No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp 246: Unabridged Interview: Amishi Jha
Jan 23, 2026
Amishi Jha, a neuroscientist and director of Contemplative Neuroscience at the University of Miami, explores the topic of attention and mindfulness. She reveals that we spend nearly half our waking hours inattentive, emphasizing how our mental health and relationships suffer. Jha introduces mindfulness meditation as a powerful, accessible tool requiring just 12 minutes daily to enhance focus and emotional regulation. She also discusses how technology amplifies distraction and shares her personal journey of using mindfulness for resilience after personal trauma.
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Attention Is A Selection Engine
- Attention restricts input so the brain can fully analyze a selected subset of information.
- That subsampling lets us act goal-directedly and build usable representations of the world.
Stress, Threat, And Negative Mood Hijack Focus
- Stress, perceived threat, and negative mood repeatedly act as "kryptonite" for attention.
- These factors pull attention inward and hijack it toward internally generated content.
Mindfulness Generalizes Better Than Task Drills
- Traditional attention training on tasks often fails to generalize beyond the trained task.
- Mindfulness shows broader transfer to working memory, relationships, mood, and real-life performance.
