Beaming our minds into space, putting that same mind to sleep, helping kids learn empathy, and destroying the notion of multi-tasking. All in this week’s Reading List.
Futurist Says We’ll Use Lasers to Beam Our Minds Into Space Someday Soon
By Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy
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Just last Reading List I highlighted an article on how suffering helps us grow as individuals to “get to the next place in life”. In that post I differentiated a bit from normal suffering and all caps SUFFERING, which is less about a bad day and more about a significant event.
“We’re talking about basically an injury to the brain, in the form of a memory that’s so traumatic it paralyzes you,” says Michio Kaku in Episode 104 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “And I think this whole philosophy that we should be natural, that we should live with disease or live with traumatic memories, is taking things too far.”
In the above podcast with Michio Kaku, he discusses the notion of traumatic memories as “disease”. I’ve never thought memories, the traumatic ones of course, as a disease, but I do appreciate the analogy. We don’t accept the fact that we get cancer, we fight it. What if in the (not so distant) future technologies allow us to “fight” traumatic memories? As a debate in ethics one might argue it’s a slippery slope. But if you suffer from traumatic memories that’s a slope you’d most likely be willing to slide down.
And just for fun…
Michio Kaku on using lasers to project our minds into outer space:
“In the book I mention perhaps one of the greatest science fiction short stories, written by Isaac Asimov. His favorite science fiction story was way in the future when pure consciousness zips across the universe … And this is a possibility. If I have a CD-ROM with all the [neural] connections on a disk, I can put that on a laser beam, and I can shoot that into outer space at the speed of light … And then at the other end there’s a relay station which absorbs the laser beam and puts all these memories into a robot, and so you can then begin to feel, and live on another star system … So this idea was inspired by Isaac Asimov and other science fiction writers, but now we think it could be possible.”
Whoa!
How to Put Your Mind to Sleep: When it won’t shut up
By Andrea Ayres-Deets
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We’ve all been there. Tossing and turning. Lying in bed, eyes wide open, staring into the darkness. Thinking of everything and anything. Well thankfully, Andrea Ayres-Deets is here to tell us how to turn off our minds when we can’t shut it up. But first, some facts:
If you have trouble turning your mind off at night, you aren’t alone. It is estimated that 30-to–40 million Americans have a sleep disorder and an additional 20 million have occasional difficulty sleeping. It’s so bad that the Centers for Disease Control considers it a public health epidemic.
It’s good to believe in the idea of universality. We’re not the only one’s suffering from this problem, there are at least 29,999,999 or so people just like us. But now what can we do about it (other than beam our mind to another star system like we discussed above).
Here is Andrea’s 5 things to do tonight to get better sleep. I’m just going to list them, but follow the link and you can read more:
- Cool yourself down.
- Buy red lights.
- Breathe out of your left nostril (Wait…what?! Try it. It works.)
- Go outside in the morning.
- Visualize yourself asleep.
And as for a last nugget of advice from Andrea:
Sleep is a process. It doesn’t just happen the moment you get into bed. The body is preparing itself for sleep all day. It actually helped me to think of sleep something ongoing as opposed to something that was just supposed to happen. It took some of the pressure off of me. My body was actually made to do this. Trusting and listening to my body’s natural process really helped me find a better way to fall asleep.
Surprisingly Simple Ways to Help Children Develop Empathy
By Kim Blackham
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I get asked this question a lot, “Is it possible to teach kids empathy?” I believe it is, but not with a classroom “teaching” style. In order to teach empathy we need to role model empathetic reactions ourselves. Whether we are parents, counselors, teachers, family or friends, the way we interact with others in front of children plays an important role in the development of their own empathetic skills.
Kim does a nice job of expanding on that idea. If we can role model empathetic responses in real world situations, can we induce (my word, not Kim’s) situations in which we can practice empathy? She comes up with some unique suggestions:
Go to a public location where you can sit and watch other people coming and going – i.e. airport, mall, park, fair, sporting event, etc. Find a place to sit that is in an area of moderately heavy traffic. You want it to be busy enough, but not too busy that it is just crowded. Then, just start asking questions.
I believe that reading classic literature is an excellent way to increase emotional intelligence – specifically empathy. Reading together allows you to stop and discuss the characters and experiences and really help your children to understand them.
She also discusses how great family movie night can be for discussing the character’s emotions and how it would feel to be in their shows. Definitely check out her article for the questions she thinks lead to the best responses.
Bonus article: Can We Teach Empathy?
Constant Task Switching
By Leo Babauta
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I believe multi-tasking is a fool’s errand. Not the “I’m walking my dog and returning calls” kind of multi-tasking, but the “I’m returning emails, writing a post, checking Facebook AND talking to my office partners” kind of multi-tasking.
So anytime I run across an article that offers clear advice at being more singularly focused, I dive in head first. Leo puts a lot of excellent points in this article. While I am pulling out some great pull quotes, they won’t serve the article like reading it, so please take a moment to check it out.
I know I’m losing focus when I’m constantly jumping around from task to task. This is a “red flag” for me — a sign that I’m doing something wrong. You’ve done it too: switching from one browser tab to another, opening various emails and other messages, checking on this and that. No focus, lots of stress, lots of mental exhaustion without really getting anything done. It means that I’ve lost myself in a chain of endless distraction, and am not truly conscious of what I’m doing.
You’ve been there too? Yup. Me too. About 4 minutes ago. But we can put an end to this scourge called task switching with Leo’s four simple solutions:
- Assess what’s important.
- Simplify.
- Clear everything.
- Stay with the moment.
I think that’s why working at a coffee shop can be so productive. It eliminates a big portion of the distractions you get at home and at the office. You still have the internet mind you, but there are programs that you can buy that make it inconvenient to surf. And then you will really see your productivity soar!
I will let Leo close us out:
The practice of simplifying, clearing things away and staying with what I’m doing is incredibly useful, and something I haven’t mastered yet. In my experience, it’s a process of letting go, and accepting. Letting go of all the little urges to be up-to-date, to be in-the-know, to do everything, to say yes to everything. And accepting this present moment as it is, and staying with it.
Why a Reading List? I do a good amount of reading and I‘m constantly finding articles which are informative, entertaining and applicable to my private practice. Instead of hoarding this information to myself, I’ve decided to begin sharing the articles and pull quotes on a semi-regular basis.