Podcast Summary

10% Happier with Dan Harris

Episode: How To Handle Turbulence and Transitions | Phillip Moffitt

Date: September 17, 2025
Guest: Phillip Moffitt – Buddhist meditation teacher, former CEO, author

Brief Overview

This episode of 10% Happier focuses on navigating life's inevitable ups and downs, transitions, and turbulent times with greater wisdom, mindfulness, and resilience. Host Dan Harris interviews Phillip Moffitt, a seasoned Buddhist meditation teacher and former CEO of Esquire magazine, about practical mindfulness tools for handling transitions in work, relationships, and personal growth. The conversation offers both Buddhist wisdom and actionable strategies for managing reactivity, building agency, and moving through change with dignity.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Transitions Matter

• Personal Experience: Moffitt shares his own dramatic career transition from CEO to Buddhist teacher ([06:19]).
  • “I played a role in my baby boom generation... it was like I switched what was important.”
• Universality of Change: Dan highlights that transitions—voluntary or imposed—are a non-negotiable reality.

2. The Five Mindfulness Tools for Happier, Smarter Transitions

Tool 1: Start Where You Are

• Acceptance of Conditions:
  • “You accept the external conditions around whatever transition you’re facing, and you accept the internal conditions.” (Moffitt, [08:24])
• Not Passivity, but Agency:
  • Mindfulness empowers you to relate skillfully to circumstances—even if not of your choosing.
  • “All conditions are a place you can start from. So it’s actually very empowering in that way.” (Moffitt, [11:03])
• Practical Steps:
  • Build mindfulness practices for self-awareness.
  • Coach yourself with honesty: “I want to be real here… I can grow from this transition.” ([14:51])

Tool 2: Start Over

• Valuing the Reset:
  • Recognize that mistakes and reactivity are inevitable during transitions; the important part is to start over from your values.
  • “No matter how it turns out... how you wish to live it. That... is actually how it turns out best.” (Moffitt, [20:33])
• Meditation as Training:
  • Dan: “Meditation is where perfectionism comes to die... you just definitionally have to start over.” ([29:36])
• Practical Steps:
  • Recognize when you’ve gone off track.
  • Let go of judgment, return to core values, and begin again.

Tool 3: The Pause That Overcomes Obsessive Thinking

• Interrupting Reactivity:
  • Pause creates the space between stimulus and response.
  • “If they even three seconds is an interrupt, in 30 seconds a lot can happen.” (Moffitt, [36:15])
• Practical Ways to Pause:
  • Notice: “I’m choosing here to pause.”
  • Use physical grounding (e.g., a stone in your pocket, felt sense in the body).
  • “The pause really helps. Starting over really helps. Starting where you are, all that really helps.” (Moffitt, [43:12])
• Buddhist Perspective:
  • Connects to the “wise view” and “wise intention” of the Eightfold Path. ([38:11])

Tool 4: Recognize Your Motives

• Mixed Motives are Normal:
  • “If one looks closely, it’s a mix of motives so often.” (Moffitt, [52:30])
• Taking Inventory:
  • Use mindfulness to see the full range, from noble intentions to crass ones—without shame.
  • Dan: “We all are capable of all sorts of darkness… the answer is… to see it clearly and not be owned by it.” ([57:25])
• Skillful Response:
  • Emphasize motives aligned with your values, but recognize it’s a gradual process.

Tool 5: Noticing – Reacting vs. Responding

• Choosing to Respond:
  • “You’re in relation to your experience as you’re having it. And that gives you the choice to respond.” (Moffitt, [63:12])
• Freedom in the Space:
  • True agency is found in how we relate—not in avoiding suffering.
  • Practice being present with strong emotions without denial or being swept away.
  • Dan: “You notice that all emotions have a half life…if you just let the anger be… it will come and go and then you can make a sane decision…” ([48:17])
• Practical Steps:
  • Allow emotions to be, observe them, allow them to pass, and then act wisely.

Highlighted Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Starting Where You Are:
  • “The conditions, all conditions, are a place you can start from. It’s actually very empowering.”
    – Phillip Moffitt, [11:03]
• On Self-Coaching:
  • “You claim already on the front end how you wish to relate to this whole experience.”
    – Phillip Moffitt, [16:46]
• On the Power of Pause:
  • “The pause is really important. It is interrupting the reactive mind and it's giving you the choice as best you're able.”
    – Phillip Moffitt, [32:54]
• On Recognizing Motives:
  • “Motives that are healthy bring healthy results... in between those two are mixed motives, which bring mixed results. For most of us, maybe we're in that mixed category.”
    – Phillip Moffitt, [57:28]
• On Emotional Space:
  • “You can get to the point that you are observing the experience from within the experience.”
    – Phillip Moffitt, [64:20]
• Dan’s Relatable Metaphors:
  • “Meditation is where perfectionism comes to die...”
    – Dan Harris, [29:36]
  • “Our emotions can seem so monolithic... like an anchorman, definitely telling us the truth, capital T truth.”
    ([48:17])

Notable Timestamps for Core Segments

• 06:06: Beginning discussion of transitions in life and Moffitt’s early career change
• 07:08: Why mindfulness is essential for transitions
• 08:24: Tool 1 – Start where you are
• 10:09–12:18: The distinction between acceptance and resignation
• 13:39–18:08: Strategies for accepting reality and engaging mindfulness and self-coaching
• 19:10–21:50: Tool 2 – The power and permission in starting over
• 29:36: Meditation as practice for starting over
• 33:01–38:11: Tool 3 – Pausing and practical instructions for interrupting obsessive thinking
• 41:08–44:09: Using body awareness to return to balance
• 52:30–57:28: Tool 4 – Recognizing and embracing your real motives through mindfulness
• 62:21–66:39: Tool 5 – The choice between reacting and responding
• 68:53: Discussion of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (vedana/feeling tone)
• 71:01: Final reflections, plugs for Moffitt’s books and resources

Additional Topics

• The Role of Values:
  Core and situational values are essential anchors in times of change.
  “I will be truthful. I will be genuine, real, sincere. That was my big claim initially. And then as I grew older, kindness became more important.” (Moffitt, [28:19])

• The Street of Life:
  Buddhism works for the “street of life” – not just monasteries or retreats ([40:34]).

• Body Awareness Practices:
  Using the “felt sense” and practical tools (e.g. a stone in your pocket) to ground in the moment ([44:09], [49:20]).

• No Expectation of Perfection:
  Dan and Phillip emphasize: you don’t need to be someone special for these practices; they’re accessible to all and empower incremental change over time.

Further Resources

• Dancing with Life (book by Phillip Moffitt) – Buddhist insights applied to everyday life
• Emotional Chaos to Clarity (book by Phillip Moffitt) – Practical mindfulness tools
• The Nine Dimensions of Consciousness (book by Phillip Moffitt)
• DharmaWisdom.org – Weekly excerpts, reflections, and articles
• Dharma Ground – Free online Buddhist retreats

Conclusion

Key Takeaway:
Change is certain and transitions can be turbulent, but with the right tools—mindfulness, self-awareness, self-coaching, pausing, clarifying motives, and acting from values—even difficult passages can become occasions for growth, agency, and greater happiness.

“How we relate to them, that’s our little bit of freedom. To me, that is freedom.”
– Phillip Moffitt ([60:43])

This summary captures the spirit, structure, and actionable wisdom of the episode, offering a resource for anyone facing change or seeking to cultivate equanimity in the face of life’s turbulence.