Mind Control 101: How to Own Your Attention in a World Built to Steal It | Amishi Jha (Fan Fav)

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Impact Theory

Education, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Technology, Society & Culture, Business, Self-improvement

4.7 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2025

⏱️ 99 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a fan fav episode. When you are committed to hitting major goals, experiencing life on the next level, and showing up as a better version of yourself, being able to focus becomes a critical skill. Being able to give your full attention to what matters in the moment is necessary whether your focus is work or involves being present in a conversation. Amishi Jha is a professor of psychology at University of Miami and author of the new book, Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day. She is unpacking why your wandering mind isn’t as big a problem as you think, how memories are formed and stories are ultimately created and stitched together to create our version of reality. If you’re struggling with being distracted, the different types of practices Amishi shares will give you a place to start immediately! ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 3-24-22 Check out Amishi Jha’s book, Peak Mind: https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Mind-Attention-Invest-Minutes-ebook/dp/B08THNJ978 SHOW NOTES: 0:00 | Introduction to Amishi Jha 0:52 | Why Mind Wandering Happens 4:13 | Memories and Neural Configuration 13:20 | Assigning Meaning to Dreams 16:20 | Accurate or Altered Memories 21:11 | Nostalgic Story Making 28:53 | Risky Story Making 34:31 | Break Story Mode 39:34 | Developing Meta Awareness 47:06 | Constructing Reality 53:07 | The Power of Mindfulness 1:02:07 | How to Practice Being Mindful 1:11:14 | Types of Mindfulness Practice 1:17:01 | Why Positivity Doesn’t Work 1:24:27 | Loving Kindness Follow Amishi Jha: Website: https://amishi.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AmishiPJha Twitter: https://twitter.com/amishijha Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amishipjha/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amishi.jha What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here: If you want my help... STARTING a business: join me here at ZERO TO FOUNDER SCALING a business: see if you qualify here. Get my battle-tested strategies and insights delivered weekly to your inbox: sign up here. ********************************************************************** If you're serious about leveling up your life, I urge you to check out my new podcast, Tom Bilyeu’s Mindset Playbook —a goldmine of my most impactful episodes on mindset, business, and health. Trust me, your future self will thank you. ********************************************************************** Join me live on my Twitch stream. I'm live daily from 6:30 to 8:30 am PT at www.twitch.tv/tombilyeu ********************************************************************** LISTEN TO IMPACT THEORY AD FREE + BONUS EPISODES on APPLE PODCASTS: apple.co/impacttheory ********************************************************************** FOLLOW TOM: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeu YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	How would it
0:01.4	less time with the
0:02.4	income to
0:03.0	and for the new podcast to have. With the Reve Appel Service, get that. Bestel your own car off online and get paid off. Naturally, only minimum best bestel worth. So, you'll be more time for the next podcast follow or your leadlings' tracks. Now, out wherever. slash shop or in the Reve app. Your Reve Appel Service. Online bestell, in market, upholing. We're talking about the firing of a particular neural configuration. And if you've heard of that phrase, neurons that fire together, wire together. And it's this notion that out of all of our brain cells, there's some that are going to have sort of this synchronized activity. And through that, the connections between them will grow and be privileged over other connections. And that is essentially the foundation for human memory. So that once a particular, let's say an episode
0:55.3	has occurred, when we go to recall it, if we hit one of the nodes in this neural network
1:01.6	that represents the episode we experienced, all of the neurons that kind of fired together
1:06.9	will become activated and that'll bring up the richness of the actual episode itself
1:11.7	in our memories.
1:18.0	Amishi Jha, welcome to the show.
1:20.0	It's great to be here.
1:21.1	I'm very excited to have you.
1:22.8	The brain is a weird and wonderful place and you really dive into some of the more enjoyable parts of
1:30.8	its weirdness one of the things that I find really fascinating about your work is somebody who has
1:35.3	a mind that wanders obsessively and I would say I have a bad memory and for a time, I considered that to be the bane of my existence.
1:46.6	And then I started asking the question, but from an evolutionary standpoint, is there an advantage?
1:50.8	Like, has some part of this been selected for?
1:53.6	As you think about the context of attention and a wandering mind, has it been selected for?
2:00.6	And if so, why? Oh, has has it been selected for? And if so, why?
2:02.9	Oh, has mind wandering been selected for?
2:05.3	Great question.
2:06.3	Absolutely.
2:07.9	And this is sort of a puzzle that we're still figuring out.
	...

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