Insights & Tips
March 14, 2021
Take a break from screens! The computer, laptop or mobile device puts your central vision—which is hard-wired to your sympathetic nervous system—in overdrive. Plainly put: screen time puts you into fight-or-flight. No wonder the sharp rise in screen time over the last year is associated with obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, myopia, depression and sleep disorders. Take a break! Consider an “NDD” (No Device Day!). Get out of the house, open your eyes, exercise your body. Let your parasympathetic system (rest-and-digest) do its thing.
In the original Jurassic Park, suave mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) predicts the downfall of the dino park through chaos theory: the idea that small changes in complex systems can have big, unpredictable effects (like, for instance, a Tyrannosaurus rex trying to eat your car). Let’s bring this down to our very human level. Your thoughts, feelings and actions have an effect on others—near and far. Pledge to be more conscious of your “butterfly effect.” What can you do, say, or feel to make someone else’s life a little easier and happier?
Since the pandemic started there’s been so much talk—and anxiety—about uncertainty. I heard two scientists say exactly the same thing, “We’re not wired for uncertainty.” That led me to think, “What are we wired for?” So I wrote a blog post on the Psychology Today website with the title, “How to Handle Uncertainty.” The post hit a nerve. It got over 5,000 hits in two days! When we can’t really plan out the future what happens? We’re forced to stay in the present. Read the post and then check out the Contest and Giveaways section of this newsletter.
This short YouTube video caught my eye. How do you get people to walk up and down stairs (read: have more exercise) than take an escalator? Some ingenious folks in Stockholm came to this marvelously creative idea. It’s titled, “The Fun Theory.” As you’ll see, it’s pre-COVID. Maybe it’s also the promise of what’s to come. Enjoy the video!
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