Taming Your Wandering Mind | Amishi Jha | TEDxCoconutGrove 

Here's an interview with the speaker, Amishi Jha, that might help: So, how do we gain control of those flickering flashlights and achieve focus? “That’s where mindfulness training comes in,” says Jha. She describes this training as a “portable brain fitness routine to keep our attention strong.” She has tested the effects of such training on subjects in high-stress groups, like athletes and military personnel. Her research has found that the attention of someone who hasn’t had mindfulness training declines when they’re under intense stress, but in people who’ve had training, their attention remains stable. What’s more, in people who regularly do mindfulness exercises, their attention actually gets better over time - even when they’re under stress. According to Jha, researchers have started to uncover other benefits associated with mindfulness, including reduced anxiety, protection from depression relapse, and improved working memory. What is mindfulness? It’s about paying attention to the present moment with awareness and without emotional reactivity. “It doesn’t require any particular worldview or spiritual or religious belief system,” says Jha. Mindfulness training can be broken down into two major categories: focused attention and open monitoring. They’re very different, yet complementary, practices. Focused attention exercises cultivate your brain’s ability to focus on one single object, like one’s breath. To do mindful breathing, sit in a comfortable, upright position and focus all your attention on the sensation of breathing - “for example, the coolness of air moving in and out of your nostrils or your abdomen moving in and out,” says Jha. “Focus on something that is tied to your sensory experience. When your mind wanders away from that sensation to internal mental content or an external distraction, gently return it to the breath-related object.” Don’t be surprised or disappointed if you find yourself retrieving your mind hundreds of times during a 15-minute session. Think of your brain like a puppy you’re training to walk on a leash. Gently redirect it every time it darts away. Another focused-attention exercise is mindful walking. Notice the sensations of walking - “your feet on the ground, the wind caressing your skin, sounds in the air,” says Jha. Walking can take place either indoors or outdoors. You might find this activity easier than mindful breathing; go with whatever exercise works best for you. One final focused-attention exercise is the body scan. Remember the idea of your attention being like a flashlight? “A body scan is essentially taking that flashlight and directing it systematically through the entire body,” Jha says. Start by focusing your attention on your toes, taking note of whatever sensations might be there. Tightness? Tingling? Warmth? Cold? Next, you can move on to the soles of the feet and the heels, then the legs, stomach, and so on, slowly moving your flashlight up your body. After you have a good grounding in focused attention practice and can keep your attention on a particular object or set of sensations for a period of time, you can move on to open monitoring. Open monitoring helps you learn to pay attention to what’s happening around you without becoming attached to it. This practice is not about paying attention to a particular object or objects. Instead, it’s about remaining open to any experience - internal or external - that arises, and allowing it to wash over you. “You don’t process it, you don’t think about it,” Jha says. “You just notice its occurrence and allow it to dissipate.” To do this, sit in a comfortable, upright position and try to be aware of any sensations, thoughts or emotions that emerge, without holding on to them. It might help you to label what comes up by using words like “planning,” “worrying,” “judging,” “remembering.” You can do this silently or out loud. After you name it, let it go. Think of what you’re doing as like watching clouds move in the sky and observing the different shapes they make - but in this practice, you’re watching your thoughts travel through your mind. And yes, there will be times when you feel like you keep getting hooked on a particular thought or sensation and can’t seem to drop it. Says Jha, “If you find you’re so lost in thought that you can’t do the open monitoring practice, go back to doing a focused attention exercise to steady yourself again.” People generally start to see benefits when they practice for about 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for around 4 weeks. “If you do more, you benefit more,” she says, “but if you do less than 12 minutes a day, we don’t really see any benefits.” If you try any of these exercises and have trouble keeping your mind still, know that that’s a common experience. Jha urges people not to feel discouraged - as with any new activity or sport, you need to practice. “The mind will wander, and that’s completely fine. It’s not about not letting the mind wander; it’s when the mind wanders, to gently return your attention,” she says. Start small. “Begin with whatever you consider a reasonable goal and cut it in half, and make a commitment for some period of time,” says Jha. Your goal might be as simple as vowing to stop every day and take the posture of one of the practices, says Jha. Chances are, once you sit (or walk), you’ll decide to stay for a while. Whatever your initial goal, commit to that for a month - and congratulate yourself for making it! - and then gradually increase your practice time until you’re doing it for 15 minutes, 5 days a week. Finding a mindfulness community, whether virtual or in person, can help you stick to the activity. What’s most important, says Jha, is to make sure “you really support yourself to create the habit of practicing,” whether that means setting multiple reminders for yourself or finding a quiet spot and time at your home or workplace to sit. Jha has seen the positive impact of mindfulness training on the many people she’s worked with over the years. One thing that struck her is how much the military personnel say it has improved not just their ability to work under pressure but also their home lives. Many told her that they’d struggled to be present with their families after returning from deployment. But after mindfulness training, they found they were better able to be present with their loved ones - which is something most of us would like to do, too. “This idea of being present to the people around us when we really want to be present - it often escapes us how to do this,” says Jha. By reclaiming our own attention, we can more fully connect with the people who matter to us.

I really like the way she talked and how she beautifully she deliver her speech

Don't sweat the small stuff, easier said than done. My trick is the love of both animals and gardening, and yes nature is truly a healer. May you all find your inner peace in your own way.

I loved the forward and reverse concept. Several concepts were great ways to think about it... but bottom line: this was a 20 minute commercial to attend her training. She didn’t provide tips or tlricks or skills to improve my I attention skills. This is exactly what a Ted talk should NOT be.... a marketing pitch.

Amishi , is one of the most under appreciated new scientists of the 21 first century, as far mindfulness studies in Neuroscience.

Her voice is very similar to Helen Parr from Incredibles.

Mindfulness should be thought in every school in the world!

Everything you do - Everything you encounter - Everything you experience - ------- is changing your brain --------

Where your attention goes your energy flows

0:11:55 Time Counter Amishi is one of the best mindfulness pioneers in neuroscience when it it comes to mindfulness studies on the impact of mindfulness training. Yes, It could be used to train people to be better killers, as far as military applications. Many of these researchers need funding, so sometimes the military has enormous budgets.

"Pay attention to your attention", or as Sam Harris put it, "just notice what you in fact notice in each moment". Reflection and meditation really are great tools, even if they at first may not seem so from an outside perspective.

Thank you Amisha Jha! Grand talk! Pay attention to your Attention! Be mindful! Surely every one listening will be a better person in concentration and attentive, mindful towards their Attentions! God Almighty Bless!!!

I applaud you for being unique and using a different format. While I had a hard time following the message with the rhyming, I think more importantly it brought to light different tools to use. I learned the strategy of dialoguing with two personas of the self in a class a couple years ago. It is an act of self-compassion. Also, using poetry and rap is a different way of connecting with the self that is useful. Different strategies work for different people. Thanks for sharing!

Amazing insights into brain power, attention and Mindfulness! Well done Dr. Jha! you are brilliant!

It would have been nice if she'd given examples of these exercises to develop mindfulness

Thank you so much for all of your scientific insight

People probably don't know how much they want to know this! Learning to put aside self-sabotage with stress attraction can be difficult to learn, but becomes easier with practice. S :)

Amazing talk, thank you x

This is awesome data! I knew this to be true by my own experience but didn’t know it by data. Thank you!

Excellent speech and information, Thanks to Amishi Jha, I hope you save a lot of people to pay attention in their life.

She is so on point

Thankyou so much😊

Many resources are available. Here is a link to an upcoming training opportunity we are offering as a mindfulness primer. Hope you can join us. www.1440.org/program/mindfulness-meditation-for-high-performance-leadership/

Great talk !

Excellent!

All my life I've been a mind wanderer and a d d , I've been paying attention to detai more now my life has changed dramatically I feel like I've pressed the rest button on my life

In the first 3 minutes of me watching of this video this happened : 1. Without pausing I started writing a different comment not this one 2. After focusing on watching this video I started doing a breathing exercise and started freaking out when. I couldn't not switch from manual breathing mode to automatic breathing mode 3. She is talking about some military in Iraq and a study and I am reading comments left by others now 4. I rewind the video to when I lost concentration which is like on the 1st minute. 5. I noticed how cold my feet are and decided to relocate and paused the video. 6. I went to the bathroom 7. I went to get some juice to drink. Now... 8. I am writing this video and I have only watched like 2 minutes of this video and I probably will have to watch them again. Summary : I can't pay attention even if you pay me 1k to do so

VOW! FANTASTIC, AWESOME, APPRECIATIVE, EXCELLENT AND VERY GREAT 👌👍👏👏👏👏

Thanks for the presentation, its very informative and it has so much benefits that I've really educated myself about things I never knew before. By the way, the presenter she look like the twins actors Tamera and Mowry, she is like their sisters. Amazing!

Hi guys !!i m practising mindfulness since many yrs.,before I come across this talk and results are amazing.just try for couples of weeks and se the difference .Thanks!! Amishi Jha for scientifically researching out and bringing before us.

Thanks. You presentation make this concept more than clear to me

Loved it 💯 thank u Amishi Jha

Interesting lecture on mind wandering! !!! I need to practice more on the mindfulness training because I have suffered a lot stress in my life. Thank you.

good information thank you

I mind wondered a lot during this speech

Thank you

I am forced to write this looking at the negative comments. I found your talk interesting, engaging, scientific, and practical. I sense the gap between mind (time and location) and your current reality is what creates anxiety and tension internally due to not being aligned,. By nudging the mind to the present, you are able to increase your sensory experience thereby creating delightfulness and pleasure in the present moment. You can not change the past or change the future scenarios at the present moment, so why take attention to the present!! You are where your mind's attention is rather than your body!!

Excellent

A very good talk from a Neuroscientist.

her talk made me realise how my mind wondering off during fast talking

Wow so smart

interesting talk, particularly the data and experiments she shared

Appreciated you !

She sounds like incredible woman on the incredibles

Jiddu krishnamurthy has been talking about paying ATTENTION since ages

If the mind is wandering - let it wander - UG Krishnamurthy! Lol! And jokes apart - a great talk!

Taming the mind by mindfulness to get the best end product of Ary wisdom. Brain is only a part of body and it works best with clean mind. 🙏 🙏 🙏 👀 👍

Thanks! :-)

This was a good topic.

waw, thanks

Where can I find more specifics on the mindfulness training that they used? I.e. how to do it.

I like and interested to learn

Lesson learnt: go thru the comments before watching ted talks if u wish to save time.

Where do we get this " Mindfulness Training" in 2022 ?! And how things did evolve since 2008 ?

I think it's interesting how she describes attention more with a capital "A", giving it an identity and title. If that is the case, how about giving focus, intention, and decision similar identities?

Check out John Butler's common sense guide to meditation. Best video on the subject in my opinion.

God...this is one of the best ted talks...!!!

Only sales pitch and no mindfulness exercises. 😫

WONDEFUL

I wish she had shared some mindfulness exercises

I appreciate the time and effort put in to this talk yet it certainly appears as if the benifits talked about here are not benifits to make you a better human being but benifits to your workplace, your employer and down the line to the individual worker. This seems like mindfulness for the corporate, workplace environment which so many already find so unfulfilling. She seems genuine and has a passion but for whose benifits?

Omg I'm mind wondering right into this tread lol but I just got to say this like now I really like those birds in the background Nice!!!! Ok so am going to press ⏪😜🤣

Ironically I had a difficult time focusing on this video about how to focus. I'm a lost cause 🤷🏾‍♀️

I was hoping that I use the 10 percent only because there was a hope that there was additional 90 to become a genious.

She's clever !

So where is how to do mindfulness training?

I am curious of the pros and cons for us creative types where we train our minds to wonder.

Tame it not - creativity is the first phase in the scientific process...

what do you do to practice mindfulness training??

Is there a web site to obtain the mindfullness training?

Am I the only one who feels that this talk was a marketing pitch!

Is this a commercial for her mindfulness training? She never mentioned what we can actually do

As far as I know, "human beings only use 10% brain capacity" was not a Morgan Freeman's statement. It was a Professor Norman's statement, and Professor Norman is a character played by Morgan Freeman in the movie "Lucy" (2014).

Anyone know any TRAINING techniques/practices i can adopt to BECOME MORE MINDFUL?? Plzzzzz

some poor intern had to make all those paper birds and hang it there in the background.

When you said stress has a major effect on attention, is there a way you can research to relatively know how much negative emotions and positive emotions have over our attention. Is negative emotions influencing our attention more than positive emotions?

Yup I am going to leave a comment each time I get distracted... The n170 wave thing reminds me of old Nokia N 70 I used to have... No my relative had that one I had a Motorola

"I'll be with you always." -Jesus

when mindfulness is practiced along, there is nothing happened strange. Any mindfulness practice must develop wisdom and patience for one to decide the best things to do. Being able to see what is going on in our mind and body is the duty of mindfulness but the right decisions are taken by wisdom. For wisdom, there are should be other qualities presented such as mindfulness, perseverance, reflection...etc.

I was looking for actual solution.. not mere advertisement of that solution. Would have been better if she included few examples of mindfulness training.!

Soooo what's her mindfulness trainings?

Nice to see skull caps from Fringe in a real trst.

me wandering every sec watching the video

How is mindfulness practice done ...? u missed it in this talk.

it is definitely marketing pitch

I wish she would have mentioned some mindfulness tricks instead of just keep telling how wonderful it is!! Waste of time!! For sure a sales pitch!!

I heard all of the good things about mindfulness training from her, but this talk lacked one very important thing: what these training exercises actually WERE. Unfortunately I feel there’s a lot of empty TED talks like this that tout a particular thing and then don’t deliver anything of substance. Almost like they just enjoy hearing themselves speak.

Considering inviting her for the first Global Mindfulness Summit in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In Feb 2018

Training is always good but how about handling that which causes the mind to wander. A lot of people out there hate scientology. There are reasons for it but if there is one thing a scientologist learns it's to keep their mind on what they are doing. There is very little training involved, what they do is "remove" from the mind of their PC (subject) the things that make their mind wander. Once those things are out of the way the person can concentrate without effort. For example, why is it that a person reads a page of a book and forget immediately what they read? It's because the person did not understand a word or symbol on the page. Find out what word the person did not understand, look up the word or symbol and make sure the person understand it's meaning and it will never happen again. So, a person that tries to practice mindfulness and finds that he/she can't keep their mind on subject has something in their mind that keeps them off balance. Identify that thing and the person will be able to concentrate immediately. No joke.

AMAZING.....WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY........

طيب ايش هو التدريب ؟؟؟

Mindfulness to go for a task to destroy other's lives overseas great job 👏

Just tell us how.

Hii same name

my constant need for distraction brought me here

Sounds like more police officers, politicians and presidents need to implement this mindfulness training program as well.

K..

Its ironic that my mind was wandering the entire time, all because she sounds like the mom from The Incredibles movie

Hii

I was really hoping to learn how to pay attention to our attention. It would be much better if she shared some of the mindfulness techniques to improve our attention and awareness instead of just telling how amazing it is.