Living in the Now

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The power of living in the now. How do you balance your past and future? We will be mind wandering 50% of our waking moments, says Tran. It is built and baked in a evolutionary inheritance we walk around with. And it's useful. It allows us to productively reflect and plan. There are some people that i talk to that are very high power people who demand these capacities on their own. But they can't get rid of them. They have to learn from my mistakes so that future self has a better life. So how do you balance that? You know, like, my past matters to me. I don't want to miss the now.

Research shows we are missing 50 percent of our lives because we aren’t paying attention. Many of us often feel mentally foggy, scattered, and overwhelmed. Why is it that no matter how hard you try, you seem to find yourself somewhere else — if you’re even aware you’ve drifted off to that place.

In this conversation with the acclaimed neuroscientist Amishi Jha, she recounts what her neuroscience research revealed, and shows why whether you’re simply browsing, talking to friends, or trying to stay focused in an important meeting, you can’t seem to manage to hang on to your attention.

Shermer and Jha discuss: the neuroscience of attention; what attention evolved to do; how stress, attention bias, negativity bias, thought flooding, and active listening affect attention; multitasking; the “flashlight” metaphor; mindfulness and well-being, and more…