Have you ever wondered why the city boy can’t sleep in the country and the country boy can’t sleep in the city? Or why a mother can sleep through the sounds of traffic, arguing neighbors, and barking dogs, but if her baby coughs, she’s instantly alert?
There’s actually a simple explanation. Our brain has the amazing ability to sort and prioritize. It screens out many of the normal, everyday sensations that commonly surround us and makes us aware of things we need to pay attention to.
If we were to concentrate on everything happening around us all the time, it could make us crazy. The way the wind blows against our skin, the tickle in our throats, the beating of our hearts, the colors, the sounds, and smells that surround us—there are simply too many things to think about all the time. Our marvelous brain screens out the ordinary and common, allowing us to focus on those things that are unusual or important.
But while this is wonderful in some ways, it causes difficulties in others. Those things we see a lot tend to become increasingly easy to ignore. And sometimes, the things we tend to ignore are the things that need our attention the most.
Are our friends and families so familiar that we sometimes take them for granted? Does it have to take losing someone we love to make us realize how much they meant to us all along?
The good news is that we can choose what we want to notice, and we can see what we tell ourselves to see. With everything in this world that clamors for our attention every day, we can choose to give our best to those things and those people who matter the most.
Program #4057
Neil K. Newell