This book is written by Dan Harris, a reporter and news anchor who famously had a panic attack while reporting live in the air. It's about his life before meditation and how it has changed his life. Dan is a skeptic, and fundamentally distrusted the grandiose claims meditation and mindfulness practitioners commonly tout and associations most people make with "McMindfulness". His credo is that meditation makes him "10% Happier". He's a surprisingly funny.
Dan Harris was a young successful reporter and news anchor for ABC News. He was shot at during his reporting in the middle of literal war zones. Once he was no longer reporting from active war zones, he started up doing hard drugs. He famously had a panic attack on live TV. He found a book that partially resonated with him. An Eckhart Tolle book about the little voice in your head throughout the day intrigued Harris. He met with Deepak Chopra to try to figure out how to silence the voice in his head. It didn't work. Eventually he discovered Buddhism through Mark Epstein, a psychiatrist, who had a much more practical approach, and much less grandiose claims. Mark suggested Dan go on a 10 Day Buddhist meditation retreat, which altered the trajectory of Dan's life. Dan now meditates 30 minutes each day.
Meditation has a PR problem. You picture someone who meditates and your mind is cast to far-flung images of Monks in monasteries, or weird hippies who don't have jobs. Meditation is about training the brain ("get your mental reps in") to be present in the moment and how to go from reacting to what's happening in your life to responding to it. The truth is that Mediation is for everyone, and science is slowly discovering just how useful it can be.
Meditation is the practice of living in the moment. Experiencing the here and now in a non-judgmental way. You are not thinking about the past, nor the future, nor considering how the here and now are products of history nor how they will shape the future. Things are here now, and now is all there is and will ever be.
Conceptual proliferation. A casting forward of the mind to imagined worst case scenarios.
Meditation serves the function of turning off the "Default Network". That autobiographical mode that we all slip into when we're not in flow or otherwise quite concentrated or occupied.
One of the key messages in the book is the notion of "responding" versus simply "reacting". We go through life perceiving everything through a common filter: our mind. Our mind has reactions to everything we see, hear, and feel, and most of us are terrible at understanding how our filter shapes those experiences. Living without mindfulness is a life of reaction. Living mindfully gives you the ability to go beyond reaction, and instead respond. Meditation helps you move from reaction to response. See the "response-ability" from the seven habits.
This is a central question in this book. Dan is a self proclaimed neurotic. He credited his neuroticism with a lot of his successes in life, but also with this unceasing dissatisfaction and unhappiness. How do you become Zen, without becoming useless, or a punching bag? Ultimately his conclusion is that there is some merit in the phrase, but you have to learn to draw the line when worry and insecurities are no longer actually helping. He credits the mantras "is this helpful?" along with "what's most important". This, ultimately, is about balance.
Recognize the thought or feeling.
Allow the thoughts or feelings to exist.
Investigate them. How are they manifesting?