Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day

by Amishi P. Jha

Research shows we are missing 50 percent of our lives. Why?
Because we aren’t paying attention.

From the constant buzz of your phone and the lure of your media feed to your unrelenting, all-encompassing, and evergrowing mental to-do list—the demands on your attention have never been so severe. The result is an escalating crisis, where we feel mentally foggy, scattered, and overwhelmed. Remarkably, the solution to our attention crisis has been right here in front of us the entire time. Acclaimed neuroscientist Amishi P. Jha, PhD, has dedicated her life’s work to understanding the science of attention at every level—from brain-imaging studies in the lab to field-testing soldiers, firefighters, athletes, healthcare and business professionals, and students. Her mission has been to scientifically determine how we can harness the full power of our attention to better meet all that life demands. Dr. Jha expertly guides readers through fascinating research, debunking common assumptions and offering stunning new insights into where presence and purpose really come from. Peak Mind reveals remarkably easy to adapt, flexible, 12-minute-a-day exercises to lift the mental fog, declutter the mind, and strengthen focus so that you can experience more of your life.

About the author: Amishi P. Jha, Ph.D is professor of psychology and director of contemplative neuroscience at the University of Miami. She leads research on the neural bases of attention and the effects of mindfulness-based training programs on cognition, emotion, and resilience. She has spoken at TED.com, the World Economic Forum, and NATO, and has been covered by Scientific American, the New York Times, NPR, and Forbes.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Productivity, Audiobook, Personal Development, Science

368 pages, ebook

First published October 19, 2021

About the author

Dr. Amishi Jha is Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami. She serves as the Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative, which she co-founded in 2010. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California–Davis and postdoctoral training at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. Dr. Jha’s work has been featured at TED, NATO, the World Economic Forum, and The Pentagon. She has received coverage in the The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Forbes and more. You can find Dr. Jha at http://amishi.com

Reviews

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll spare you the meandering: mindfulness practice positively influences focus and attention. So do that.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I generally star my reviews and move on due to the sheer number of books I go through as a librarian. However, this one got my attention after being contacted privately. I received an email on Sept 21, 2021 stating “We're reaching out to you because we noticed that you recently rated Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day:..” and they wanted to verify that I actually meant to star it and not just add it to my shelves. Um, what?

When I went to check, it turns out I had rated it...3 months previously in June of 2021! To make it even more odd, the title’s description field now stated “NOTE: DUE TO BOOK UNAVAILABILITY PRIOR TO OCTOBER 19, 2021 RELEASE DATE, PUBLIC REVIEWS OFFERED PRIOR TO THIS DATE ARE NOT VALID.”

I’ve no idea what the author or publisher or their rep is up to but, having been at this site for over 12 years now, let me tell you, this isn’t how it works. Any reader that receives ARC’s knows how this works and assuming we don’t is ridiculous and makes you look foolish. I actually wasted my time to check and yes, my feedback was sent through NetGalley in May 2021.

My original rating was 2 stars. Since it took me longer than “Investing 12 minutes a Day” to uncover their shady behavior, it’s now 1 star.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much time is spent getting to the meat of the matter and too little nourishment is presented to make this read worth the time invested. A total disappointment!

My thanks to NetGalley and Harper One for allowing me access to this book which I had hoped would be helpful. The book is scheduled for publication on 10/19/21. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

[Keith Akers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been doing meditation for decades now, and was already aware of the practices mentioned, which will also be quite familiar to many long-time Buddhist (and other) practitioners. I'd been following the meditation advice to follow your breath, and then if your mind wanders, to bring it back to your breath.

BUT this book was really helpful in one key way. She points out that a "wandering mind" is NOT a defect in your attention abilities. It's a feature, and an important survival tool. It means you probably won't get eaten because a tiger surprised you; you'll be constantly checking the outside world, mentally taking your focus away from whatever task you're working on to let it survey the immediate surroundings checking for signs of trouble.

In other words, instead of trying to keep your focus on the breath (and feeling somehow inadequate if it wanders), try to keep bringing your naturally wandering mind back to your breath, and count it a success if you do bring it back. So we shouldn't curse our minds for their forgetfulness when they wander; rather we should praise our minds when you notice that it's wandered.

So I was grateful to have this one piece of advice totally turned me around, and have the way your attention works --- and the things that degrade your attention as well --- spelled out in non-technical jargon.

I was able to recognize, as "mindfulness based attention training," a number of types of Buddhist meditation, including Zen and Vipassana (and probably others, those are just the types I've heard of). Core practices include "Find your focus," i. e. bring your attention back to your breath; "body scan," i. e. mentally observe your body from bottom to top; and "river of thought," i. e. watching your thoughts, emotions, distractions, as they float through your mind, without getting caught up in them.

She uses these techniques to deal with ADHD type symptoms when you just can't focus your mind on what you want to focus on. She devotes an entire chapter, early on, to "kryptonite," things that tend to damage your attention and cause you to lose your focus. Stress, poor mood, or threats are three especially volatile forms of kryptonite.

One odd thing (from a Buddhist perspective, at least) is that she was using these techniques to help Marines do their job in the military! So obviously this techniques does not imply any particular type of morality of nonviolence. But she does cite one case where attention helped avert an accidental attack on civilians who had been misidentified as enemy military. So I don't see how meditation by itself gets you to the five Buddhist precepts, or any other particular ethical teaching, though obviously it probably helps you on such a path.

Another odd thing is that she thinks that you can do this on only 12 minutes a day! Most meditation groups I've been to have meditation periods of 20, 25, or 30 minutes, or maybe even longer.

One significant negative: there's no index.

[Fred Leland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding Research and Book: Developing Awareness and Focus of Effort in Rapidly Changing and Uncertain Conditions

The work and research in mindfulness written about in “Peak Mind” by Amishi Jha is something I believe will help cops (I am retired cop with 32 years and post retirement still training cops) make more effective decisions while handling crises on the street.

The work in this book is much needed In Policing, making them more effective and safe. I have been talking about mindfulness making a big difference in preparing cops through better awareness over the past couple of years since I began using mindfulness techniques myself. This book has the research and science behind what my intuition and practice was showing me ( better awareness, better decisions, better courses of action, and better adaptability). I could go on but I will digress and just say, I am excited about this book and it’s benefits in making cops and those they serve more effective and safe.

Thank you for all your efforts and for this book. In my humble opinion “Peak Mind” is a must read!

[Jung]

Mindfulness meditation exercise

If you’re driving or walking, or in a loud and distracting environment, then feel free to skip this exercise for now and revisit it later. If you’re somewhere quiet, though, and ideally somewhere you can sit, then now might be the right time to start your meditation practice.

Ready? Sit comfortably to begin, upright but not rigid. Put your shoulders back, close your eyes, and breathe.

Don’t try to control your breath. Just follow it, breathing at a normal pace.

Now, take a second to notice the way breathing feels. Pay close attention to the sensations, but don’t think about them: just sense them. Choose one area of your body, wherever the breath is most noticeable, and focus your attention there. Maybe it’s the rise and fall of your diaphragm. Maybe it’s the movement of air in and out of your nose. Choose just one location and sense your breath there: following it in and out, in and out, over and over again.

If you find that your attention has drifted, don’t get frustrated. Simply redirect it to the sensation of the breath. Once again, you don’t need to think: just sense.

Sense the breath. Give it your full attention, feeling its minute, second-by-second alterations. If your mind wanders, simply notice it and redirect your attention.

Still there? Well done. You spent the last minutes meditating. And remember: twelve minutes, five times a week is all it takes.

---

The juggler.

In the business world, you probably know what a chief executive does: she sets goals, supervises, and makes decisions. She ensures things are running smoothly, and keeps everything on track.

In your mind, the central executive – also known as the juggler – plays a similar role. It doesn’t carry out every small task, but instead oversees and manages the whole process. That means overriding automatic impulses, like the knee-jerk desire to pick up your phone every time it beeps. And it also means matching goals with the actions you’ll need to take to reach them. Whether your goal is short-term and simple or long-term and more complex, you’ll rely on the juggler to help you navigate the demands it presents. That’s why the central executive is called the juggler: whatever challenges you’re facing, it has to try to keep all the balls in the air.

So that’s the spotlight, the floodlight, and the juggler – all powerful subsystems of attention. But as impressive as they are, there is a catch: these functions tend to operate solo, one at a time, rather than in tandem. For example, you can’t really have the spotlight and the floodlight on at the same time. Your stint in the Australian scrubland taught you that.

---

Stress, threat, and poor mood degrade your attention.

So you’ve discovered the way attention works, and the various forms it comes in – the flashlight, the spotlight, and the juggler. But what about when attention doesn’t work? When things go wrong and your power of attention is weak or misdirected. Exactly what is happening then?

Well, there are three main things that can damage your attention system and wreak havoc on your power of attention. The first is stress. Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by professional worries, relationship issues, or financial woes, feeling stressed out can drastically interfere with your ability to marshal your attention.

Why? Well, stress hijacks your mind’s cognitive resources, directing them toward imagined catastrophes and remembered mistakes. In other words, it directs your attention away from the here and now, forcing you to engage in “mental time travel.” With your mind locked in bitter ruminations and dark imaginings, there’s naturally less attention at your disposal for other tasks.

The second thing that can mess with your attention is threat. Imagine trying to take a driving test with a wild animal in the back of your car. How much attention would you be able to devote to your three-point turn with a raccoon breathing down your neck? Probably not a lot. You see, threats magnetize your attention like little else, and disengaging your mind from them can seem all but impossible.

That brings us to the third and final thing that degrades attention: poor mood. Anything from a passing bout of the blues to chronic depression can interfere with your attention system. In fact, the author and her research team found that people’s attention and working memory decline significantly after seeing upsetting images.

That’s a serious problem because, as you’re about to discover, a weakened attention system doesn’t just cause issues in the present. By interfering with the way you create memories, it also leads to problems down the line.

---

Making memories require rehearsal, elaboration, and consolidation.

Did you know that making a memory involves three steps? Rehearsal, elaboration, and consolidation – that’s all it takes. But if the attention system isn’t working properly, a lot can go wrong with this seemingly simple process.

Now, the word “rehearsal” might call to mind images of orchestras and theaters, but in this context it means something much more mundane. When you hear a phone number and repeat it aloud, you’re rehearsing it; when you meet a new coworker and say his name three times in your head, you’re rehearsing that too. Rehearsal, in other words, is the act of tracing over information, reminding yourself of it in order to help lodge it in your memory for good.

When that’s done, step two begins. That’s elaboration, which simply means connecting new information with your existing memories. In other words, integrating the new input with the old.

Finally, there’s consolidation, the process by which new neural pathways are created, strengthened, and stored. It occurs at the same time as rehearsal and elaboration. Thanks to consolidation, information passes from your ephemeral working memory into your more enduring long-term memory. In everyday terms, think of it like taking a receipt out of your wallet and tucking it into a folder for safekeeping.

Rehearsal, elaboration, and consolidation. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Well, it generally is. But degraded attention can easily mess the process up. One reason for this is that consolidation normally takes place during mental downtime, when attention is flexible and unconstrained and the mind can roam freely.

But if you’re undergoing stress, experiencing poor mood, or constantly fending off threats, you don’t get mental downtime. Your attention gets hijacked, and the mind never really has the chance to wander in the way that memory-making requires.

There’s also another, more fundamental reason that you can’t make memories when your attention is occupied, and it’s a simple one, too: you can only remember what you focus on. If you’re not mentally present at your child’s birthday party, then you’re barely going to remember it, even if you were there the entire time.

---

Practicing mindfulness strengthens attention.

Imagine if a friend asked you to come over and help move a heavy sofa. You wouldn’t drop to the floor in preparation and knock out a couple of push ups, would you? Of course not. Building strength takes time – a few exercises shortly before you need to exert yourself is only going to tire you out, not strengthen you.

So why is it that you do the mental equivalent of those push ups whenever you’re facing a difficult scenario? During a job interview, you try to calm yourself with a few deep breaths; before the big game, you try to center yourself and focus.

Just like the last-minute workout, these interventions are too little too late. What’s more, they can even leave you feeling more depleted by draining your cognitive resources. The solution isn’t emergency mental push ups, then: it’s gradual training. And the exercise in question is mindfulness.

Practicing mindfulness was the one thing the author and her team found useful, time and again, in helping to improve participants’ attention systems. During times of stress, mindfulness meditation helped to defend attention – and, practiced enough, it actually improved it.

In other words, poor mood, threat, and stress are all handled better when you regularly meditate – keeping the attention trio of spotlight, floodlight, and juggler in peak condition.

---

Improve attention by meditating for 12 minutes, five days per week.

When the author brings research participants into her lab, she’s able to track the effects of mindfulness meditation on both their minds and their lives. Improvements in attention and working memory crop up again and again. People’s minds wander less. They’re more aware of where their attention is. Their sense of wellbeing rises, and even their relationships improve.

But that’s not all. The author and her team can see actual physical changes in the brain that correspond to these improvements. For example, the brain’s cortex thickens in sections that are linked to attention – in much the same way that your biceps would grow if you practiced hammer curls in the gym.

So, what exactly do you need to do if you want to reap the rewards of mindfulness meditation? How do you use it to train your attention, and how long do you need to practice for?

The last thing we’ll do in this is a meditation exercise – a type of meditation called breath awareness. For now, though, let’s keep things practical. How frequently should you practice, and how long should each session last?

Well, once again it’s like physical exercise. The more time you spend practicing, the greater the benefits you’ll see. In scientific terms, then, mindfulness training has a dose-response effect: the greater the input, the greater the output.

But there’s a more precise answer to these questions. If you want to benefit from your practice, aim to meditate for twelve minutes, five days a week. That’s right: just one hour in total each week is enough to start seeing results.

So why not start now? Begin.

[Nick Wethington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard this author on an episode of The Minimalists podcast and she was phenomenal. I'm a sucker for science-based ways to make your life better, and this book fits squarely into that genre. Dr.Jha is a neuroscientist, and this book does a great job of incorporating contemporary scientific findings around attention and mindfulness into practices everyone can incorporate into their day. She demonstrates a deep understanding and years of expertise using the strategies she outlines with people in the military in high-stress situations.

The first chunk of the book radically transformed my understanding of how our attention and our brains work. I've been reading around some other elements of attention and how to be more focused and intentional in my life, and this book was very helpful with that theme. It's great to hear from a scientist that studies attention that our minds are built to wander and flit from thing to thing, and that it's not our fault when we are unable to pay attention to what we want. The basic tenet of this book: pay attention to your attention. Your attentional "flashlight" will wander, and through some very simple and basic practices you can train yourself to refocus.

I think Dr. Jha does an amazing job as a science communicator (my field of expertise, if I had to pick one) in taking complicated information and making it accessible to the general public. I always appreciate that when I see it out in the world. Anyone can pick this book up and get a good understanding of the most salient findings in the field as they stand today. She also does a great job of describing what meditation actually is, as well as the buzzword of mindfulness. Her initial skepticism about these things led her to research them with respect to attention, and she eventually embraced them as very helpful for everyday ways to be more present in our lives.

[Jeff Borree · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simply not good. The author (unsuccessfully) tries to combine topics such as focus, meditation, mindfulness, history of brain focus, future of brain focus, and multiple other topics into this general survey of "attention" and fails on all fronts. I typically have somewhere between 5-15 "bookmarks" on my e-reader for these types of books and for this book I had a grand total of zero. If you want to read a book about focus, choose "Deep Work"--if you want to read a practical book about meditation and focus, choose "Stress Less, Accomplish More"--if you want to read a philosophical book on time management and mindfulness, choose "4,000 weeks". And if you want a book that tries to cover off on all of these topics but at the end leaves you with nothing concrete, choose "Peak Mind." Sorry.

[Sam Moen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited after seeing the title and the mindfulness approach. There is nothing new to this book.

It repeats mostly studies from other books. If this is your first time reading about meditation it would be a good place to start.

Not much in practical advice and written by an academic. Too many words and got boring.

I love the concept of this book and the overall message. When I saw it was 9 hours long on audible I should have trusted my instincts.

[Andra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it was recommended by a psychologist and a mindfulness trainer who was invited on a podcast I enjoy. Though I felt this book should have been shorter and more condensed, I am left with some insights - ideas that aren't new and that I have read before under different circumstances and in different words. But I find them fundamental and I don't mind revisiting them in a new form.

"As humans, we are facing unprecedented challenges with our attention systems. We live in a world that now seems built to fracture and pull at our attention." I feel this intensely every single day. The FOMO is real.

On memory and attention:

"Your mind might be a fantastic time traveler, but you can't rewind and relive events exactly as they happened - because there is no 'exactly as it happened'. What you remember is filtered through your experience of what happened, as well as the experiences you had before and after."

"What we pay attention to is what we remember, and what we remember will influence what we pay attention to - and therefore what else we remember."

"We fail to remember when we fail to notice what our attention is up to."

On stress and attention:

Amishi Jha has worked with the military. This is what a lieutenant's wife always used to tell her husband: "Don't deploy before you deploy." These words really stroke a chord in me because I find myself doing the same thing - anticipating what can go wrong in a situation and the anxiety I will feel. This chips away in my free time, making me immerse myself in said situation before it occurs.

"If you feel threatened all the time, you aren't going to be able to engage deeply in any other task or experience. And it doesn't matter whether the "threat" in question is a literal one or a metaphorical one."

"The alerting system can be set off by feelings of threat, even when there is no real danger."

On certainty and attention:

"Confirmation bias is common - it happens when people essentially "see what they expect to see", discounting any information that doesn't line up with their expectation." Don't we do this all the time? Don't we see this all around us all the time? People cherry-picking the information they want from a lengthy text - only what suits them and disregarding everything else, not paying the rest any attention?

And a quote by Jim Carrey: "Our eyes are not only viewers but projectors that are running a second story over the picture we see in front of us all the time."

Mindfulness practice gives you "the ability to resist story-making and to simply observe. The ability to become aware of when your mind needs to be redirected."

On action and attention:

A quote by Lou Reed: "Between thought and expression lies a lifetime."

"In life, we can't control whether we're hit by an arrow or not. But the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The first arrow causes pain - the second arrow is our distress about the pain."

Mindfulness "basically gives you the ability to control the future - to meaningfully influence it. You avoid a reactive behavior, you avoid the mess that follows it..."

And lastly, another beautiful and important aspect that this book brought to me and reminded me of is that mindfulness practice allows you to think generously about people. I remember when I first practiced a kind of forgiveness meditation some 10 years back, how liberating it felt to think about a conflict and in my mind ask and give forgiveness: "life is not a zero-sum game. And extending care, concern, and kindness need not be transactional. It is part of what gives our life meaning."

"The Dalai Lama too trains his mind for clarity, comapssion, and connection."

Mindfulness is just a word unless practiced purposefully almost every day.

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Stevo’s Novel Ideas, I am a long-time book reviewer, member of the media, an Influencer, and a content provider. I received this book as a free review copy from the publisher. I was not compensated for this review.

This book was Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 11/7, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet and Stevo's Novel Ideas. Are you here right now? Is your focus on this page? Or is it roaming elsewhere, to the past or future, to a worry, to your to-do list, or to your phone?

Jha helps us maintain our focus and concentration for longer periods of time with 12-minute exercises that increase the brain's ability to stay attentive to our immediate surroundings. Most important to me are those which help me be a better listener. Instead of fighting with distractions, she tells me to "pay attention to my attention" by practicing mindfulness techniques that have a high rate of success. This is a great resource that I will be referring to again and again.

Find more Business Books of the Week on my Goodreads Listopia page at https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9..., and find many more recommended books on my Amazon Influencer page at https://www.amazon.com/shop/stevo4747 or by searching for me on Google.

[LUCAS H. GOLDING · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not really sure why there are so many low reviews for this book? I think it’s objective is clear, explain how through mindfulness, studied with scientific research, we can reach a better state of mind. That’s it. That’s what the book sets out to do, and does very well. I like how the book doesn’t sugar coat any of the mindfulness aspects with “gobble de goop” and just get right to the why of attention research. I very much enjoyed the book and think that it very well can and will benefit the reader if they do what is suggested within.

[Tyler Crawford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Totally agree with the message and insights provided, as I have come to enjoy and benefit from mindful meditation. However, this could have been delivered in a much more condensed format.

Mindfulness works. Practice 12 minutes everyday.

[anA]

500 strana ubedjivanja u jedno isto
evo da sazmem da ne morate da citate
postoje tri vrste paznje
flashlight, floodlight i jongler
sva tri su nam potrebna da funkcionisemo i sva tri mogu biti losija ako imamo dosta stresa svasta nam je u glavi itditd
postoji par vrsta meditacija tipa body scan dakle ides redom po telu i fokusiras paznju na jedan deo tela pa prelazis na drugi itd ima neka refocus nz sad ali dises duboko i fokusiras se na svoje disanje i onda svaki put kad ti misli skrenu vratis ih na disanje to recimo trenira onaj flashlight attention i ima river od thought meditacija - za nju se preporucuje da se stoji u planina pozi i samo primecujes sve senzacije misli emocije koje ti prolaze kroz svest i ne interagujes s njima prosto ih primecujes i to je dovoljno
na kraju knjige postoji kao plan i program kad sta treba raditi da bi to bilo najefikasnije i delotvorno
mada samo radite sta vama prija na pocetku kratko kasnije duze i tjt msm meditacija je korisna za sve zivo ako ne verujete a vi procitajte knjigu onda hahahahhaa

[Kursad Albayraktaroglu · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few good ideas and interesting stories in there - but dear God, what a long-winded and meandering writing style. I honestly am not sure if the ideas for focusing and awareness are unique or useful. But I have to say that the book was remarkably effective as a sleep aid in the last couple of weeks. I ended up summarizing some of the final chapters with AI help to avoid yet reading yet another supposedly motivational story of some military officer using focus to solve a trivial issue somewhere in the world.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

The science of meditation revealed! Really creative use of metaphors to explain neuroscience in a way that's easily understandable. Love the narrators voice and there's a surprise reveal at the end that made the author even more endearing.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most verbose books I have read in a long time. Author could have easily written a book that is 1/3 in length.

Also the personal stories were extremely boring. Personal anecdotes are important, but it felt like most of the book was about the author talking about herself.

Readers could save a lot of time by just reading the summary of this book somewhere on the internet.

Giving 2 stars instead of 1 just because the author is an actually qualified person, so there is a chance that you might have atleast some kind of a takeaway from this book.

[AMAN · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book can be summarized in one page. After halfway through the book, I lost interest and jumped straight to the exercises which are itself not new. Anyone with some exposure to meditation practices will be aware of these practices. I was reading it for more deterministic scientific findings.

[Shivani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read this book when I listened to Dr. Amishi Jha’s Ted talk.

This book presents how our attention system works from a neuroscience perspective and how 12 minutes of meditation a day can help us being more mindful about our own attention which can help us direct our flashlight where and when we want it to be. I got more clarity on the capabilities and limits of our working memory and how context switching can make it worse.

Reading the stories of people who are working under high stress environments was really motivating. However, the experiment details might be relevant for some people but I kind of skimmed through that part of book after reading 50%.

At the end, you can find summary of different meditation practices that you can follow in your day-to-day life.

Highlight:
‘Between thought and expression there lies a lifetime’.

Personal takeaways:
Meditation is a lifelong practice and there is always a knowing-doing gap for such kind of practices.

Growing up in an Indian family, I was already well aware of meditation as a concept but I never tried it myself unless I was forced to do it occasionally.

This book has changed my perspective towards meditation by connecting it to attention and explaining the neuroscience behind it.

Under high stress situations when our floodlight is always on, any salient thought can hijack our attention and being able to point our flashlight in the right direction can help us navigate better in such kind of situations.

With meditation, I also started finding the space and time to make choices. This is one of the greatest accomplishments anyone can ever achieve. It feels good to understand the difference between reacting and responding.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to hear this twice! I like her idea of using mindfulness to control your attention, because we are wired to let our minds wander. Her mindfulness practices train you to recover your attention as you realize your attention has wandered. She actually was able to apply it to deployed military personnel. Even helping them to sleep easier while deployed. The PDF has the steps and schedule you need to implement the practice. The most important part is that humans have always been easy to get distracted, today, we can blame technology, but our ancestors had distractions in their times also.

[Romi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Mindfulness practice is beneficial for your attention. The minimum effective dose is 12 minutes a day, 5 days a week for at least 4 weeks.

While I agree with other reviewers that the above summary didn't require a 368-page book, I enjoyed it nonetheless. I was curious to learn about the small-scale and large-scale studies the author has conducted over the years to arrive at the above conclusion. I also enjoyed the anecdotes from participants in her various studies. Ironically, one of her studies concluded that listening to how mindfulness will help you doesn't work, you do need to practice it. So I could have better utilized the 9 hours that I spent listening to this audiobook by performing 12 minutes of mindfulness training, 5 days a week for 9 weeks instead!

[Barb Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommend reading the ending first, then the beginning. I liked this so much I bought a copy for reference. I am not new to meditation or mindfulness practices, but this book gave me a new perspective and additional tools for dealing with difficult emotions or situations like decentering: picture yourself from above. I learned that not all meditation practices are mindful and what the benefits of different types are, how mindfulness is like exercise for your brain and how building tolerance for being uncomfortable has endless applications in my life from being able to resist mindless snacking or scrolling on my phone to being able to really be present in difficult situations and then drop the story.

[MNBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the practices and research discussed in the book were things I’ve learned during my work-sponsored mindfulness sessions. At first that irritated me (nothing new?) and then I realized (after reframing😉) that it probably indicates these practices actually are legitimate. It encouraged me to at least invest a better effort into paying attention for this book—something that wasn’t initially going well as I found myself pausing every 2-5 mins for interruptions. I may add a goal to practice 12 mins a day which seems manageable if I can find a good linking activity to sync with!

[Antoine Charpentier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there is some repetitive idea throughout the book, the message of this book is really relevant. It is a mix of theoretical facts about how the brain and attention work in general (backed up by the author studies and discoveries) sprinkle with some actual exercice than can help regain control on your attention. By teaching you how attention works and then showing you how to regain control of it with a clear 4 weeks plan, you have all the tools to embark on this journey.

[John Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about attention, mind-wandering, and mindfulness. The author uses the imagery of Flashlight and Floodlight to describe two attentional functions, how and why mind-wandering evolved, and the respective roles of attention and mind-wandering. She also prescribes various mindfulness practices to strengthen one's attention and to develop an awareness of one's attention moment to moment (meta-awareness). A great blend of science and explanation with practical tips.

[Sujata Neidig · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while, but I finally finished this book! I really struggle with maintaining my attention - I call myself a multi-tasker but know that I'm not truly being effective by doing this. Amishi Jha became fascinated with how the brain works at an early age and made it her career. In her book, she provides a detailed guide on how to train our awareness with mindfulness. I've written down the plan for me, and plan to get started on it when I'm back home from vacation. The book is lengthy because she dives deep into how and why mindfulness works, explaining a variety of studies she and her team worked on over the years with groups of people in high demanding jobs.

[Lauren Gilchrist · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had solid information, but it could have used a bit of editing. The useful nuggets are definitely there, but there were a lot of stories, which often came across as attempts by the author to prove she's a credible source.

My biggest takeaway was this: Practicing 12 minutes of mindfulness each day can truly change your brain and improve your ability to focus and be present. So that's definitely something I will be trying to implement!

[Joy Kirr · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you've already studied mindfulness, this book is not for you.

Quote from the book:
Here’s the bottom line: if you engage in mindfulness training, you will feel better, but not simply from the practices alone. The practices will build your attentional capacity, and that will help you experience moments of joy, thrive in demanding circumstances, and successfully navigate moments of crisis with a reservoir of resilience.

Yup. 12 min a day. 5 days a week. So... instead of reading the book (which had some great points), I'd get on that Calm app or do a body scan or sit with your thoughts coming and let them go... for 12 min.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with real practice applications and guiding activities woven in. A little repetitive but a good read. The back of book has a sample guide with meditation and awareness activities.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good scientific approach to mindfulness meditation with easy to follow directions and clear writing