Big Ideas Meditation and mindfulness in the digital age
Dec 29, 2025
In this conversation, Jess Heughan, a meditation trainer and Dharma teacher, shares her transformative journey into mindfulness, emphasizing the importance of community and diverse practices beyond traditional methods. Nicholas Van Dam, a mindfulness researcher and director at the Contemplative Studies Centre, discusses the neuroscience of attention and its commodification in the digital age. They explore the balance between the benefits of mindfulness and potential risks, including emotional challenges and ethical considerations in practice.
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Shack Solitude Sparked Agency
- Jess Heughan recounts living a year in a shack with no phone, walking three kilometres to use one and feeling phenomenal agency over her life.
- That solitude showed her how hard it is now to find unreachable spaces in the digital age.
Attention As A Market Commodity
- Nicholas Van Dam explains attention has become a literal commodity sold to advertisers via platforms like YouTube.
- That commodification makes modern life uniquely relentless in competing for our focus.
Awareness Versus The Spotlight Of Attention
- Nicholas contrasts awareness (everything available) with attention (the spotlight you direct).
- This lens explains why we miss things that were always in our awareness but never attended to.