How To Create Micro-Moments of Sanity No Matter What's Happening Today | Jay Michaelson

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.6 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A conversation with Jay Michaelson, our Teacher of the Month for February, about his path to meditation, navigating multiple identities, and why he calls himself a "cynical, sarcastic bitch."

Jay Michaelson is a meditation teacher, journalist, rabbi, and author. In this conversation with executive producer DJ Cashmere, Jay gets candid about his unconventional path into meditation—driven initially by greed for mystical experiences rather than a desire to reduce suffering—and how his practice has evolved over 25 years.

We talk about:

Why Jay identifies as a "greed type" in Buddhist psychology (and what that means)
How to balance worldly activism with contemplative practice without getting "hollowed out"
The concept of creating a "permission structure" to live the life you actually want
That moment of spaciousness between stimulus and response (and how it saved Jay when he got heckled during LGBTQ activism)
Whether meditation can help save humanity—and why Jay is both cynical and hopeful about this
How neurotic Jay still is after 25 years of practice (spoiler: he's less reactive, but still neurotic)
"Micro-moments" of awareness—five-second practices for people who can't go on long retreats

Jay's guided meditations and live sangha sessions are available throughout February in the 10% Happier app. You can also find him at jaymichaelson.substack.com, where he writes Both/And, a newsletter about the intersection of spirituality, meditation, and politics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.
0:18.7	Hello, gang. How are we doing? It is tempting at times to feel a bit selfish or self-indulgent for doing any kind of self-care, including meditation, exercise, you name it, at a time when it feels like the world is on fire.
0:32.3	So today we're going to talk about this tricky balance with a meditation teacher who is not afraid to mix it up in the
0:39.2	political arena, as it were. Jay Michelson is not only a deep Dharma practitioner, but he's also
0:44.9	a journalist, a rabbi, a novelist, and a former activist. Today he's going to talk about how
0:50.4	to use your personal practice as a way to fortify yourself to engage more effectively
0:55.8	in the world. Jay is February's Teacher of the Month over on my new app, 10% with Dan Harris.
1:02.6	That means Jay will be leading live video meditation and Q&A sessions and producing guided
1:08.8	meditations to join our growing library of meditations.
1:12.2	You can sign up for the app now at danharris.com.
1:14.8	There's a free 14-day trial if you want to try before you buy.
1:18.4	We'll get started with Jay Michelson in conversation with the executive producer of this show,
1:23.1	DJ Kashmir, right after this.
1:26.6	Right before I recorded this ad, I was in my closet looking around for
1:32.4	what I was going to wear tomorrow. I've got a family lunch and I was a little disappointed to see that
1:37.4	my favorite pair of pants, literally my favorite pair of pants for two years now, they're unavailable.
1:43.4	I think they're still in the laundry.
1:45.0	You know who makes those pants? Quince. Quince has the everyday essentials that I love with quality
1:50.6	that lasts organic cotton sweaters, polos for every occasion, lighter jackets that keep you warm in the
1:55.8	changing season. The list goes on. Quince works directly with top factories and cuts out the middleman so you're not
2:01.7	paying for brand markup just quality clothing. Everything is built to hold up to daily wear and still
2:07.6	look good season after season. Hence the fact that my black pants from Quince are still my favorite
	...

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