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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo[/youtube]

It only takes one minute to do this video test.  Go ahead and do it and have fun getting family members to do it as well!  There’s a reason it’s had over 11 million views!

What happened for you?  Did you count the right amount of passes between the white t-shirt players?  Was there anything unexpected?  This experiment was first conducted at Harvard University.

What Do We Now Know About Attention?

People are overly confident that when something unexpected happens, they will notice it, but this is in fact not true.  As Daniel Simons (one of the researchers for the “Invisible Gorilla” experiment) states, the amount of cars colliding with motorcycles,  is evidence of this faulty thinking.  The driver of the car was looking for other cars, not bikes nor motorcycles.  The driver swears he/she did not see the cyclist.   How can this be?  It is very common to not notice things that are unexpected.  In psychology it is called “Change Blindness”.   We think we see more and remember more than we actually do.  In fact, we tend to be very convincing and confident in our eye-witness report, but research proves the validity of eye-witness reports is actually very low.  (People who were sentenced to death row by convincing eye-witness testimonies, were later exonerated when DNA tests proved they were actually innocent.)

In the above “Count the basketball passes” experiment, which was first conducted at Harvard University by Daniel Simons & Christopher Chabris,  50% of the participants did not see the unexpected visitor.  The less we pay attention, the lesser the chance of counting accurately or seeing the unexpected.  We don’t accomplish much of anything.

What Are the Hazards of Multi-Tasking?

• If we are talking on our cell phone and driving, we have an even lower chance of seeing the unexpected
• We accomplish less because we spend so much time going back and forth between tasks, that we can’t give our focussed attention to one task and do that one job well
• We are exhausted by information overload, because we are taxing the brain as we keep shifting gears.  The brain doesn’t have enough time to process the information being held in the working memory
• We think we’re remembering everything and seeing everything, but multi-tasking limits us even more from seeing our environment and remembering information

How to Sustain Attention in a World that Keeps Getting Faster?

• Prioritize tasks (productivity is maximized when we focus on one task at a time)
• If you have to do more than one task at a time (for example, family life!), try to reach a natural transition point to pause, in order that it’s easier to come back to it later
• Recognize our brain’s limitations and be aware that we’re not actually seeing the world as it is or remembering everything as it is!  Optical illusions are a great reminder of how something that looks so real is actually not how it is
• Practice Mindfulness (being present in the moment, just focussing on one thing, and letting all judgments go)
• Teach your children about attention and our illusions about what we think we see and remember.  Start with the above video as a great discussion point.

Practice Being One Mindful…What is One Mindful?

Being One Mindful (from the work of  Marsha Linehan) means just doing one thing at a time, mindfully.  I mentioned last week that I’m currently taking some clinical training in a behaviour therapy called DBT, and one of our exercises this week was to have a conversation with a partner while we both wrote a “to-do” list for the weekend.  The results?  It was basically impossible.  We found that we could not attend to each other’s words and write a “to-do” list at the same time.  Try it for fun!   Then, try again, and this time just listen to teach other (forget about writing the “to-do” list).  By trying to multi-task the first time and realizing how futile it was, you may find that you pay even better attention to your partner when you try the exercise a second time because you have proof of the importance and success of focussing on just one thing.

Throughout the week, try to find daily activities where you commit to being One Mindful.  For example, choose a time to eat a snack or have a hot drink and only pay attention to the sensations of that one activity.  As you walk upstairs, be One Mindful about noticing your foot land on each step.

Be One Mindful with  Your Partner and Your Children

Challenge yourself to give family members your undivided attention as you listen to their story.  Notice the difference that you feel and they feel as you ignore the “to-do” list in the back of your mind, ignore the text message, and just sit and connect eye-to-eye, face-to-face.

I would love to hear how it goes and the results of your experience in the You Tube video at the beginning of this post.  Please go ahead and leave your comments below! (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page)

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers!  I am thankful to all of you for this wonderful community! The long Thanksgiving weekend is a perfect opportunity for us all to practice being One Mindful.

Warmly,

 

 

 

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