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William Deresiewicz has written an interesting article with study details conducted by a team of Stanford researchers that's available here. Below is my reflection:
Basically I am a mono-tasking person. When someone talks to me I want to be fully present to the person. I do not want my mind divided between here and there. I want to be connected and engaged with the other person. Paying full attention to the person is conducive not only for cultivating cognitive function but also for cultivating social and emotional learning, for cultivating effective and positive relationships. As a learner and a teacher, I see the value of focused attention. Our personal experience and research studies show that multi tasking has a strong and adverse effect on cultivating cognitive, emotional and social skills. Sadly, smart phones, laptops and video-games have been powerful distracting factors in our schools and families. When I am reading, writing, listening, communicating, eating, walking, driving and meditating, I make it sure that I am fully attentive and focused on what I am doing. This is mindfulness practice. When my mind goes astray by an external stimulus or internal stimulus, I become aware of it and do not get trapped by it. Practicing mindfulness helps me to be free from my temptation to to be engaged in more than one task. It frees me from multitasking. When we eat we pray together. Praying together creates sacred and peaceful environment. We put our smart phones and laptops beyond our sight. When we study or communicate we follow the same helpful rule. Namaste!
4 Comments
Ankit H. Shah
10/3/2020 06:00:41 pm
I can totally agree with this statement, as multitasking is not really helpful even in the professional world. However, the way society is set up is that a switching between tasks repeatedly due to constant interruptions. No where is this more evident than in healthcare in my opinion. This leads to anger and lack of compassion in all involved. Additionally, this can lead to errors. However, not much is done to prevent this other than mindfulness training. Another thing that I find interesting is that being fully present for people in this age of unique suffering is challenging for most, as fully absorbing the depths of other peoples pain creates a counter transference in many empathic people. I suspect that the distractions we have today are a coping mechanism so that other people don’t get more depressed. Society needs to fundamentally revolutionize and change in order for us to be able to be more present with each other. Clearly the community and togetherness mentality of eastern cultures has been perverted into expectations and demanding behavior in families while individualism of Western culture has led to ease of distraction
Ankit
10/23/2020 12:24:23 pm
Great reflections! Times are changing. The challenge for us is how to cultivate spiritual maturity and maintain healthy balance. And thta's what we are learning from practicing Midflness and the teachings of the Bhagavas Gita.
Kim Zack
10/10/2020 03:30:44 pm
The multitasking study is scary and, frankly, I think it explains much of what is happening to all of us right now. Think about how many times a day we read a headline or a text, conclude our thought/opinion about it, and move on to the next one! I know I am totally guilty of this. Compare this to how our parents obtained/absorbed information/news. They slowly read a single newspaper each morning and watched the evening news. There was no 24 hour news cycle on numerous devices. They went to bed and started fresh the next day. I know they did not feel the constant/intense stress about the world like we do.
Kim
10/23/2020 12:34:20 pm
You're so right. I see everybody multitasking. It has been a norm, not a healthy norm. The charity begins at home. And that's what I do. I watch the vening news for an hour to keep myself informed. I put my phone away from me. That helps me not to check every mail or text message. We provide modeling to others and hope they will learn from it. Thanks for your comments, Leave a Reply. |
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