People talk a lot about multi-tasking and how the most efficient, productive people out there have perfected the art of pursuing several activities at once.
But have they, really? Apparently not. According to recent brain research, multi-tasking is not only almost impossible to do, but it can actually damage your brain. Check this article out from Forbes Magazine.
image via todayifoundout.com
So, I took this idea to the extreme and identified three things I just don’t think you can do simultaneously. Two are physical and one is mental:
- You can’t sneeze with your eyes open. Okay, some people can do it, but for most of us it’s damn near impossible!
- You can’t eat and drink at the same time (I mean literally at the same time). Can you picture that? Yuck!
image via eatdrinkbetter.com
- You can’t feel genuinely grateful for what you have and still feel lousy.
I’m sure a lot of people will beg to differ on #3, but think about it. With so much negativity bombarding us via the 24-hour news cycle, it’s no wonder so many of us get to feeling down. Day in and day out, we hear or read about people who do the vilest things … and those are just the politicians we disagree with! All kidding aside, unless we make a conscious effort to disengage with the world, it’s pretty difficult to stay positive based on what the media wants us to know about. Add to that the obstacles, both large and small, that impede our personal happiness, and you’ve got the makings for a pretty dismal mindset.
But (and I swear this works), if you take the time to really think about what you have, whether it’s close friends, a job that pays the rent, relatively good health, or just enough money to buy the occasional latte, that goes a long way toward crowding out the “woe is me” list.
I can hear the naysayers now: “That’s all well and good when things are going great, but …” To them I say, “No, the BEST time to remember all the good things is when life isn’t rolling along the way you’d like it to.
It’s that time of year when we all start breaking out our gratitude chops. Maybe we sit around the table after turkey and all the trimmings and go through the litany of what we’re thankful for. That warm and fuzzy feeling lasts a day or two, and then we head into the classroom of life to take what I call the holiday stress test. Fail that exam (and it seems like 99% of us do) and you get an “F” for feeling lousy.
Here’s the thing: you don’t need turkey or a special holiday to be grateful. You can take a few minutes every day to remind yourself of what’s going right in your life, even if it’s as simple as “Hey, I don’t ache as much today as I did yesterday – yay!”
My eyes always shut when I sneeze, and I’d never attempt to both eat and drink at once in polite company. And concentrating on what’s going right in my life is a surefire way to replace the tired old refrain of what’s going wrong. I hope it works for you.
