I recently listened to a podcast from NPR’s Hidden Brain: You 2.0 series called “Tunnel Vision.” Host Shankar Vedantam uses stories and science to describe how our unconscious mind works. This episode was about scarcity. Starting with the most obvious area when we use that word, money, he then moved on to a story about someone struggling with time as scarce. That latter story resonated with me.
We know from our Unity lessons that thoughts are things. Most of us have heard the science about the quantum level mirroring what we think as well. This podcast added a layer to that for me. Our brains change when we believe that we lack something. If we lack food or money, that is all our brains will focus on, to the detriment of long term thinking and to all other aspects of life. It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. If you need something, you will focus on getting that one thing for survival. The chemistry in our brain can shift just because our thoughts are on that one thing. From the story on time as scarce, the person fell into unhealthy behaviors trying to maximize time for work and even spent leisure time reading work papers. When her health failed, it affected the work she cared so deeply about.
It seems balancing our thoughts is a precursor to work-life balance instead of an outcome.
Focusing on work is fine when it is time to focus on work; and when it is time to focus on home, family or meditation, then change your mind and focus on that. It is not the focus that is the problem, it is the repeated exclusion of all else that causes us difficulties.
Susan Snowden, Board Member
