When I finish reading a good book, I’m often left with a longing for more words to savor. And in that afterglow, I turn to the acknowledgments page. Doing so always helps. In seeing the whole of the iceberg, my respect for the deliberateness taken in what captured me at the surface (of the page) is deepened. My experience writing this book gives me a different perspective. Those who allowed me to convey the words on the page are not just the rest of the iceberg, they are the entire ocean. Their mentoring, encouragement, collaboration, and friendship throughout the journey of writing this book kept me afloat. And now, I’m eager to thank all the peak minds that guided, inspired, challenged, and comforted me along the way.
First, I wish to thank the incredible team at Idea Architects: Doug Abrams, Rachel Neumann, Lara Love, Ty Love, Boo Prince, and Alyssa Knickerbocker. I arrived with a fuzzy blueprint and a “big idea” of what I wanted to convey in a book. But they saw the edifice that could be created from the “building blocks” I had to offer, and they encouraged me to build it. Their guidance provided much-needed scaffolding, ensuring that the structure of this book was sturdy and strong. And in working with Alyssa Knickerbocker for writing support, I struck gold. She helped me sharpen my thinking to better communicate complex concepts—serving as my oxygen supply to breathe a lifetime of ideas, research findings, and compelling stories from compelling people into words on the page.
Next, I’d like to thank Gideon Weil, Judith Curr, Laina Adler, Aly Mostel, Dan Rovzar, Lucile Culver, Lisa Zuniga, Terri Leonard, Adrian Morgan, and Sam Tatum at HarperOne. Gideon first wrote to me a stunning eleven years ago, and seeded the idea that I might consider writing a book. He gently yet persistently tended to my germinating ideas and research over these years. And although it took nearly a decade, I’m so grateful that we found our way to working together formally in 2019. His grit coupled with his direct, insightful editorial guidance, transparent style, and patience have meant the world to me.
I am deeply greatly to four trusted readers who provided their compelling and helpful feedback on the full first draft of this book. Thank you Liz Buzone, Jonathan Banks, Mirabai Bush, and Mike McConville.
Thank you to my family. My husband, Michael, read every word of multiple drafts, serving as my in-house editor, late-night sounding board, motivational coach, mindfulness practice partner, and chef-chauffeur-and-concierge for the whole family on my many weekends and late evenings working away. Michael, this book would not have been possible without you. Leo and Sophie, you cheered me on throughout this process with humor, patience, and self-sufficiency. Your relentless curiosity, drive to learn, and the deliberateness of your choices—from what you eat, wear, and do to promote awareness about the climate crisis—make me want to pay attention, better. One member of our household I know will never read this book but who helped me every day is our sweet dog, Tashi. You are such a good boy.
My father, Parag, died many decades before this book was conceptualized, let alone written. But his clarity and kindness have served as a guiding light throughout my life and throughout this book-writing journey. I am very fortunate for the loving support of my inspiring and spirited mother, Vandana. Thank you for reminding me to pay attention to myself! My sister, Toral Livingston-Jha; my brother-in-law, Simon; my nephew, Rohan; my cousin, Birju Pandya; and my parents in-law, Jeanne and Tony, have been much appreciated sounding boards as well as sources of love and support. Thank you to each of you.
In addition to my dear family, I wish to thank Liz Buzone, who gently encouraged me to leave my writing cave for much-needed walks and talks. Their ripples are expressed in this book. I’m lucky to have such an attentive friend in you. I also want to thank a dear group of friends I’ve loved for nearly three decades now, known collectively as The Borg. Turns out, we were right all along, even from an attentional perspective—resistance is futile!
I’m very fortunate that one of my close friends is someone with whom I have had the honor of collaborating on dozens of our large-scale research studies. Scott Rogers, your humor, creativity, kindness, openness, and deep knowledge and practice of mindfulness have made our work together not only fun but fulfilling and successful. Thank you.
I wish to thank Walt and Cynthia Piatt for their years of collaboration and support of our research efforts. When I first met him, I was struck by Walt’s description of various leaders he’d met during his deployments as his friends. But I’ve since learned that he seeks to understand others, learn from them, and when he calls you his friend, he means it. I thank you both for seeking to understand attention and mindfulness, and for allowing me to understand what military service requires of leaders and their families. It has been a privilege to learn from you. I am fortunate to have each of you as my friend.
My interest in the science of attention began in the laboratory of Patti Reuter-Lorenz at the University of Michigan. Thank you, Patti, for guiding me during those early days, and for continuing to be a trusted mentor throughout my career. Beyond what you taught me, it was seeing you actualize the life of a strong, successful academic leader and mom that helped me dream that it might be possible for me. I count my lucky stars that you accepted me into your lab all those years ago! And my good fortune continued in having Ron Mangun as my graduate school advisor at UC Davis. Ron, if it weren’t for the strong foundation you provided on the brain science of attention, I would have never had the confidence and courage to expand and pivot my program of research into unchartered waters over these years. I am deeply grateful to you both.
I also want to thank Richie Davidson. I was asked recently by a reporter if I would have considered studying mindfulness if Richie hadn’t said the word meditation at the end of a seminar at Penn nearly two decades ago. My answer: “No way!” Thank you for your leadership in our nascent field of contemplative neuroscience, and for being an activist-scientist. For their support of this field, I’d also like to acknowledge the Mind & Life Institute. Thank you to Adam Engle and Susan Bauer-Wu for your leadership of this important organization, to which I am very grateful.
For her scientific mentoring and wise counsel over the past decade as we’ve pursued studies in a variety of high-demand cohorts, I wish to thank Amy Adler, who patiently guided me over the years to take a rigorous yet flexible approach to research in complex real-world environments. You helped me see that we should aim to not only advance our knowledge of attention and the utility of mindfulness, but also to best position our research to provide actionable and much-needed solutions. Thank you for taking the time and interest in our research efforts, and providing invaluable advice. The many studies in applied settings that I reference in this book benefited from your guidance.
Throughout this book, I use the term “we” in describing the research studies conducted in my lab. This was deliberate, so that every reader is aware that science is a team sport. I am very fortunate to have teammates who are some of the smartest, most collaborative, strategic, wise, and kind people I’ve encountered. I am unable to mention every trainee here, but I have valued each. Ekaterina Denkova, I want to especially thank you for advising, guiding, and supporting all of our lab activities during those short bursts of time during the book-writing process when I’ve had to “disappear.” And beyond that, I thank you for your brilliant scientific insights, integrity, and care for the scientific process, as well as the success of our efforts. I thank Tony Zanesco for temporarily joining the team during the STRONG project, and returning back to our lab as a post-doctoral researcher. Thank you for leading many of the statistical and methodological innovations we’ve been able to pursue. I also want to thank past and current members of my lab, including Alex Morrison, Kartik Sreenivasan, Joshua Rooks, Marissa Krimsky, Joanna Witkin, Marieke Van Vugt, Cody Boland, Malena Price, Jordan Barry, Costanza Alessio, Bao Tran Duang, Cindy Ripoll-Martinez, Lindsey Slavin, Emily Brudner, Keith Chichester, Nicolas Ramos, Justin Dainer-Best, Suzanne Parker, Nina Rostrup, Anastasia Kiyonaga, Jason Krompinger, Melissa Ranucci, Ling Wong, Merissa Goolsarran, Matt Gosselin, and many other wonderful research assistants and trainees.
When I decided to give meditation a try, I “randomly” happened upon Jack Kornfield’s book Meditation for Beginners. He was my first meditation teacher, and for that I am grateful. I’m also very grateful to have Sharon Salzberg and Jon Kabat-Zinn as two mentors and teachers in my life. Sharon, thank you for your love and friendship. Thank you also for all of your support through the book writing process, including reading the practice guide at the end of this book, as well as the practices provided throughout. I appreciate you taking the time to do so and for providing such helpful guidance. To Jon Kabat-Zinn, I want to say thank you for creating MBSR, and for serving as an advisor on our military MBAT studies. When I first told you I wanted to offer mindfulness training to military service members, and that I may need to do so in as few as eight hours, you were skeptical. And that respectful skepticism provided a very fruitful ground to have active, honest dialogue with you over all of these years. For that, as well as your ongoing loving interest and support of our efforts, I am very grateful.
This book describes many of the research studies we have conducted in high demand professionals and others. I thank the funders, the participants in all of these studies, as well as the leadership of various organizations that partnered with us. A special thanks to: Gus Castellanos, John Gaddy, Stephen Gonzales, Margaret Cullen, Elana Rosenbaum, Jannell MacAulay, Michael Baime, Liz Stanley, Jane Carpenter Cohn, and Tom Nassif. In addition, I am grateful for the advisory role played by the following individuals in our work as well as in specific book passages: Michael Brumage, Michael Hosie, Dennis Smith, and Phillip Thomas.
To Goldie Hawn, Marshall Ames, Maria Tussi Kluge, Bill Macnulty, Maurice Sipos, and Ed Cardon, I am deeply appreciative for not only your collaboration, but also for your invaluable support, wisdom, and friendship over the many years leading up to the writing of this book.
I was very fortunate to be able to include in-depth interviews and narratives from Jeff Davis, Jason Spitaletta, Walt Piatt, Paul Singerman, Chris McAliley, Sara Flitner, Richard Gonzales, and Eric Schoomaker. Thank you for allowing me to share your insights and journey within these pages. You inspire me in so many ways, and I know that learning about each of you will inspire many others as well.
Over the course of this daunting, confounding, but ultimately satisfying journey, I learned that I needed to apply everything I was aiming to convey in this book in the writing of it. Writing this book was my own high-demand interval. Thankfully, I had practiced getting very quiet, slowing down, watching my mind, focusing, and broadening as needed. And I had other trusted tools to keep me going, day or night, on-demand, whenever I needed an extra boost—tools that took many forms, from practice to poetry, prose, and music. I am very grateful for silence, Miami rainstorms, Rumi, Pema Chodron, and Polo & Pan.
Lastly, I thank everyone who chose to read this book. May it be of benefit to you.