Book Review – 10% Happier

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The book’s title promises a measurable improvement in happiness. The 10% number, however, is a hoax — people tend to prefer concrete numbers over subjective qualifiers — to lure people into reading the book. While I succumbed to the trick, considering the book provided a reasonable path forward to improving happiness while telling an interesting story, I am willing to let the clickbait title slide.

The book is about Dan Harris, a Journalist/News Reporter, who once had a mental breakdown on live TV. The story explains what led to his breakdown and how he attempted to fix his mental health following it. He tried many ways to de-stress and eventually stumbled upon mindfulness. As a journalist, he was skeptical about it. He interviewed various gurus to understand it better and eventually started practicing mindfulness to validate the effects. He was struggling to see quick results, so at one point he went on a meditation retreat — that was an interesting arc to read.

I found the memoir somewhat relatable. It’s not a book from a mindfulness guru, but rather an experience of an ordinary practitioner. Dan had a normal 9-5 stressful job with worries as typical as it gets — worry about promotion, layoff, love, and ambitions. He worried a lot and as an over-thinker myself, I get it. So I read the book intently to see how Dan turned it around. If he could do it, perhaps I could too?

If I were to take away a single lesson from the book, then it would be:

The brain, the organ of experience, through which our entire lives are led, can be trained. Happiness is a skill.

Happiness can be trained like a muscle. We just have to put in the effort
Here is a rough summary of the other lessons I picked up.

Don’t try to fast forward to the next moment

Live in the present, instead of trying to fast forward to the next moment all the time.

Make the present moment your friend rather than your enemy. Because many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment. And imagine living your whole life like that, where always this moment is never quite right, not good enough because you need to get to the next one. That is continuous stress.

Focus on things you can control

If we always live in the present, does it mean we give up on planning or striving towards a better future? Do we just stay content with our present life? Not quite.

It’s fine to strive towards a better life, as long as we focus on things we control. Focus on the action, rather than the result.

Striving is fine, as long as it’s tempered by the realization that, in an entropic universe, the final outcome is out of your control. If you don’t waste your energy on variables you cannot influence, you can focus much more effectively on those you can. When you are wisely ambitious, you do everything you can to succeed, but you are not attached to the outcome—so that if you fail, you will be maximally resilient, able to get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fray.

Meditate

Mediate for at least 10 minutes every day

“On the cushion, the best opportunities to learn mindfulness are when you experience itches or pain. Instead of scratching or shifting position, you’re supposed to just sit there and impartially witness the discomfort.”

I have been trying to meditate regularly for 3 months now and I haven’t been able to maintain a streak for a week. This has been much harder than I anticipated. 10 minutes sounds like a short time, but once you start meditating, you will realize how long a minute can feel. I need more practice.

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