I’ve become a bit of an addict. My phone goes with me everywhere. I have an iPhone and an Apple watch. I can check the weather and whatever else I need instantly. You know like… um… Well, I’m sure there are important things for me to check.
In the car, I’m rarely listening to music these days. I listen to mountains of podcasts and oceans of audiobooks. I’m concentrating full force in the OR, and then I immediately check my email and plug into the next thing. This goes on until I go to bed where I usually fall asleep after reading on my kindle.
Walking down the halls of the hospital, it isn’t uncommon to see someone walk right into a wall. Or, even more often, people getting off the elevator at the wrong floor.
Our brains don’t get a full second of reprieve all day. Not even one second without input of some kind.
Tired? Grumpy? Anxious? Depressed? Overwhelmed? Stressed out?
Maybe try giving your brain a rest. Let’s start small with five minutes. Too hard? Make it 1 minute and start there.
A few days ago, my wife and I went out to breakfast. No kids, just us. A chance to talk to each other. Because it was Monday, the place we normally like to go was closed, so we drove a little further and found a cute little place to have a nice breakfast.
The only problem, and the reason I won’t be going back there, was that they had a TV on one wall where you couldn’t help but see it. I spent the entire breakfast trying not to watch the nice lady talking about how bad the traffic was in Philly.
As we were leaving, I joked around about Planet Fitness. I joined the one by my work for easy access to a treadmill while marathon training a few years ago. My big complaint was that they had placed in front of the treadmills and every other piece of purple cardio equipment a bank of 20 televisions.
They line the walls with these TVs, playing the same awful news from 20 different stations. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc. I can watch tanks and war planes and sick, dying children and mudslides looped over and over on 20 different stations all at once.
You know what’s worse than running on a treadmill? Running on a treadmill while being forced to watch the end of the world.
Last time I went, I brought a hat and pulled the brim all the way down ,so that I physically could not see the depressing display.
One of the joys of running is clearing your head. Getting a little euphoria from the nice chemicals flooding your bloodstream.
Here’s an idea:
Spend a little time out of the digital world. Spend a little time drinking coffee and watching the grass grow. Not like a whole hour, that would be crazy, but maybe 5 minutes. Maybe read a real magazine or a real book.
Take your PHYSICAL copy of The Final Step and head out to the park for an hour. A couple of questions, a couple of breaths. A couple of questions, a couple of breaths. Maybe a little space will help your brain build connections that you would never see among all noise.
Oh, where did this whole thing start? I saw an advertisement for a waterproof touch TV for your shower or bathroom. The image was of this amazing looking bathtub in the calm, serene bathroom with beautiful, huge windows overlooking a majestic mountain range. And there on the wall at the foot of the tub was this wonderful product, a waterproof TV. You wouldn’t want to risk being bored for even a second looking at that amazing view
Brian Wallace
