Making Sense - Sam Harris - December 31, 2025


#451 — The One Resolution That Matters Most


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

126.56486

Word count

1,257

Sentence count

87


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

As has been widely discussed, we are living through an all-out war for our attention. And most of the digital economy has been engineered to keep you clicking and scrolling and sharing and doing these things in a continuous state of agitation or outrage.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Happy New Year everybody, this is Sam Harris.
00:00:24.180 As another year begins, many of us will resolve to exercise more and sleep better and eat
00:00:31.840 more sanely.
00:00:33.420 Of course, these are all good things to do, but there's a prior commitment, whether one
00:00:39.080 makes it consciously or not, that will determine the quality of everything else, and that's
00:00:44.420 the commitment to take care of your mind.
00:00:47.680 As has been widely discussed, we are living through an all-out war for our attention.
00:00:52.600 And most of the digital economy has been engineered to keep you clicking and scrolling and sharing
00:00:59.000 and doing these things in a continuous state of agitation or outrage.
00:01:04.180 And even when the mood is different, let's say you've been captured by something genuinely
00:01:08.700 amusing, that cat sleeping on top of that dog, sleeping on top of that tiger, the result is
00:01:17.180 now a new normal of perpetual distraction and fragmentation.
00:01:22.380 We start a conversation and then reach for our phones.
00:01:25.860 We sit down to read.
00:01:27.660 This is a book we really wanted to read and find that we just can't help but check our
00:01:32.680 messages.
00:01:33.860 We watch a film while simultaneously scrolling some digital timeline.
00:01:38.700 We barely live in the vicinity of our bodies anymore.
00:01:43.940 And this has become entirely normal to be elsewhere almost all of the time.
00:01:49.980 We want meaningful experience and yet we are training ourselves to avoid it.
00:01:55.540 Well, this is why mindfulness matters.
00:01:58.980 Mindfulness isn't just something to add to your list of commitments.
00:02:02.120 It's the skill that can revise and reorganize the list.
00:02:08.460 Mindfulness clarifies what deserves your attention and what doesn't.
00:02:13.320 It allows you to notice pointless and even painful distractions and to drop them.
00:02:18.500 And it reveals a deeper truth.
00:02:21.200 So much of the quality of our lives isn't a matter of what happens to us or even of what
00:02:26.340 we do.
00:02:27.500 It's a matter of how our minds respond to everything we experience in each moment.
00:02:33.020 Many people think mindfulness is a strange practice that is based on some spiritual superstition.
00:02:40.080 Others imagine it to be a kind of endurance test.
00:02:42.960 You force yourself to sit perfectly still, suppressing your thoughts, and you're chasing
00:02:48.220 some drug-like experience of bliss.
00:02:52.120 These are misunderstandings.
00:02:54.180 Mindfulness is simply the ability to pay clear attention to the contents of consciousness
00:02:59.320 in each moment.
00:03:00.220 To sensations, perceptions, emotions, intentions, thoughts, exactly as they are, as they arise,
00:03:09.220 without grasping at what's pleasant or pushing what's unpleasant away.
00:03:12.540 The point is to make what is unconscious or barely conscious something you're aware of.
00:03:20.460 Why did you say that thing that you now regret?
00:03:24.160 How were you feeling the moment before you said it?
00:03:27.680 And how are you feeling now?
00:03:29.940 And what in you is aware of every feeling?
00:03:33.340 What does awareness itself feel like?
00:03:38.240 You don't need to change your experience to clearly observe it.
00:03:43.320 And paradoxically, the act of observation begins to change how you feel and perceive the world.
00:03:50.440 This matters because your mind colors everything.
00:03:54.620 Anger, anxiety, envy, confusion.
00:03:57.000 These mental states make the world and the people in it appear a certain way.
00:04:02.620 And without mindfulness, these mental states seem to define who we are.
00:04:06.840 With mindfulness, we can see them as nothing more than patterns in consciousness
00:04:10.420 that arise and pass away.
00:04:13.240 This recognition doesn't make life painless,
00:04:16.820 but reveals a condition of well-being that is deeper than any passing pains and pleasures.
00:04:24.140 Consider a simple test for the year ahead.
00:04:27.000 Can you watch a movie without checking your phone?
00:04:30.720 Can you read for an hour without interrupting yourself?
00:04:34.340 Can you be fully present with another person,
00:04:37.240 your partner, your child, your friend,
00:04:39.980 without needing to be somewhere else?
00:04:44.100 If the honest answer is,
00:04:46.240 not really,
00:04:47.900 then you're precisely the sort of person
00:04:49.960 for whom mindfulness will make an enormous difference.
00:04:53.400 The practices we teach in the Waking Up app
00:04:55.680 aren't a way of retreating from life.
00:04:58.740 And this isn't about sitting cross-legged on a cushion every day
00:05:01.360 to acquire a new identity as a meditator.
00:05:04.800 It's about learning a practical skill
00:05:07.120 that you can use anywhere.
00:05:09.480 At your desk,
00:05:10.360 in traffic,
00:05:11.320 in the kitchen,
00:05:12.280 on vacation.
00:05:13.620 It's about becoming familiar with the mechanics of your own mind.
00:05:16.740 How attention determines what you notice.
00:05:20.480 How thoughts and emotions can seem to subsume and define you.
00:05:25.280 And learning that you can wake up
00:05:27.100 and experience the intrinsic freedom of the nature of your mind
00:05:30.380 at any moment.
00:05:31.500 If you're skeptical about this,
00:05:34.740 that's fine.
00:05:35.760 Because there's really nothing you need to believe
00:05:37.980 to get started.
00:05:39.760 All that's required is a willingness to look carefully
00:05:42.740 at your own experience.
00:05:45.460 Here's a short exercise you can try right now.
00:05:49.760 Close your eyes
00:05:50.660 and take one deep breath.
00:05:53.680 and then just let your breath
00:05:57.500 come and go naturally.
00:06:01.280 And then notice the sounds around you.
00:06:06.100 Notice the feeling of your body
00:06:07.760 resting in space.
00:06:10.940 And notice the next breath
00:06:12.900 coming and going
00:06:14.160 as it does.
00:06:16.800 Let attention
00:06:17.880 just rest
00:06:19.380 on whatever appears in consciousness
00:06:21.600 in this moment.
00:06:24.640 And see if you can notice
00:06:26.140 the next thought
00:06:27.280 that arises
00:06:28.160 in your mind.
00:06:29.860 You don't need to search for it.
00:06:31.700 It will appear all by itself.
00:06:35.340 See if you can observe
00:06:36.520 the exact moment
00:06:37.780 a thought appears.
00:06:40.020 Whether it's an image
00:06:41.300 or a bit of language.
00:06:43.480 And notice how it dissolves
00:06:44.960 all by itself.
00:06:48.800 And when the next thought appears
00:06:50.860 just notice that too.
00:06:53.680 There's nothing to grasp at
00:06:55.280 and nothing to push away.
00:06:57.840 Just leave everything
00:06:59.240 as it is.
00:07:03.520 Okay, so
00:07:04.300 that's mindfulness.
00:07:06.340 It's not a
00:07:07.480 mystical state.
00:07:08.140 It's just a clear recognition
00:07:10.900 of what your experience
00:07:12.700 is like
00:07:13.300 in each moment.
00:07:15.420 But
00:07:15.640 practiced regularly
00:07:17.120 it becomes a very
00:07:18.920 powerful skill.
00:07:20.140 among other things
00:07:21.820 it allows you
00:07:22.560 to focus
00:07:23.300 when you want to
00:07:24.300 and to let go
00:07:25.820 of negative reactions
00:07:26.840 and emotions
00:07:27.540 when you should.
00:07:29.820 Mindfulness allows you
00:07:31.080 to reconnect
00:07:31.860 with what really matters.
00:07:35.020 The point
00:07:35.780 isn't to become
00:07:36.500 a different person
00:07:37.540 it's to stop
00:07:39.060 being confused
00:07:40.000 about the person
00:07:40.820 you already are.
00:07:42.300 To recognize
00:07:43.280 that your conscious
00:07:44.100 awareness
00:07:44.560 of life
00:07:45.300 in the present
00:07:46.100 is the basis
00:07:47.420 of every experience
00:07:48.540 you will have
00:07:49.280 this year
00:07:50.520 and every year
00:07:51.280 thereafter.
00:07:53.120 Because the future
00:07:54.380 never arrives.
00:07:56.560 There's always just
00:07:57.600 this moment
00:07:58.440 and this.
00:08:01.480 And if you train
00:08:02.180 your powers of attention
00:08:03.340 everything you care about
00:08:05.640 improves.
00:08:06.920 Your capacity
00:08:07.860 to work
00:08:08.500 to enjoy
00:08:09.560 your friends
00:08:10.040 and family
00:08:10.640 to be at ease
00:08:12.200 in your life.
00:08:13.040 so just start
00:08:15.580 small
00:08:16.160 give it five minutes
00:08:17.860 a day
00:08:18.420 and see if you can
00:08:19.880 bring some clarity
00:08:20.740 to the rest of your life.
00:08:22.780 If you want guidance
00:08:23.960 the Waking Up app
00:08:24.900 is there to help
00:08:25.700 and if you already
00:08:27.140 use the app
00:08:27.760 perhaps you can
00:08:28.300 recommit to your
00:08:29.020 practice now.
00:08:30.920 The world seems
00:08:31.800 likely to grow
00:08:32.500 more chaotic
00:08:33.420 and fragmented
00:08:34.540 not less
00:08:35.340 and the war
00:08:36.760 for your attention
00:08:37.480 will almost
00:08:38.140 certainly intensify
00:08:39.340 this year.
00:08:40.780 But there's an
00:08:41.560 opportunity
00:08:42.120 hidden inside
00:08:43.140 this problem.
00:08:45.000 This year
00:08:45.440 you can finally
00:08:46.320 come to know
00:08:47.280 your own mind.
00:08:49.060 You can learn
00:08:49.540 to recognize
00:08:50.100 distraction
00:08:50.840 the moment it arises
00:08:51.920 and return
00:08:53.620 again and again
00:08:54.360 to the only place
00:08:55.320 your life
00:08:55.840 is ever truly real.
00:08:58.240 Here
00:08:58.620 in the present.
00:09:01.420 So this year
00:09:02.220 I hope you'll join me
00:09:03.040 in making the one
00:09:03.840 resolution
00:09:04.380 that can put
00:09:05.500 all the others
00:09:06.420 in perspective.
00:09:08.140 And I wish you
00:09:08.780 much happiness
00:09:09.460 in the new year.
00:09:12.120 All the time
00:09:15.680 and I wish you
00:09:16.700 as something
00:09:17.180 to ask you
00:09:18.780 son içe
00:09:19.640 when they
00:09:21.280 chat
00:09:22.040 on
00:09:22.380 and
00:09:23.180 to ask
00:09:24.320 her
00:09:25.340 they care
00:09:25.920 Thank you.