10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris

With a title that long, of course the author and former ABC News anchor has an ego. Some would call him a jerk. However, he’s a great storyteller, and talks in a conversational way about his career and how it was getting de-railed by his panic attacks, anxiety, and resulting arrogance. He interviews several self- help gurus like Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra, and finds them “hippy-dippy”. However, based on his research and reading, he concludes that mediation and mindfulness will make you at least 10 percent happier. Following the book’s publication in 2014, he started up a successful podcast which I personally use and find helpful.

“What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, ‘respond’ rather than simply ‘react’.”

Dan Harris