ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Jeff Warren was the perfect fit for this crazy little project. He brought to the table an enormous amount of affability, creativity, and straight-up wisdom. On top of being a superlative collaborator, Jeff has become a real friend. Yes, we occasionally wanted to kill each other during the writing of this book, but like those mead-swilling, ballad-singing Scottish soldiers Jeff invokes in Chapter 9, it didn’t take long until we woke up and noticed how lucky we were to be on this adventure together. The Buddha said having good friends is 100 percent of the meditation path, and in Jeff, I have hit the jackpot: a hilarious fellow traveler as well as a brilliant teacher who has had a massively beneficial impact on my practice. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but…I send you an un-ironic namaste.

Next to Carlye Adler. Throughout this often arduous process, she was a beacon of intelligence, calm, and unshakable good cheer. (Again, that whole Rage Fairy thing remains a myth, at least in my experience.) Carlye bravely agreed to ride along on a bus filled with eleven complete strangers, even though she had deep reluctance about being away from her daughter for that long—never mind sharing a bathroom with a bunch of dudes. Once we hit the road, though, she played an invaluable role, not only providing editorial input but also engaging in behind-the-scenes peacemaking.

Thanks to Ben Rubin, for his steadfast leadership of the 10% Happier company, and for talking me into doing this book, which I tried hard to get out of.

To Eddie Boyce, for his outstanding creative contributions to the 10% enterprise, and for handling with aplomb the impossible situation in which we put him while out on the road. He is a walking example of the benefits of meditation.

Also: director of photography and on-site comedian Nick Lopez; audio tech, musician, and Tinder maestro Dennis Haggerty; production manager Jamie Proctor Boyce, who kept everything rolling from afar with some mind-blowing logistical skills; ABC News producer Lauren Effron, who honchos the 10% Happier podcast and who also played a clutch role in the field, such as getting us in to see the folks at Virginia Military Institute; ABC News live producer David Merrell, who oversaw innumerable livestreams from the road; 10% Happier course producer Susa Talan, who was always willing to provide a sympathetic ear to many of us on the bus who needed it; 10% Happier associate producer Mack Woodruff, who organized meals, operated cameras, and made us look cooler than we deserved; and driver Eddie Norton, who kept us safe over thousands of miles.

Can’t forget honorary bus rider Sarah Barmak, Jeff’s then-fiancée and now wife. Very grateful to her for enduring the fact that Jeff worked like a demon on writing the meditation instructions straight up to their wedding date and was then on call during their honeymoon.

Big thanks to the many folks we met along the way, who coordinated our visits in advance, warmly welcomed us, and found parking for that giant bus: Dave Vago, Jeff Krasno, Josh Groban, Luke Burland, Samantha Stavros, Samantha Coppolino, Steven Levine, Nate Marino, Elvis Duran, Bethany Watson, Danielle Monaro, Ed Hauben, Ursula Steele, Congressman Tim Ryan, Colonel Stewart MacInnis, Linda Manning, Ariane Nalty, Caroline Zamora, Abel Covarrubias, Josie Montenegro, Darren Martinez, Chief Sylvia Moir, Jorie Aldrich, Jimmy Wu, Todd Rubenstein, Zev Borow, Cary Dobkin, Sarah Moritz, Moby, Bill Duane, Fabian Alsutany, Nicole Franco, and Suze Yalof Schwartz.

A shout-out to the staffers, coaches, investors, and advisors involved with the 10% Happier company: Jason Pavel, Samuel Johns, Jeff Lopes, Mike Rong, Matt Graves, Kelly Anne Graves, Jill Shepherd, Rae Houseman, Emily Carpenter, Devon Hase, Joshua Berkowitz, Phoenix Soleil, Evan Frank, Gus Tai, Anjula Acharia, Sarrah Hallock, Eric Paley, Lee Hauer, Irene Au, and Derek Haswell (who, along with Ben and me, is the third co-founder of the company). Derek played a foundational role in this book: he was the one who first introduced the concept of the “secret fears,” and his encyclopedic knowledge of behavior change science proved invaluable during the writing process.

To my ABC News family: Ben Sherwood, James Goldston, Tom Cibrowski, Barbara Fedida, Kerry Smith, Roxanna Sherwood, Steve Baker, Jenna Millman, Ben Newman, Geoff Martz, Karin Weinberg, Kevin Rochford, Hana Karar, Mike Milhaven, Michael Corn, Simone Swink, John Ferracane, Almin Karamehmedovic, Miguel Sancho, David Peterkin, Steve Jones, Eric Johnson, Laura Coburn, Josh Cohan, Juju Chang, Byron Pitts, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan, David Muir, Diane Sawyer, and, of course, my weekend GMA littermates Paula Faris, Ron Claiborne, Rob Marciano, Adrienne Bankert, Diane Macedo, and Sara Haines. While I’m on the TV tip, big thanks as well to my television agent, Jay Sures.

Our editor, Julie Grau, deserves an enormous amount of credit for pushing us to go beyond a dry meditation manual, for skillfully guiding us toward an improved manuscript, and for maintaining her patience when some of us (me) got a little uppity at times. Thanks as well to the rest of the team at Spiegel & Grau, including Mengfei Chen, Greg Mollica, Thomas Perry, Dennis Ambrose, Steve Messina, and Natalie Riera.

My literary agent, Luke Janklow, must get the credit—or blame, maybe?—for coming up with the idea of renting a rock star bus for our road trip. Luke has become an integral part of the 10% universe, advising us on strategy and making sure we stay true to the original vision. (Worth noting that Luke would be utterly helpless without the steadfast support of Claire Dippel. Thanks, Claire!)

Some close friends generously agreed to take time out of their busy schedules to read the manuscript and provide important feedback: Susan Mercandetti, Gretchen Rubin, Karen Avrich, Liz Levin, Annaka Harris, Dr. Mark Epstein, and my brother, Matt Harris, who, aside from my wife, is my most trusted advisor and favorite adult human on the planet. (While I’m at it, sending love to Matt’s wife, Jess, and kids, Tess, Eliot, Alice, Solomon, and Benjamin.)

Hat tip to some of my contemplative co-conspirators, including Sam Harris (from whom I appropriated the joke about the voice in the head being the most boring person alive), Cory Muscara (who helped sharpen my thinking about the value of one-minute meditations), and Sharon Salzberg (whose excellent book Real Happiness was a source of inspiration for Jeff and me). And finally, to Joseph Goldstein, who generously volunteered to be my personal teacher several years ago, and who has probably been regretting it ever since. JG, your teaching and friendship have improved my life immeasurably.

Thank you to my parents, Drs. Nancy Lee and Jay Harris, for being two of the smartest and coolest people I know, for being extraordinarily loving grandparents, and for weathering my adolescence. Sorry about that.

Oceanic gratitude to my wife, Bianca, for supporting me in all of my off-the-wall endeavors, providing a priceless sounding board, gently but firmly pointing out when my ideas are dumb, and putting up with me when I got all strung out and unpleasant toward the end of the writing process. You are an incredible doctor, wife, and mother. You’re my best friend and most valued consigliere. I love you.

And finally to Alexander, the best thing that has ever happened to me. Merely gazing at you makes me 1,000 percent happier—except when you’re chasing the cats or drawing on the wall. Maybe in a future book, we’ll get you to start meditating? First, though, potty training.

JEFF’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The voice of Dan Harris officially joined my internal chorus on August 3, 2017, thirty thousand feet above sea level. I was on a flight from Chicago to Toronto, feverishly writing an extremely important and highly technical caveat about consciousness for this book, when I heard, quite distinctly, the voice of my friend: “Dude.”

I looked up.

“Look at these people.”

I surveyed the cabin. A businessman reading a newspaper, a strained-looking couple struggling to calm a crying baby, two middle-aged women—they seemed like old friends—chatting over the aisle.

“Start here,” Dan’s voice said. As he himself had tried to say—patiently, humorously, sometimes exasperatingly—a dozen times before. His guidance finally sunk in. I looked down at my laptop, laughed, and started deleting.

Sometimes a friend can do what no amount of meditation can. Dan helped me understand that when I get heady and obsessed, I’m not actually writing for my readers; I’m writing for myself. Instead of opening a door, I’m putting up a wall. Real accessibility means starting where people actually are. It emerges from a disciplined combination of caring and paying attention.

Despite his many self-deprecating protests to the contrary, Dan is among the most discerning and caring people I’ve met. He refuses to leave anyone behind. He’ll expose the most vulnerable parts of himself if he thinks his honesty will help people. He keeps it moving and he keeps it real. I’ve learned a lot about being a teacher and writer and leader from him. Thank you, brother. At least one of the voices in my head isn’t an asshole.

It turns out Dan is ringmaster to a dazzling troop of media professionals. Carlye Adler for one, the book’s puppet master. To use a terrible metaphor, she hovered like a kindly superego over Dan’s ego and my id (sorry, Freud), encouraging and suggesting and generally making everything better. She is considerate, wise, and wonderfully upbeat—a joy to spend time with.

Thank you Ben Rubin, 10% Happier’s CEO and someone who’s become another pal. Everything Dan says about him is true: a man of great intelligence and practicality who seems to have been born with a total lack of comic timing. His copilot, Derek Haswell, is pretty awesome too. Of course, Eddie Boyce, one of my besties—generous, smart, and bawling with happiness at the drop of a hat like some punch-drunk mystic saint. Ed embodies the best of this practice, plus a few bonus crazy moves they don’t teach you in books. His wife, Jamie Proctor Boyce, is another friend; she organized our entire road trip from a laptop in Halifax and misses nothing. Also Susa Talan, fellow teacher and somatic experiencer, whose patient and often delighted voice I will never tire of hearing through my studio earphones.

Thanks to Nick and Dennis and Mack and Lauren and David and driver Eddie. Thanks to the casually brilliant Luke Janklow; to our patient and seemingly all-seeing editor, Julie Grau; and to my fabulous agent and friend, Shaun Bradley. Thanks to David Vago, my favorite contemplative scientist, a deep and original thinker with a cutting-edge research lab.

We met many amazing people en route, doing the real work of integrating meditation and mindfulness into their lives and jobs. Most of these folks don’t care about the theory and the Pali translations and the academic controversies; they want to know how to apply the practices, right now, in serious caregiving situations with serious consequences. Whatever insanity may be happening in the world, this felt like a movement of sanity—of people pausing to take responsibility for themselves, so that they might help others do the same. What an honor to be a student of—and to—this larger movement of innovators and educators.

Thanks to my primary teacher, Shinzen Young, who disambiguated so much of this path for me. Shinzen’s students (“Shinheads”) will recognize his influence in these pages—his is another good voice in my head. And thanks to the many other teachers, healers, scientists, thinkers, and meditator friends whom I’ve had the privilege of practicing next to and/or corresponding with and/or reading and/or consciousness-expanding alongside over the years.

My teacher friends at the Consciousness Explorers Club get their own paragraph, especially the excellently confusing James Maskalyk (Google James Maskalyk + girlfriend), whose unwavering friendship I am eternally grateful for, and the tender Erin Oke, who fits six lifetimes’ worth of feeling into each of her meditation sits and still manages to hold it down for every shy newcomer hiding in the back of the room. All magic: Caitlin Colson, Jude Star, Stephanie De Bou, Alexandra Shimo, Laurie Arron, Katrina Miller, Andrea Cohen-B. “Being human takes practice”—we do it every week, live and in community. Special mentions to Avi Craimer—who read over all my meditation instructions and made helpful comments—and Kevin Lacroix, the actual illustrator of the fabulous graphs in Chapter 9. Thank you both.

Thanks to Susan and Ted Warren, my loving and supportive parents, who don’t meditate, don’t plan to, and—truth be told—probably don’t need to (well, maybe a little). Ditto for my neuroscientist brother, Chris, who makes me smarter every time I talk to him, and my equally brainy sister, Jane, who actually does meditate these days—she texts me every morning with her latest report (“that one sucked, thanks for introducing me to this ridiculous habit, I love you, byyeeee”).

And finally, thanks to my wife, Sarah Barmak, about whom I could wax on for ten more pages and test the patience of even the most generous Acknowledgments readers. Suffice to say she gives my life meaning and coherence. Falling in love with her put meat on the bones of all these Hallmark-sounding contemplative ideas. The deeper our commitment, the truer our love becomes. “Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.” Because of her I’m a better thinker and person, and for that, I…will write ten more pages of embarrassing poetry in private, which she will then read and patiently correct for grammar.

CARLYE’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to the many people already mentioned above who made this book possible and who also made it better. A sincere thank-you to everyone we met along the way for your warm welcome and for allowing us to share your stories.

I am forever thankful to Dan Harris for inviting me to collaborate with him. You really get to know someone when you live together in a small space on wheels and write a book under an impossible deadline. Dan’s as intelligent and witty as you see on TV, and his hair is perfect even when there are no cameras around. More important, there is no one with more integrity, who works harder, or who is more generous, more understanding, more thoughtful, or fiercely funnier.

This book would never be this book without the unmatched genius, creativity, and million ideas a minute of Jeff Warren. He’s not only the MacGyver of meditation but the MacGyver of book making, figuring out new ways to create something wild and wonderful out of prose and pages that no one has done before. Thank you for teaching me to meditate and for motivating me to seek a more meditative life.

I’m thankful to many mentors whose support and wisdom led me here: Carin Smilk, for giving me my first opportunity in a newsroom; Lynn Langway, for helping me get my first big article way back when, and ultimately an incredible job; Hank Gilman, for taking a bet on me early and always; Jeff Garigliano, for truly teaching me how to write; Marc Benioff, for knowing I could write a book before I knew I could; Maynard Webb, for showing me the value of soul food and sharing it with me; Ray Javdan and Nina Graybill, for your wise counsel and for helping me grow my business.

I’m lucky to have an incredible home team: my parents, Alan and Karen Adler, with my mom being my number one fan (she’s probably writing an Amazon review right now); Matthew, Emily, Oliver, Jack, and Charlotte Adler, for their love always.

Finally, to my husband, best friend, and love of my life, the very smart and very fun Frank Nussbaum. Thank you for holding down the fort, not questioning (too hard) why I would leave my family to go on a bus across the country with ten guys, and for supporting every crazy thing I want to do—always. And to my greatest project, my daughter, Mia Fieldman, who’s always up for adventure, forever inspiring, and always enlightening. I love you more than I could ever put into words.