Overconfidence and the importance of cultivating a learner’s mindset
When we facilitate retreats at Jhourney, we’ve noticed a wide range of skill challenges among participants, which differ based on their unique perspective and experiences. Some meditators struggle with feeling emotions in their body, for example, while others find it harder to maintain focus.
We wanted to see if it was possible to identify these challenges before the start of a retreat, so we can give participants the personalized support they need. To tackle this problem, we developed a list of questions that we thought might help us assess meditators’ skills before a retreat. We chose multiple questions for each skill category with the understanding that each question measures a slightly different aspect of these competencies, and could therefore help us identify what mattered most.
For each question, we asked participants to rate the relevance of each statement (“Please rate how applicable the following statements are to you in general daily life”), using a five-point scale: Always-Often-Sometimes-Rarely-Never.
Surveys were emailed to the participants of three upcoming Jhourney retreats in the late summer and fall of 2024, one to two weeks before each respective start date. After the retreats concluded, we compared participants’ responses (n=58, after filtering for qualifying selection criteria) to whether they accessed jhana on retreat. (Jhana access was determined based on staff assessment.)
What we discovered
We observed meaningful differences between participants’ survey responses and their likelihood of accessing jhana. For example:
I notice how my body changes when I feel happy or joyful. 1
| Accessed jhana | Did not access jhana | Accessed jhana (%) | Did not access jhana (%) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always | 2 | 4 | 7% | 13% | 6 |
| Often | 15 | 9 | 54% | 30% | 24 |
| Sometimes | 8 | 7 | 29% | 23% | 15 |
| Rarely | 2 | 7 | 7% | 23% | 9 |
| Never | 1 | 3 | 4% | 10% | 4 |
| Total | 28 | 30 | 100% | 100% | 58 |
1 This question was sourced from the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire: https://osher.ucsf.edu/research/maia
I can refocus my attention from thinking to sensing my body. 2
| Accessed jhana | Did not access jhana | Accessed jhana (%) | Did not access jhana (%) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always | 4 | 6 | 14% | 20% | 10 |
| Often | 15 | 11 | 54% | 37% | 26 |
| Sometimes | 8 | 10 | 29% | 33% | 18 |
| Rarely | 1 | 2 | 4% | 7% | 3 |
| Never | 0 | 1 | 0% | 3% | 1 |
| Total | 28 | 30 | 100% | 100% | 58 |
2 This question was sourced from the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire: https://osher.ucsf.edu/research/maia
While our sample is small, the differences were consistent enough to suggest early patterns that merit further exploration. Given these findings, it may be possible to identify, and measure, certain skills related to attention and joy, which can help predict a meditator’s ease of access to the jhanas.
One anomaly we noticed was that the middle-range responses (Often/Sometimes/Rarely) tended to be more predictive of jhana access than the extremes (Always/Never).
For example, the middle responses to “I notice how my body changes when I feel happy or joyful” suggest that people who notice this trait are more likely to access jhana – but those who respond Always are slightly less likely to access jhana. Why don’t extreme responses follow the same pattern?
We hypothesized that responding “Always” or “Never” to a question could indicate overconfidence or a lack of self-awareness regarding one’s abilities, whereas people who respond “Often,” “Sometimes,” or “Rarely” might have a more nuanced understanding of their own behavior. People who believe they “always” excel in certain areas might have more rigid, binary expectations, while those with moderate responses may have a more fluid, adaptive learner’s mindset, which improves their chances of jhana access.
For example, for responses to the statement “I feel uncomfortable expressing my emotions to others,” it’s possible that moderate, rather than extreme, emotional expression is indicative of the equanimity and balance that makes jhana access more likely. Being too emotionally expressive, in other words, could be a sign of imbalance.
I feel uncomfortable expressing my emotions to others.
| Accessed jhana | Did not access jhana | Accessed jhana (%) | Did not access jhana (%) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always | 2 | 2 | 7% | 7% | 4 |
| Often | 3 | 6 | 11% | 20% | 9 |
| Sometimes | 13 | 11 | 46% | 37% | 24 |
| Rarely | 9 | 7 | 32% | 23% | 16 |
| Never | 1 | 4 | 4% | 13% | 5 |
| Total | 28 | 30 | 100% | 100% | 58 |
To help us validate this hypothesis, we conducted follow-up interviews with a handful of participants (n=9) after the retreat. Half of the participants (n=5) did, and half (n=4) did not experience at least one jhana during the retreat. In addition to asking about their retreat experience, we asked them open-ended questions about lifestyle, personality traits, and their day-to-day lives.
While some participants did articulate their challenges in a way that reflected their survey responses, others did not always seem aware of their limitations. For example:
One participant reported that their biggest challenge during the retreat was feeling a positive emotion in their body, but responded Always to the pre-retreat survey question: “I notice how my body changes when I feel happy or joyful.”
Another participant reported that they were frequently distracted by anxious and self-critical thoughts, which made it difficult to let their positive emotions grow, but responded Always to “I can refocus my attention from thinking to sensing my body.”
While we did not interview every survey respondent, these conversations support our hypothesis that at least some of the discrepancies in correlation between extreme versus moderate survey responses can be explained by a lack of awareness of, or overconfidence about, one’s skills.
Cultivating a learner’s mindset
Many jhana teachers emphasize the importance of not being overly rigid or tied to one’s beliefs, and to encourage playfulness and experimentation in one’s practice. Anecdotally, we’ve seen that meditators who come on retreat with few or no expectations frequently find it easier to access the jhanas.
Our findings from this survey and interviews provide additional evidence for these claims, demonstrating that a nuanced self-awareness, rather than overconfidence, may be a better predictor of success in meditation retreats. Extreme statements like “always” or “never” can signal tightly-held beliefs. If you catch yourself thinking, “I always do this” or “I never do that,” try softening it into a question instead: Is there more here I haven’t noticed yet? Bringing this sort of inquiry to your own thought patterns can be a powerful tool for deepening your metacognition skills.
Cultivating curiosity, awe, and wonder about the present moment can help maintain an open, playful mental posture. Meditation is about progressively letting go of distractions, expectations, and experience – which in turn can lead to new and surprising insights.
