I recently returned from a great week-long retreat in Niagara Falls Canada with my main mindfulness teacher, Shinzen Young.

One of the coolest things about the retreat was the few hours before and after the retreat where I got to meet with friends I’d previously corresponded with online.  One of those friends is someone who is a gifted author, and skillful mindfulness teacher in his own right- Jeff Warren.

Jeff has been working with ABC News Anchor Dan Harris for the past couple of years.  Dan Harris is also the author of the hilarious and also inspiring and illustrative book “10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story”.

Jeff Warren traveled cross-continent with Dan Harris on the 10% Happier Meditation Tour, and they’ve got a How-To book upcoming. (Preorder your copy today!)

During his nightly lectures during the retreat, Shinzen congratulated Jeff on the great work he’s doing, and then needled him a little bit regarding the numbers.  “Ten Percent?  Hmm.  I can say with confidence from my own experience that I’m easily 10 TIMES happier than I was before starting this practice!”

Via email I mentioned to Shinzen how the numbers might work.

I referenced Shinzen’s YouTube video: The Hockey Stick Metaphor and Exponential Growth on the Spiritual Path, where Shinzen describes how growth begins to become exponential when people start to notice, moment to moment, how their sense of suffering decreases and their sense of fulfilment increases when they apply mindfulness to each life experience.  This leads to increased incentive to be more and more mindful in each life situation- a positive snowball effect.

If one considers “compounded interest” in the “10% Happier” framework, the numbers correlate closer to Shinzen’s experience (and my own!) I used a compound interest calculator I found online to demonstrate this.  The image is a screen shot of $1000, with 10% interest, compounded annually, for 45 years.

Those in the financial industry (Kiplinger, for example) describe this phenomenon as the “Miracle of Compounding”.  No wonder that some people who’ve been practicing for awhile describe the benefits in their life as the “Miracle of Mindfulness!”