Dan Harris's Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics (N1, N5)

Dan Harris had a panic attack on live television, then built a second career teaching skeptics to meditate. Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics is his how-to, and it is blunt about the target, on its quotes page: "The goal is to engineer a daily collision with the a-hole in your head. And then when that a-hole gives you bad ideas, you're better able to resist him." The two habits he is training are, in the Big Five, two facets.

The a-hole in your head is Anxiety

That harsh, chattering voice is Anxiety (N1), under Neuroticism, the mind's readiness to spin worry and self-attack. Harris does not promise to silence it, only to change your relationship to it. A high scorer hears the anxious voice loudly and believes it. A lower scorer hears it faintly and rarely gets hijacked. Meditation, in his telling, is daily practice at not taking the bait.

Respond, don't react is Immoderation

The skill of the pause is Immoderation (N5), under Neuroticism, the difficulty of resisting an urge in the moment. Harris sums his method in a phrase, on the same page: "Respond, not react: this is a game changer." A high-N5 scorer fires off the impulse before thinking. A lower-N5 scorer can hold the gap between trigger and action, which is exactly the muscle Harris says meditation builds.

Read your N1 and N5 to know how Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics lands. If your anxiety runs high, Harris gives you distance from the voice that torments you. If your immoderation runs high, the daily practice widens the gap between impulse and act. Meditation here is unglamorous, the training to hear the a-hole and not obey.

Read the book: Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-to Book by Dan Harris.

See Where You Fall

Where do you actually fall? The 30-facet OCEAN personality test takes about 15 minutes and scores all five domains and the facets underneath them. Take the test

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