Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book

by Dan Harris

“Buddhism is not something to believe in, but rather something to do.”)

The whole game is simply to notice when you are distracted, and begin again. And again. And again. Every time you catch yourself wandering and escort your attention back to the breath, it is like a biceps curl for the brain.

the goal is not to clear your mind but to focus your mind—for a few nanoseconds at a time—and whenever you become distracted, just start again. Getting lost and starting over is not failing at meditation, it is succeeding.

Meditation forces you into a direct collision with a fundamental fact of life that is not often pointed out to us: we all have a voice in our heads.

It’s often fixated on the past and future, at the expense of whatever is happening right now. The voice loves to plan, plot, and scheme. It’s always making lists or rehearsing arguments or drafting tweets. One moment it has you fantasizing about some halcyon past or Elysian future. Another moment you’re ruing old mistakes or catastrophizing about some not-yet-arrived events. As Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “Some of the worst things in my life never even happened.”

Nevertheless, when I bother to listen, most of what I hear inside is rather obnoxious.

What mindfulness has allowed me to do is respond wisely to things, instead of reacting impulsively.