It's not like the world started treating me like I was the dollar lama and I did not start to think I was the dollar lama.

I have lots of flaws but I'm not that delusional. I think because the whole brand was built around me being a fuck up like it was all based on a cocaine-fueled panic attack and the book was called 10% happier. I think like built into the whole endeavor was the idea of,

oh yeah, this is an unlikely meditation evangelist, somebody who we can relate to.

So I was protected in that way, protected from my own ego and protected

from other people projecting too much on me, I think, in that way.

Hey friend, welcome back to the Light Watkins show show I'm Light Watkins and I interview

ordinary folks just like you and me who have taken extraordinary leaps of faith in

the direction of their path their purpose or what they've identified as their mission in life and in doing

so they've been able to positively impact and inspire the lives of many other people

who've either heard about their story or who've witnessed them in action or people who've directly benefited from their work.

And today I am in conversation with a man who has single-handedly been responsible for helping

to make meditation relatable to the masses, mainly through his books, 10% happier, and meditation for

vichadis skeptics, both bestsellers might add, plus his 10% happier

podcast, which I was honored to be a guest on a few years ago,

as well as his popular app of the same name.

Of course, I'm referring to Mr. Dan Harris, former ABC news anchor and journalist of 21 years turned

meditation advocate keynote speaker and I guess you could even say social media influencer.

Dan had an infamous panic attack on live television back in 2004, where 5 million people saw him break down in a panic attack.

Can you imagine? I mean it sounds horrible but that ended up being the catalyst to getting Dan into meditation and it just goes to show how the universe will use whatever it needs to use in order to get us into our inner work.

Anyway, when Dan wrote his first book, 10% happier, it had more of a memoir feel to it than a self-help feel and his mom actually tried to talk him out of publishing it

He didn't think anybody was even going to read it and lo and behold it became a runaway New York Times

number one bestseller and I pressed him on the backstory of of how that happened

...