The Serious Joy of Meditation: A Conversation with Jeff Warren

Jeff Warren is a meditation teacher and writer known for what he calls his “beatifically lucid and occasionally baffling” style of teaching. He is co-author of the New York Times bestselling Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, author of The Head Trip and co-host of The Mind Bod Adventure Pod.

Dubbed “the MacGyver of meditation” by ABC News anchor Dan Harris, Warren is known for making meditation both accessible and irreverent. He is a teacher who doesn’t shy away from the weirdness of human consciousness. His approach is rooted in curiosity, radical experimentation and a willingness to laugh at the chaos along the way. For him, the path of awakening isn’t about transcendence or perfection; it’s about being fully human.

The acceptance of being fully human informs the way Warren approaches mental health. His honesty about neurodivergence and mental health has helped reshape conversations around meditation. As someone who has navigated bipolar disorder and ADHD, he doesn’t romanticize practice as a cure-all.

“Earlier in my practice, I didn’t understand the relationship between mental health and meditation,” he says. “Teachers would tell me, ‘Just pay attention with clarity, concentration and equanimity,’ but when what’s happening overwhelms your nervous system, that advice doesn’t help. Sometimes you need to stop, ground yourself in nature, eat some food and settle. I had to learn to customize my practices and be my own teacher.”

To Warren, meditation doesn’t have to be confined to monasteries or cushions — it can happen in a forest, in a crowded subway or while fidgeting with ADHD.

“With ADHD, the gift is you’re constantly coming into the moment,” he says. “You forget where you were, then boom, you’re back here. The problem is, you are back here freaked out about all the things you were supposed to remember and were supposed to do. But if you can notice the refreshment of coming into the present — that’s a superpower. In this way, a person with ADHD already has a certain quality of mindfulness.”

It’s this realism, equal parts compassion and candour, that makes his teaching so accessible.

“Serious practice can be joyful,” Warren explains. “Those aren’t two different things. It’s not about a dour ‘I must improve myself’ attitude. It’s about enjoying the opportunity to connect with oneself — to take a break.”

At the same time, he recognizes the tension between experimentation and depth — a balance familiar to anyone navigating modern spirituality, especially those with ADHD. “There’s an old teaching: ‘If you dig lots of little wells, you’ll never reach water; dig one deep one.’

“There’s truth in that,” he acknowledges. “But there’s also value in exploration. Everyone’s wired differently. For me, exploring has been productive. No matter what I practise, certain core capacities of equanimity and concentration are always being trained.”

That curiosity has led Warren to push boundaries, sometimes literally.

“I’ve broken pretty much every meditation rule,” he laughs. “Breaking rules has taught me as much as following them.”

Through all that experimentation, Warren discovered that practice doesn’t always happen in isolation. Community became the container that helped him integrate those lessons.

“Sitting with others helps you stay committed,” he says. “There’s energy in group practice. Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s happening in your experience, where your blocks are or how to articulate an insight. But then you hear someone else share something about their experience, and it lands. Ultimately, meditation’s values are meant to show up in how we live, how we relate and the choices we make.”

The value of connection resonates deeply at Hollyhock Leadership Centre, where Warren returns in 2026 to teach his second program.

“It’s one of the most magical geographies I’ve ever been in,” he says. “I came with a full curriculum but abandoned part of it halfway because what was emerging from the land itself was so powerful. Hollyhock amplifies meditation’s essence — connection to place, this moment and to oneself. The land has a palpable, meditative energy. I gained real insight just by being there. And, of course, the food is amazing and the trees. Oh my God, the trees.”

In an era where mindfulness risks becoming another productivity tool, Warren’s work is a reminder that awareness isn’t about optimization; it’s about connection.

“There’s got to be some way out of this fucked-up situation: meditate!” he jokes, when asked about a tag line for meditation in 2026.

Behind the humour is a clear truth: awakening isn’t about escape. It’s about showing up — fully, curiously and compassionately — for the world as it is.

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Jeff Warren’s ‘Meditation, Movement and Mystery’ program is on May 13-17, 2026. More information on the 2026 program launch can be found on Hollyhock’s website. Hollyhock is located on Cortes Island, the traditional territories of the Klahoose, Tla’amin and Homalco First Nations.