Jay Shetty
👤 SpeakerVoice Profile Active
This person's voice can be automatically recognized across podcast episodes using AI voice matching.
Appearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It cannot activate when you are consuming.
Listen to that again.
Your DMN can't activate when you're consuming.
The default mode network, your self-reflection system, your empathy system, your creativity system, your future simulation system, your meaning-making system, it cannot run while you're taking in external stimulation.
When you're scrolling, the DMN is suppressed.
When you're watching, the DMN is suppressed.
When you're listening to a podcast, yes, including this one, when you're engaged with external input, the DMN is offline.
It only comes online in the gaps, in the pauses, in the waiting, in the boredom.
Now I want you to think about how many gaps you have left in your day.
When was the last time you stood in a queue without your phone?
The last time you waited for a meal at a restaurant without your phone?
The last time you sat in a waiting room for a doctor or a dentist and just sat?
The last time you took a walk without headphones.
The last time you lay in bed in the morning without immediately reaching for a screen.
If you're like most people in the modern world, those moments are nearly gone.
Eliminated with remarkable thoroughness.
And with them, quietly and visibly, something essential has been disappearing from your inner life.
Researchers at the University of Virginia ran a study that I find poignant.
They asked participants to sit alone in a room with their thoughts for 15 minutes.
No phone, no book, no music, just sitting.