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Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics cover art

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

Written by: Dan Harris, Carlye Adler, Jeffrey Warren
Narrated by: Dan Harris, Jeffrey Warren
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Publisher's Summary

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 number one New York Times best seller 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 18 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.

©2017 Dan Harris, Carlye Adler, Jeffrey Warren (P)2017 Random House Audio

What the critics say

"If you're intrigued by meditation but don't know how to begin - or you've benefited from meditation in the past but need help to get started again, Dan Harris has written the book for you. Well researched, practical, and crammed with expert advice, it's also an irreverent, hilarious page-turner." (Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project)

"The ABC News anchor, a 'defender of worrying' who once had an anxiety attack on air, offers a hilarious and stirring account of his two-steps-forward-one-step-back campaign to sort 'useless rumination' from 'constructive anguish' via mindfulness, along with invaluable suggestions for following in his footsteps." (O: The Oprah Magazine)

"If your mind has a mind of its own, this is the book for you! With humor, generosity, and devastating candor, Dan Harris makes meditation make sense. This is news we can all use." (Mark Epstein, MD, author of Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart)

What listeners say about Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

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Fidgety Sceptics

One of the most enjoyable and informative ‘reads’ with lots of humor thrown in. I quite literally plan yo listen to it again once finished. Thank you both. Hope there is another collaboration down the road. Great team!

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Very helpful content, relatable and real.

Excellent content, I definatly plan on listening again. Thank you, for the tools to calm my "monkey mind". I love the realism and relatability.

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1 person found this helpful

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This truly is meditation for skeptics

After listening to Dan's first book (10% Happier), I was really excited to get into this tome; it did not disappoint. Between Dan's sober view of meditation and overall honesty in his own practice, and then Jeff's insight as a teacher, his level of wit and candor, makes this a book I will relisten to many times over again.

I come to meditation as a total newb; started because my partner suggested it. I didn't really "get it" until I started listening to this book and have really gotten into the idea that there's no real wrong way to meditate and that striving for "perfection" in meditation is a fallacy; we are doing meditation to help us in the real world to cope, not vice versa.

Amazing book; really want to find something else on Audible that will provide me that combination of humor, self help, and no f'n bs.

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    4 out of 5 stars

informative with a light humorous story

easy listening, almost meditative in itself
secular insights woven with humour and a minimum of mystical overtones

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Game Changer for me

I used to mock and make fun of what I felt was fake or sham like ways of wannabe meditation experts.
The author clearly knows how most feel about these type of people and speaks in a language that is honest and straight forward.
No double talk here.
Loved what I learned.

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  • 2021-07-26

Exactly what I was hoping for!

I Enjoyed the casual conversation style of narration peppered with good humour and self deprication.

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Had No expectations - Wasn't Disappointed

I found this book to be candid, hilarious, and well paced. I listened on my commutes at 1.5 speed. the dynamic between the two Authors was perfect. The book, overall answered many of my beginner type questions that I have with Meditation/Mindfulness. I could relate to both Dan and Jeff, and the content was more inline with what I believe; rather than getting deep into the religious/mystic aspect of it all.

I believe this book will help me find a continuous way to help me practice 'combat breathing' as one character called it. now it's tactical, and matte black, you'll buy it.

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great resource!

if you are looking for a book to get you started on meditation, this is it! no need to look any further.

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Amazing life saving book

I first was introduced to Dan Harris by my psychologist as I was in recovery from PTSD. I was a skeptic indeed. However I finally downloaded this book and immediately fell in love with it. Meditation can be a life saver for all of us as we pass through this vessel we call life. Give yourself some freedom, seek out your potential and meditate which will change your life. Heck this book along with meditation could save your life. Thanks for an amazing book.

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the first book that actually got me to meditate.

this was a great book for an a type personality like me. It got me to meditate for the first time. i loved the story behind their road trip. its worth listening to. the meditation tips and practical guided meditations are awesome. thanks for writing this book.

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1 person found this helpful