How Being Wired Differently Can Be an Advantage | Jeff Warren

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.6 • 12.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if the problem isn't you—but the idea that there's only one "right" way to meditate?

In this episode, DJ Cashmere talks with meditation teacher Jeff Warren about how to build a mindfulness practice that actually fits your brain, nervous system, and life. Drawing from Jeff's experience with ADHD and bipolar disorder—and DJ's reflections on OCD and neurodiversity in his family—they explore why there's no such thing as a truly neurotypical mind, and why one-size-fits-all meditation advice often falls short.

Rather than prescribing a single approach, Jeff emphasizes experimentation: noticing what settles you, what feels intolerable, and what helps you come back to presence. That might mean focusing on the breath, opening awareness, moving the body, journaling, or simply taking a walk.

They return repeatedly to a simple litmus test for any practice: Is this helping me be here? And they frame that question through three core skills of mindfulness—clarity, concentration, and equanimity—which can be cultivated in many different ways.

This episode is especially helpful if you've ever felt restless, frustrated, or "bad" at meditation—and are looking for a more flexible, compassionate way to practice.

You can get more meditations from Jeff, our Teacher of the Month for DanHarris.com, by checking out our new app, 10% with Dan Harris.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.
0:18.5	Hello there, how we doing? Today, we're going to talk about how to meditate with the brain you actually have as opposed to the one you wish you had. You're going to be hearing from the great meditation teacher and great friend of mine, Jeff Warren, who is hilariously and also admirably open about his ADHD and bipolar diagnoses.
0:39.8	I do want to make one thing clear from the jump here.
0:42.3	This is not just a conversation for people who have official labels or diagnoses.
0:46.5	As Jeff points out, there may not even be such a thing as a neurotypical brain.
0:52.1	Every one of us has quirks, sensitivities, and idiosyncrasies that shape
0:57.5	how we show up when we meditate. As you're about to hear, Jeff is relentlessly practical.
1:03.8	He's going to break down how to figure out what works for you, whether that's deep breathing
1:07.8	practice, open awareness, movement, journaling, just taking a bath,
1:11.1	whatever.
1:11.8	He talks about why paying attention to your own wiring is not self-indulgent.
1:16.8	It's actually a foundation for clarity, regulation, and frankly, being less of a menace to
1:23.4	everybody around you.
1:24.6	Just a few items of business before we dive in here.
1:27.4	First, we will not be
1:28.8	holding our weekly live this Tuesday, December 30th. I will be back with you live, though,
1:35.7	three times during our New Year's challenge. So I'll be doing the regular live session on
1:42.6	Tuesday the 6th at 4 p.m. Eastern, we do our live sessions every Tuesday at 4.
1:48.1	But that week, when we'll also be doing our meditation challenge, I'll also be doing
1:53.0	live sessions at 4 Eastern on the 8th and also on the 11th.
1:58.8	Speaking of the meditation challenge and also speaking of our live video meditation and
2:04.5	Q&A sessions, you can get both the challenge and our live sessions.
	...

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