Mindfulness is a journey.
This is ours
2015
In 2015, Derek Haswell + Ben Rubin, co-founders of Change Collective teamed up with news anchor, Dan Harris. Together they relaunched their self-improvement app as Happier—a meditation app for fidgety skeptics.
2017
We take mindfulness on the road to launch the book Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. Dan Harris and Jeff Warren bring meditation to skeptics across the U.S., showing how to make it a part of everyday life.
2018
Happier is honored as one of Apple’s Apps of the Year. We celebrated!
2021
In response to the pandemic, we offer free resources to healthcare workers and the general public to help cope with stress, loneliness, and more. Our meditations are listened to more than 2,493,064 times.
2023
Happier partners with the Dalai Lama to launch the free course "The Dalai Lama's Guide to Happiness," reaching 144,491 meditators.
2024
Happier is here! We've reimagined meditation so it works for you. Explore a personalized, flexible approach that adapts to your changing needs and goals with teachers who’ve spent years practicing mindfulness, not perfecting it. Join us to discover what it truly takes to be happier.
We’re on a mission to help people see what leads to happiness (and what doesn’t).
For us, this means…
We meet you where you are. No matter where you are on your journey to cultivating a more mindful life, we’re with you.
Rooted in tradition, open to all. Our core practices come from Buddhism, but you can connect with them in the way that feels right for you. We welcome diverse perspectives and aim to make these teachings relevant to your daily life.
Real insights direct from the source. We work with some of the best mindfulness teachers on the planet. But like anything, these teachings are meant to evolve and change to meet the moment. So we invite our teachers to translate these teachings for modern times.
We are real and imperfect. We practice what we teach, considering ourselves “bad meditators” striving to become better, more mindful humans. Our company is made up of people who’ve chosen to work here because they believe in our mission of pointing people towards happiness, albeit imperfectly.
We believe what we teach can transform lives—and the world. Mindfulness is more than a practice; it’s a powerful catalyst for change. We’ve seen it bring deep liberation and freedom, and we’re here to help you experience this transformation in your life. If you’re here for stress relief or better sleep, we can help with those too. But stick with us, and we’ll discover how life can be lived happier.
Meet our teachers.
Joseph Goldstein
A Leading Meditation Teacher Since the 70’s
Joseph is one of the most respected meditation teachers in the world -- a key architect of the rise of mindfulness in our modern society -- with a sense of humor to boot.
In the 1970's, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. Since its founding, thousands of people from around the world have come to IMS to learn mindfulness from leading mindfulness teachers in the field. Joseph has been a teacher there since its founding and continues as the resident guiding teacher. His teachings often emphasize the importance of maintaining meditation and mindfulness in daily life.
"Meditation is simple, but not easy" - Joseph Goldstein.
Sharon Salzberg
Sharing Mindfulness and Lovingkindness
A towering figure in the meditation world. Sharon Salzberg is a prominent teacher & New York Times best-selling author. She has played a crucial role in bringing mindfulness and lovingkindness practices to the West.
Sharon co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside fellow influential meditation teachers Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield and is the author of nine books, including Lovingkindness, Real Happiness, and Real Love. Sharon lives in New York City and teaches meditation and mindfulness around the world.
Jeff Warren
Meditation for Every Mind
Jeff is an incredibly gifted meditation teacher. He's trained in multiple traditions, including with renowned teacher Shinzen Young. Jeff is the co-author of NY Times Bestseller "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics," and the founder of the Consciousness Explorers Club, a meditation adventure group in Toronto.
He has a knack for surfacing the exact meditation that will help everyone he meets. "I have a meditation for that" is regularly heard from Jeff, so we've dubbed him the "Meditation MacGyver."
JoAnna Hardy
Bringing Meditation to All
JoAnna Hardy can talk about meditation to pretty much anybody. She not only teaches in traditional environments like meditation retreat centers, but also in both schools and jails. JoAnna has been studying meditation for nearly two decades and she's done some amazing work ensuring that the practice is available to people who might not otherwise have access to it.
JoAnna teaches at the Insight Meditation Society, at Spirit Rock, and is a Founding Member of The Meditation Coalition.
Alexis Santos
Leading the Insight Meditation Community
Alexis has practiced and taught Insight Meditation in both the East and West since 2001. He has been a long-time student of Sayadaw U Tejaniya (a well respected meditation teacher in Burma whose teachings have attracted a global audience), and his teaching emphasizes knowing the mind through a natural and relaxed continuity -- a style of practice that's particularly useful during our crazy lives.
Alexis has completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training, teaches retreats across the globe, and currently lives in Portland, Maine.
Anushka Fernandopulle
Leading Meditation Teacher, Coach, and Organizational consultant
Anushka teaches meditation, works as an organizational consultant, and does leadership coaching with individuals and teams. She has practiced meditation for over 25 years, including four years in full-time intensive training in monasteries and retreat centers in the US, India and Sri Lanka.
Her work is informed by a BA in anthropology/religion from Harvard University, an MBA from Yale focused on leadership and organizational behavior, and certification in coaching from the Coaches Training Institute.
Sebene Selassie
Buddhist Meditation Teacher and Expert
Growing up, Sebene felt like a big weirdo. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in white neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., she was a tomboy Black girl who loved Monty Python and UB40. She never believed she belonged.
Thirty years ago, she began studying Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy as an undergraduate at McGill University where she majored in Comparative Religious Studies. Now, Sebene is a meditation teacher, author, and speaker who teaches that meditation can help us remember our inherent sense of belonging, that our individual freedom affects absolutely everyone and everything, and that our collective freedom depends on each and every one of us.
Sebene is a three-time cancer survivor of Stage III and IV cancer.
Oren Jay Sofer
Meditation Teacher and Leader in Nonviolent Communication
Oren Jay Sofer teaches mindfulness, meditation and Nonviolent Communication. He has practiced meditation since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India and is a long-time student of famous meditation teachers Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, and is a graduate of the IMS/Spirit Rock Teacher Training program.
He holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University and is the author of Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication.
Jessica Morey
Engaging the Youth in Meditation
Jess Morey is a meditation teacher and contemplative coach. Jess was the cofounder of Inward Bound Mindfulness, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching mindfulness in an immersive environment to young people and the parents and professionals who support them across the US, and internationally.
She began practicing meditation at age 14 on teen retreats offered by the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), and has maintained a consistent commitment to meditation since. Diving head first into meditation at such a key developmental stage makes the revelatory perspective of mindfulness & compassion her natural home turf, and gives her an easy, conversational teaching style anyone can relate to.
Diana Winston
Teaching the Science of Mindful Awareness
Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center where she also teaches mindfulness practices to the general public.
Her easy-on-the-ears west coast style rests on top of a rigorous scientific mind, and a vast amount of teaching experience. She has developed curriculum and taught mindfulness since the early 90’s in a variety of settings including hospitals, universities, corporations, non profits, and schools. She has taught mindful awareness to health professionals, leaders, teachers, activists, seniors, and adolescents in the US and Asia. A published researcher and author, Diana has also written for numerous meditation publications, where her daughter, Mira, often makes an appearance in her examples of bringing mindfulness to daily life.
Jay Michaelson, Ph.D.
Meditation Teacher of Many Talents
Dr. Jay Michaelson was the Editor of Wisdom Content at Ten Percent Happier, the author of six books on meditation, and, in his “other career,” the legal affairs columnist for The Daily Beast. Jay is an ordained rabbi and authorized to teach in a Theravadan Buddhist lineage. Jay has been a lawyer, a professor, an LGBTQ activist, and the founder of three nonprofit organizations.
Jay’s newest book, Enlightenment by Trial and Error, which was published in October, 2019.
Matthew Hepburn
From Insights to Action
Matthew Hepburn is a straightshooting, clear thinking, and dedicated meditation teacher. His personal practice caught fire over the course of several extended meditation retreats in his early twenties, and for the last 5+ years he has been teaching meditation at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Boston, MA.
Matthew is a graduate of the four-year Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program, where he studied with renowned meditation teachers including Joseph Goldstein.
Joseph Goldstein
A Leading Meditation Teacher Since the 70’s
Sharon Salzberg
Sharing Mindfulness and Lovingkindness
Jeff Warren
Meditation for Every Mind
JoAnna Hardy
Bringing Meditation to All
Alexis Santos
Leading the Insight Meditation Community
Anushka Fernandopulle
Leading Meditation Teacher, Coach, and Organizational consultant
Sebene Selassie
Buddhist Meditation Teacher and Expert
Oren Jay Sofer
Meditation Teacher and Leader in Nonviolent Communication
Jessica Morey
Engaging the Youth in Meditation
Diana Winston
Teaching the Science of Mindful Awareness
Jay Michaelson, Ph.D.
Meditation Teacher of Many Talents
Matthew Hepburn
From Insights to Action
Questions? We’ve got answers.
What is Happier and how did it get started?
Happier is an award winning app created to help you be a stronger, happier you — day in and day out, in good times and during the rough times. We have a library of resources in the app and elsewhere that have been curated to help you explore questions like:
- What the heck does it mean to be mindful?
- How do I meditate?
- What will meditation do for me? Can’t I just, “be mindful?”
- Will you help me practice meditation in a way that fits with my life and still helps me feel better?
- This is really interesting and helpful for me, how do I go deeper and find out more?
We got started in the general wellness business back in 2014, then started to collaborate with Dan Harris who wrote the book, Happier. Now we have an app full of curated meditations, lessons, and content that continues to evolve based on our community’s needs, an amazing podcast with deep conversations about the way meditation and mindfulness show up in life for others, a weekly newsletter, and a website that’s chock full of resources.
What’s included in my membership?
The Happier app is free to download from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. When you subscribe, you can use everything in the app, exploring lessons, meditations, talks, podcasts and more — that work for you.
Guided Meditations
Guided meditations have an introduction from the meditation teacher, followed by a timed period that switches between silence and prompts from the teacher to help you stay on track. Most of these can be set for 5-15 minutes and some go as long as 90 minutes!
- Practice one meditation 100 times (or more!) to cement a skill like getting through an anxious time or to practice something you’re working on, like self compassion.
- Explore the breadth of meditation, trying everything from open awareness and body scan meditation to loving-kindness and walking meditation.
- Sleep meditations to practice so you have some strategies to deal with wakefulness and insomnia.
Meditation Courses
Happier meditation courses are unique in that you get to learn, step by step, the how and the why of mindfulness meditation and get your questions answered.
Check out how to meditate with courses like:
- The Basics I and II
- Meditation In Real Life
- Common Question
- Essential Advice
Learn how to apply meditation and mindfulness with courses like:
- Taming Anxiety
- Focus I and II
- Relationships
- Mindful Eating
Podcasts
Go deeper with our podcasts! Subscribers get to listen to the Happier podcast a week early and ad free inside the app. You also have access to subscriber only shows, Twenty Percent Happier and Talks.
The combination of the podcasts with our lessons and meditations - all absorbed at your own pace - is a powerful way to bring transformation into your life.
Newsletter
Get our weekly newsletter with a timely article about how mindfulness and meditation show up in the world and related meditations to practice during the week.
Website
From our Meditation FAQ to a list of recommended books on meditation, the website has so much to explore!
Support
Finally, you’ve got a friend on the Happier Support team you can write to at support@happierapp.com with questions about the app, your subscription, or finding the content that’s right for you.
How is Happier priced?
Happier has two levels of access, free and subscribed.
- An app subscription gives you access to everything in the app! Our subscription is available at $99.99USD/year.
- The app is free to download and with a free account you get two Courses, The Basics and The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness plus over 500 guided meditations.
What types of meditation and mindfulness practices does Happier offer?
This is a great question and there are two parts to the answer.
Meditation
The main type of meditation taught in the app is based in a practice called Vipassana which, it’s believed, is the kind of meditation taught by the Buddha. So we want to acknowledge the roots of what we’re doing and our gratitude to all the teachers who came before and kept this knowledge vibrant and evolving.
Several modern teachers, including Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, went and studied with teachers in Asia and and returned to start a tradition here that’s called Insight Meditation.
No matter what we name it, this kind of meditation involves paying close attention to an anchor or focus point. It’s often the breath but it can be all kinds of sensations and the app includes variations like:
- Breathing
- Sound Meditation
- Open Awareness Meditation
- Body Scan
- Walking Meditation
Meditation can also help us train our minds to have new patterns like:
- Loving-Kindness
- Concentration
Mindfulness
We practice meditation, paying attention, so we can be more mindful because being mindful can help us build internal strength to deal with life. If you’re wondering what the difference is between meditation and mindfulness, check out this article, Mindfulness vs Meditation.
When we talk about mindfulness at Happier we mean being aware of what’s going on in and around us right now — and trying not to judge it. Once you get used to paying close attention while you’re formally meditating, it gets easier to play close attention to things throughout your day.
The app will help you incorporate mindfulness into lots of spots in your day! From putting on your pants to drinking your coffee, from talking to a friend or co-worker, driving, eating or falling sleep, the app has guided meditations and content to support you. Then you get to play with it and see where else you can be mindful!
Who are the teachers and experts behind Happier?
In addition to the long line of teachers who’ve brought mindfulness meditation through the 2,000+ years from the Buddha to today, Thank You!, Happier is indebted to folks like Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein and Jon Kabat-Zinn who were some of the champions of Insight Meditation in the west. We mostly teach this kind of meditation at Happier although there are other influences that compliment Insight Meditation and are also included in the app.
On staff we have a group of highly trained meditation teachers and practitioners who really walk the walk! This team manages our pedagogy and finds other trained and experienced meditation teachers, mostly with 10 years of teaching experience or more, to record content for you.
Among the teachers who record meditations for you to use in the app, you’ll find diverse voices and perspectives — because mindful meditation is available to everyone.
Can beginners use Happier?
Definitely! Beginning meditators are welcomed at Happier. We’ve created courses and meditations to meet you wherever you are in your journey with mindfulness meditation — from never ever to long time meditators.
If you’re just getting started, try courses like The Basics I and II, Common Questions and Essential Advice. You can also explore single guided meditations that help you bring mindfulness into your daily routine like On The Way To Work.
As soon as you start, you’re a meditator! And when you’re ready to go deeper, there’s plenty to practice. The app’s build to help you along your journey and you can email support@happierapp.com with questions.
What kind of resources does Happier have for dealing with stress, anxiety, and other challenges?
When you practice mindfulness meditation, you practice getting to know your own mind and its habits so you can approach all of life’s emotions with strength — even the messy and the imperfect! There are lots of resources in the app that help you specifically practice handling stress, anxiety plus lots of other life challenges, from difficult people to pain, from anger to aging.
In a quick search of the app for stress or anxiety you’ll find 3 courses, over 80 guided meditations and over 200 podcast episodes and Talks. Here’s just a small sample:
Courses
- Taming Anxiety This course will increase your ability to cope with challenging situations. You’ll learn tools for examining and overcoming your own particular anxiety feedback loop, while building the skills of mindfulness, compassion, and bravery along the way.
- Phrases for Stress Sometimes just remembering a few meaningful words can help you set yourself up for success. In this course, you’ll learn simple phrases that will help you cut through unhelpful mental chatter and reduce stress.
- Stress Better You can’t change the fact that life is stressful, but you can change how you respond to it. We’ve brought together some of the world’s top stress-reduction experts to offer you practical tools to bounce back from stress with more clarity, perspective, and energy to move you toward your goals.
Guided Meditations
- Self-Kindness for Stress Being kind to ourselves in hard times bolsters our resilience, so we can learn from setbacks rather than getting stuck in rumination.
- Stress in the Body Explore the places where you hold stress in the body, and use guided techniques to cultivate more ease and relaxation.
- Stepping Back from Stress Taking a bigger perspective and staying grounded in the body helps us experience life’s inevitable stress without being taken over by it.
- Reduce Anxiety, Build Resilience Build your capacity to prevent overwhelm by feeling the anxious sensations in your body while staying anchored in what feels ok right now
- Soothe Stressful Thoughts Relieve your anxiety by exploring the relationship between stress and thinking while learning to break unhealthy habit loops.
Podcasts | Talks
- The Science of Anxiety -- and Coping with It | Rick Hanson Your brain is evolutionarily wired for anxiety. But it’s also wired to transcend and cope with it.
- Two Ways of Meditating with Anxiety Calm is good. But cultivating lasting wisdom, peace, and happiness is better.
How can I download the Happier app? Download the Happier App.
You can use the Happier app on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch and Android mobile devices.
Download the free Happier app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.
Happier isn’t available through a web browser or on desktop computers. Please check out our Help Center article Happier on a Computer for more information on the content you can access through the web.
Do what it actually takes to be happier.
