Brain Filters

We humans have strange, amazing brains! Before I delve into the topic of brain filters, let’s try a brief experiment!

How did you do? Were you able to count all the passes the team in white made? Did you notice anything else?

Would you like to go to a radiologist who did not catch the gorilla? On the other hand, we must keep in mind that radiologists are searching for the abnormalities that are most likely bad for our health. Typically that means, they are looking for anything white.

Here is a related article: https://news.mit.edu/2019/how-brain-ignores-distractions-0612. If we didn’t have filters, we would simply be overwhelmed with irrelevant data.

Applying Brain Filters

Why do I mention this? As an illustration, my husband recently asked, “Where are our needle nose pliers? Usually they are in this open faced box in the tool drawer.” I sauntered over, and peered in the drawer. “Here they are!” The pliers were in an adjacent box! It became evident that when we put filters on our search, it can also limit the outcome.

There could be many ways we may filter information. As an art teacher, I would be looking at art to teach various concepts. A math instructor would be focused on math.

A game I use to play with my students used the filter of color. “I spy with my little eye, something green.” This would automatically filter out anything but green for their searching eyes.

What are the implications? What if I strove to bring myself more happiness? I haven’t done this in a while, but it is amazing when it is part of my routine. I could filter out the dull sadness. In a brief four to five minutes, the time spend singing and dancing to this would make a world of difference in the remainder of my day!

Next, what if I focused on the joy that my dearly departed son brought me rather than to dwell on the fact of his passing? Could you Follow Your Joy? What if I spent more time outdoors leaning into the ways of nature? Could you THINK LIKE WATER? What if I strove to be thankful despite my grief? Could you have Gratitude for Hard Times? What if I loosened up my standards and was more accepting of the imperfection of things? Could you use some Wabi Sabi Wisdom? May the filters of joy, nature, gratitude and imperfection help to ease your life!