funkadelic) and travel across eighteen states, talking to scores of would-be meditators—including parents, military cadets, police officers, and even a few celebrities. They create a taxonomy of the most common issues ("I suck at this," "I don't have the time," etc.) and offer up science-based life hacks to help people overcome them.
The book is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions. You'll also get access to the 10% Happier app, where you can listen for free to guided audio versions of all the meditations in the book. Amid it all unspools the strange and hilarious story of what happens when a congenitally sarcastic, type-A journalist and a groovy Canadian mystic embark on an epic road trip into America's neurotic underbelly, as well as their own.
Includes two bonus guided meditations.
Jeffrey Warren
Jeffrey Warren is a retired Professional Engineer and longtime entrepreneur having founded, operated and sold four businesses from aircraft design and manufacturing, furniture manufacturing, software architecture with database applications to an RV park. He is the author of several technical, non-fiction papers and books. He began writing fiction for a family audience during an interlude between companies. His first published work was an illustrated collection of musings and short stories entitled, Stages of Life. An avid sailor, he lives with his wife, eight horses, a donkey, and rescue dog Scout, on a mountain ranch in Idaho. He has followed a lifelong belief that wherever the wind may blow, you will find opportunity and gain valuable experience.
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Reviews for Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics
112 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an excellent follow up to Dan Harris's "10% Happier..." book about mindfulness meditation. Here we have actual mindfulness meditation instructions by Jeff Warren, a very skillful mindfulness meditation teacher, alongside with Dan Harris's unending wit and hilarious comments (I couldn't help but burst out laughing out loud at times!). The instruction is directed to everybody - either starting on the journey of mindfulness meditation or in the process of mastering it. I found it tremendously helpful, as I listened to this audiobook. I felt like listening to some chapters again and again. I have to say that I was very impressed with how Jeff Warren expanded the notion of mindfulness meditation - he offers a variety of techniques for all personality types, as well as for extremely busy people. Just as the title implies - even skeptics will get on board!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reading this is like having your own, personal meditation coach. One who understands how easily distracted a person can be, and relates to you like a friend. Who takes the time to tell you it's okay to not be the perfect Buddha. It's given me a lot to think about, and is very encouraging!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Informative guidance for folks new to the skills of mindfulness meditation. Even better for those who have sampled the practice, but judged themselves unsuccessful. A real beginners book. Thoughtful, generous and humorous, a real antidote to one's "fallacy of uniqueness". This book clarifies many of the misconceptions people have about meditation; shows how it can be practiced by anyone.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ok book. Harris can be pretty funny and self deprecating but the book doesn’t really hold together so well. There were some good ideas for meditators (or would-be meditators) in there but a lot of other stuff that didn’t seem so interesting, like details about their road show promoting meditation (or their app anyway).
Liked his previous book better. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meh. Had some bits that were captivating, but not enough to propel me thru the entire book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This covers all the basics. It may be aimed a little more at the skeptics rather than the fidgeters. =D So it wasn't as helpful for me. But it's a good introduction for someone.