Dr. Richard Davidson

I mean, viewers have had the experience of being in a movie theater and I'm sure people have had the experience of being in a movie theater where you're so engrossed in the movie that you may actually, you're not aware that you're in a theater.

And you may not be even aware that you're watching a movie.

You are totally absorbed in the plot.

And we've actually come up with a term to define that, and we call it experiential fusion, where you're fused with the experience.

And that is a kind of the analogous to flow without meta-awareness.

But imagine being in the movie theater where your attention is riveted and there's absolutely no lapse in attention.

But in the kind of penumbra of awareness, you are aware you're in a movie theater.

You're aware that you're watching a movie.

But that doesn't diminish the quality of your attention.

I would say that it's a developmental process that changes longitudinally.

So initially there's a lot of chaos and I think it gradually subsides.

I don't think it's like a step function, I think it really occurs gradually over time and the chaos just sort of naturally diminishes.

But that's a long-term process and I think for most of us there's always going to be some chaos.

But part of the chaos also is I think a source of creativity.

And when we talk about meta-awareness and awareness of all that's going on in our mind,

You know, I often give my students the permission to, even if they're not meditators, to just spend a couple hours a week inspecting your mind.

Just inspect your mind.

Pay attention to what's going on in your mind.

Don't do stuff outside.

And if you come up with some interesting thought, write a little note to yourself as you're doing this.