Podcast Summary: Buddhist Hacks for Anxiety and Overthinking | Joseph Goldstein

10% Happier with Dan Harris | January 4, 2026

Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode, host Dan Harris interviews renowned Buddhist meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein about practical Buddhist “hacks” for handling anxiety and overthinking. They explore a series of pithy, memorable phrases—gleaned from Joseph’s decades of teaching—that serve as bite-sized wisdom for meditation practice and navigating everyday mental challenges. Their discussion also delves into the flexible, experimental spirit needed for meditation and highlights practical tools for when the inner critic or unhelpful thought patterns take over.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. “There is a Body” — Foundation for Mindfulness

00:56 – 16:51

• Origin: From the Buddhist Satipatthana Sutta (Discourse on Four Foundations of Mindfulness), this phrase anchors attention in the felt experience of the body.

• Practical Use: Begin meditation by acknowledging, “there is a body,” cultivating full-body awareness instead of laser-focusing and possibly interfering with the breath (09:19–10:50).

• Benefits: This wider frame brings relaxation, prevents over-efforting, and allows for an open attention that naturally includes the breath, feelings, thoughts, and sounds (12:33).

  • “It just creates a quality of ease and relaxation.” — Joseph (12:49)

• Metaphor: Shifting between a “wide-angle lens” and a “zoom lens” can help adapt practice to what’s needed in the moment (16:58).

  • “Sometimes we practice with a wide-angle lens where we’re taking everything in. And then sometimes we change, like we go to a zoom lens… Trust the intuition, really.” — Joseph (16:56)

2. Playful, Non-Dogmatic Exploration: “Play with It” & “Whatever Works”

18:08 – 22:41

• Cultivate an attitude of curiosity: It’s perfectly fine to experiment and not take any instruction as gospel.
  • “Don't be afraid to explore, because I think this is how we learn…the many, many nuances of practice.” — Joseph (19:28)
• Personalize your practice; strict adherence to instructions may not always be helpful (22:05).
  • “If it's not working, either explore why…or see if there can be some adjustment…so that it begins to work and begins to be effective for our own minds at that particular time.” — Joseph (22:40)
• Quote: “This spirit of dogmatic non-dogmatism is really reflected in…‘whatever works’…There are many different approaches depending on our own particular conditioning and what's helpful.” — Joseph (20:53)

3. Support Without a Teacher: Resources & AI

23:57 – 28:23

• Leverage online resources (e.g., DharmaSeed.org) to find dharma talks and specific advice by topic or teacher.
• Surprisingly, Joseph finds large language models like ChatGPT quite useful for dharma questions, though with the caveat to check accuracy (27:06).
  • “I've been amazed at how both accurate and clear and comprehensive the answers have been.” — Joseph (27:34)

4. Walking Meditation: Changing the Frame of Self

28:23 – 48:59

• Phrases to experiment with during walking meditation:
  • “There is a body” — shift awareness to the whole body moving (13:39, 14:12).
  • “Sensations moving through space” — experience movement as disjointed sensations without a solid ‘self’ in the center (46:20–47:43).
  • “Walking through space” — focus on spaciousness, not just bodily form (29:01–31:56).
  • “Walking in a dream” — invoke a dreamlike frame, shifting perception to a dream state (35:00–36:06).
  • “Walking through the mind” — even the sense of space and body can be seen as ‘mind-made,’ dissolving attachment to a fixed self (36:06–39:39).
  • “Playing in this way just shows that our usual perception, for example, of the body, our usual perception…is always conditioned by the framework that we're bringing to the experience.” — Joseph (38:24)
• Outcome: These experiments loosen the “personally monogrammed” sense of self and create psychological space from thoughts, emotions, or bodily identification—useful for handling difficult feelings and over-identification with inner experience (40:30–41:35).

Memorable Exchange:

• Dan: “We so often have a thought or an emotion and we think it’s ours, and it feels monolithic and personally monogrammed and non-negotiable and inevitable…” (40:59)
• Joseph: “I love that. Like with all our experience, we personally monogram each one. That’s great. I’m going to steal back from you.” (41:38)

5. Navigating the Inner Critic: “Practice Assessment Tapes” & “Is This Useful?”

49:32 – 59:53

• Practice Assessment Tapes: The compulsive, neurotic habit of self-judging or measuring your progress (“am I doing it right?”).

  • “The mind can really get caught up in this frequent evaluation of our practice as we’re doing it.” — Joseph (49:57)
  • Beware the carrot analogy: too-frequent ‘checking’ disrupts organic growth (50:14–50:56).

• Antidote Question: “Is this useful?”

  • Address obsession with worry or evaluative rumination by asking, “Is this useful?” (58:42–59:31).
  • Dan: “This question… is like a thresher separating wheat from chaff, and the wheat is a very small part of the plant. The rest is chaff…” (63:01)
  • Builds both boundary and permission for constructive thinking, gracefully interrupting the worry loop.

• Dalai Lama’s Wisdom (64:11):

  • “If you’re in a situation that needs addressing and there’s something you can do about it, why worry? And if there’s nothing you can do about it, why worry?”

6. Working with Worry: Naming and Early Recognition

59:53 – 66:35

• Recommends identifying ‘worry thoughts’ as they arise and bringing mindfulness to the pattern itself.
  • “So that instead of being lost in it from the get go, we become aware of it as another arising thought.” — Joseph (61:01)
• Distinguish between useful consideration and unhelpful worry (64:11–66:35).

7. Cowboy Dharma — When to Abandon the Thought Entirely

67:28 – 75:47

• Story: During retreat, Joseph faced a recurring, seductive self-criticizing thought (“How could you have been so stupid?”), which only led to anguish.
• Cowboy Dharma: When thoughts are so seductive or painful, don’t give them any “airtime”—interrupt them at first arising with a humorous “cowboy” image (shooting the thought out of the sky).
  • “Cowboy Dharma is when there are certain patterns that just are so seductive to us, we cannot give it any airtime at all.” — Joseph (73:27)
  • “It has to be done with a sense of humor. Otherwise, it's aversion.” — Joseph (73:51)
• Crucial distinction: “Abandoning” is not aversion—it is wise, non-reactive letting go.

8. Dead End — A Loving “No”

78:02 – 82:33

• For recurring unhelpful fantasies, worries, or rumination, “dead end” is a phrase that quickly reminds you of the fruitlessness of going down certain mental rabbit holes.
  • “So I started using the phrase ‘dead end’ at the front end. As soon as the desire first thought or image…would arise, as soon as it came, I would say, ‘Oh, dead end.’” — Joseph (79:26)
• Applies both in meditation and daily life, enabling a “firm but gentle and even a little loving and humorous hand in the air.”
• “We want this quality of allowing…but it’s equally helpful to have in one’s toolbox a wise no…To be able to say, ‘No, I’m not going to do this,’ that no is as important in our practice as the wise yes.” — Joseph (81:28)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On “There Is a Body”:
  • “It’s not a metaphysical statement…it’s really just a way of guiding people…to settle into a full body awareness.” — Joseph (11:01)
• On “Play with It”:
  • “Don’t be afraid to explore…We see what works for us, what doesn’t, what works at a particular time, you know, and maybe it works well for a while and then it stops working.” — Joseph (19:28)
• On Self-perception:
  • “So just by playing in this way, it shows that our usual perception…can be experienced very differently depending on the framework we're using.” — Joseph (37:59)
• Cowboy Dharma:
  • “It’s like I had a mental image of just taking my six-shooter and shooting it out of the sky. The first thought: How can you… No airtime at all. It really worked.” — Joseph (71:47)
• On “Dead End”:
  • “It made it much easier to let go of it and then just to stay with my practice, not to be seduced by it.” — Joseph (79:33)
• On Acceptance vs. Wise No:
  • “It’s equally helpful to have…a wise no…that no is as important…as the wise yes.” — Joseph (81:28)

Timestamps for Noteworthy Segments

• [06:27] The power of “There is a body”
• [13:39] Applying to walking meditation; insights on non-self
• [16:51] Wide-angle lens vs. zoom lens attention
• [18:27] The value in “just play with it” (exploration)
• [22:41] “Whatever works” as a guiding mantra
• [27:06] Joseph endorses DharmaSeed.org and LLMs (ChatGPT) for dharma questions
• [28:23] Walking meditation phrase sequence
• [36:00] “Walking in a dream,” “walking through the mind”
• [41:22] Decoupling self from thoughts/emotions (“personally monogrammed” phrase)
• [49:32] Practice assessment tapes (the inner critic and striving)
• [58:42] “Is this useful?” — the antidote to mental loops
• [63:49] Wheat vs. chaff: discernment in worry
• [67:28] “Cowboy Dharma”: the wisdom of no-airtime for seductive thoughts
• [78:02] “Dead end” phrase for rumination

Closing Tone & Takeaway

The conversation is warm, humorous, and compassionate, frequently punctuated by Joseph’s humility and Dan’s self-deprecating tone. It emphasizes flexibility, experimentation, kindness toward your own process, and the importance of both accepting and decisively dropping unhelpful patterns. The practical phrases discussed serve as touchstones for anyone struggling with anxiety, overthinking, or obsessive rumination, whether in meditation or daily life.

Practical Phrases Recap

• There is a body
• Play with it (Just play)
• Whatever works
• Is this useful?
• Practice assessment tapes
• Cowboy Dharma (no airtime for seductive, unhelpful thoughts)
• Dead end (loving “no” to fruitless habits)
• For walking meditation: Sensations moving through space, Walking through space, Walking in a dream, Walking through the mind

"By playing with these different perspectives, we loosen up our attachment… So the core notion of a stable, substantial self begins to dissolve a bit, and we realize our experience is always in flux and flow and morphs from one perspective into another." — Joseph Goldstein (39:39)

Recommended for: Anyone seeking practical Buddhist methods for anxiety, overthinking, and repetitive mental loops—offered with wit, compassion, and hard-won wisdom.