Dr. Dave Vago

So much so that it starts to be blind to everything else, right? And we see this all the time. And there's a phenomenon called change blindness, right? There's a classic study where you're asked to do a very specific thing that takes a lot of effort, counting the number of times a ball is thrown back and forth between individuals.

So much so that it starts to be blind to everything else, right? And we see this all the time. And there's a phenomenon called change blindness, right? There's a classic study where you're asked to do a very specific thing that takes a lot of effort, counting the number of times a ball is thrown back and forth between individuals.

And there's this big gorilla that comes in the room and stares right in the middle of the room and starts beating his chest and then walks off the camera. And you don't even see it. Often people don't even see that big gorilla came in because of this phenomenon of how engaged we are when we're focused. And some of the thoughts that are negative in content, we stick to so much so that

And there's this big gorilla that comes in the room and stares right in the middle of the room and starts beating his chest and then walks off the camera. And you don't even see it. Often people don't even see that big gorilla came in because of this phenomenon of how engaged we are when we're focused. And some of the thoughts that are negative in content, we stick to so much so that

And there's this big gorilla that comes in the room and stares right in the middle of the room and starts beating his chest and then walks off the camera. And you don't even see it. Often people don't even see that big gorilla came in because of this phenomenon of how engaged we are when we're focused. And some of the thoughts that are negative in content, we stick to so much so that

And we start ruminating right into this sort of reiterative cycle of stickiness that we often are no longer present to anything else that's happening around us. Right. That level of stickiness is strong. We're measuring it. We can see it that you're not responsive anymore to other things in your environment. We get tunnel vision and stuck in particular ways of seeing the world.

And we start ruminating right into this sort of reiterative cycle of stickiness that we often are no longer present to anything else that's happening around us. Right. That level of stickiness is strong. We're measuring it. We can see it that you're not responsive anymore to other things in your environment. We get tunnel vision and stuck in particular ways of seeing the world.

And we start ruminating right into this sort of reiterative cycle of stickiness that we often are no longer present to anything else that's happening around us. Right. That level of stickiness is strong. We're measuring it. We can see it that you're not responsive anymore to other things in your environment. We get tunnel vision and stuck in particular ways of seeing the world.

We no longer can engage with things around us. So mindfulness has been shown to reduce that level of stickiness that you can, and so much so that in advanced practitioners, it's at the level of milliseconds that you can see a difference of how people get stuck on an object or a thought. And in the practice, you talk about the training happens with, often the idea is rising and passing.

We no longer can engage with things around us. So mindfulness has been shown to reduce that level of stickiness that you can, and so much so that in advanced practitioners, it's at the level of milliseconds that you can see a difference of how people get stuck on an object or a thought. And in the practice, you talk about the training happens with, often the idea is rising and passing.

We no longer can engage with things around us. So mindfulness has been shown to reduce that level of stickiness that you can, and so much so that in advanced practitioners, it's at the level of milliseconds that you can see a difference of how people get stuck on an object or a thought. And in the practice, you talk about the training happens with, often the idea is rising and passing.

That's what I was looking for. In the insight tradition, arising and passing is the training of learning to see an object, right? Okay. I always use this as an example. Here comes the cup and it's arising in your mental space. You pay attention to it and then it passes, right? The arising and passing of an object in space is exactly what we do with thoughts.

That's what I was looking for. In the insight tradition, arising and passing is the training of learning to see an object, right? Okay. I always use this as an example. Here comes the cup and it's arising in your mental space. You pay attention to it and then it passes, right? The arising and passing of an object in space is exactly what we do with thoughts.

That's what I was looking for. In the insight tradition, arising and passing is the training of learning to see an object, right? Okay. I always use this as an example. Here comes the cup and it's arising in your mental space. You pay attention to it and then it passes, right? The arising and passing of an object in space is exactly what we do with thoughts.

We train to observe a thought as it arises and as it passes. And the more training you have in that technique, the better you're going to be able to let go of thoughts and just watch them as passing clouds in the sky. That is the essential mindfulness practice, is to not suppress anything that's in there that's all these different thoughts, because that's not going to help you.

We train to observe a thought as it arises and as it passes. And the more training you have in that technique, the better you're going to be able to let go of thoughts and just watch them as passing clouds in the sky. That is the essential mindfulness practice, is to not suppress anything that's in there that's all these different thoughts, because that's not going to help you.

We train to observe a thought as it arises and as it passes. And the more training you have in that technique, the better you're going to be able to let go of thoughts and just watch them as passing clouds in the sky. That is the essential mindfulness practice, is to not suppress anything that's in there that's all these different thoughts, because that's not going to help you.

It's just going to come back to haunt you later. but is to become more familiar with all those thoughts and just be aware of them. Welcome them in, right? That's the Rumi poem that is often described in these mindfulness interventions. It's the welcoming in of anything that arises in your mind, whether it's negative or positive, it doesn't matter, but to just become familiar with your own mind.

It's just going to come back to haunt you later. but is to become more familiar with all those thoughts and just be aware of them. Welcome them in, right? That's the Rumi poem that is often described in these mindfulness interventions. It's the welcoming in of anything that arises in your mind, whether it's negative or positive, it doesn't matter, but to just become familiar with your own mind.

It's just going to come back to haunt you later. but is to become more familiar with all those thoughts and just be aware of them. Welcome them in, right? That's the Rumi poem that is often described in these mindfulness interventions. It's the welcoming in of anything that arises in your mind, whether it's negative or positive, it doesn't matter, but to just become familiar with your own mind.