Distracted Living

The news was not good from Bordeaux, France when I woke up the other morning. Before getting out of bed I plug in the 'buds', so as not to disturb Maureen, and listen to Metro Morning with Matt Galloway. The terrible news was that a bus in French carrying pensioners, and a lorry carrying wood, met head-on and burst into flames, resulting in the loss of 43 lives. I have no idea why this happened. I do know that distractions make driving more dangerous. According to Transport Canada, almost two thousand fatalities were reported in 2013.

Even driving through wine country on a tree lined road, in a bus full of elders, distractions abound.  Even worse, in a big city like Toronto, we engage frequently in bumper-to-bumper traffic jams, road construction, cross walks, rain and bright sun, honking cars, talking passengers, navigation systems, phone connections, changing lanes, pedestrian crosswalks, bicycles - all screaming for our attention. Perhaps the worst distraction of all is just good old woolgathering! The tremendous amount of distractions surrounding us while at the wheel, is almost overwhelming. Unfortunately, we now live in what some call the "Age of Information" and our mind, not only when we are driving our cars, but during our waking hours, is continuously being drawn away from the here-and now. 

Thanks to new imaging technologies, scientists are beginning to see the relationship between thoughts and emotions and chemical releases and reactions throughout the body. Our mind has developed and adapted to change over the ages, but have our brains developed quickly enough to successfully deal with the onslaught of information and our belief that we need to know everything!

Google Images

In her best selling book GUT, Giulia Enders suggests Rene Descartes quote, "I think, therefore I am" should be updated to "I feel, then I think, therefore I am". She goes on to say that science's concentration on the brain has blinded us to the fact that we are made up of more than just our grey matter. With all this new knowledge from imaging tedhnologies, we are learning there is a strong physiological connection between the mind and body.  We also now know there are chemical releases and reactions throughout our body caused by our thoughts and emotions. The little smart phone we use so frequently, for so many different tasks (all demanding our attention!), is more powerful than the most advanced computers IBM had only 30 years ago! And it seems our brains are not wired to multitask it all very well. Trying to keep up with emails, Facebook, texting, driving  et cetera,  produces the stress hormone cortisol and, at the same time the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline, both of which overstimulate our brains and cause errors in our thinking. It also creates a dopamine reaction. Dopamine controls the brains reward and pleasure center and encourages us to seek more and more, leading to addiction! Did you ever notice how many  constantly clutch their phone in their hand? Some experts go so far as to say there are cognitive losses as a result of our constant multitasking. Others argue, multitasking is a 'diabolical illusion' and is worse than pot-smoking, as it interferes with memory and our ability to concentrate. (The Guardian - October 2015)

All these distractions take us out of the here-and-now and cause us to fail to notice the things we pass. As our grade school teachers used to say, 'The mind that is constantly distracted, is unproductive.' Today, we are learning all these distractions can also be dangerous.

Ben Franklin put it this way, "Let all your things have their places, let each part of your business have its time". We try to multitask when we still don't even know how to talk, hum and whistle at the same time!

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week.

Did you Know?

They can now attach electrodes to a patient's brain (motor cortex). The motor cortex is that region of the brain that controls movement. The wires can then be connected to sensors so that the patient can actually feel with a prosthetic hand!