Effects Of The Modern World On Mental Health (and Tips To Take Care Of It)
Today everything moves quickly, our attention no longer knows how to stay on an activity I’m sure that in your immediate circle many people have been diagnosed (some self-diagnosed) with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – the symptom of our time. I’m not saying that there aren’t people with ADHD, but I don’t know if the vast majority simply didn’t learn or unlearned to concentrate, to get bored, to do one thing at a time.
The amount of information we receive through our senses is overwhelming. The eye perceives all the movement of vehicles (cars, motorcycles, bicycles), pedestrians, as well as information that is not in motion, the famous visual pollution; the ear perceives all sounds (alarms, ambulances, horns, screams); The sense of smell perceives a wide range of odors.
Usually, we do not pay attention to everything around us ; We focus only on the information that serves us. But our brain, which has an impressive capacity, does receive this information and responds to it by activating our alert system (the fight or flight response), the nervous system.
The famous scrolling – we no longer even stop to look at the photos and videos that interest us for more than 10 seconds, because there are so many photos and so many videos, that we have to look at them quickly to be able to see them all. I remember, with nostalgia, when we watched television and there were commercials. It was like a break, you could get up to the bathroom, eat, or get bored and talk to the person sitting next to you.
Before there was “mango season” and you ate all the mangoes that existed, because you knew you weren’t going to get them the rest of the year; Now there is mango all year round (more expensive and perhaps frozen), but there is no longer a pause, there is no longer a wait. Everything we want we get quickly and easily
A frenetic pace of life
We do not know how to postpone the gratification of pleasure. There is a famous experiment in psychology in which a small child, 4-5 years old, is placed a marshmallow or candy in front of him and told: “don’t eat it, I’m going out to get it.” If when I come back you haven’t eaten it, I’ll give you more, but if you eat it, I won’t give you more.” All children at this age are expected to eat it the moment the adult turns around or leaves the room. This is due to the maturity of the child’s brain; He is not able to delay gratification, although he knows that if he waits a little he will have more. He only he can think of immediate gratification, so he takes it and eats it.
In this sense, we are a very childish society, because although our brain could have the maturation capacity, most adults do not stop to think that in the future they will enjoy more. The famous YOLO (“you only live once”, for its acronym in English), which may be an expected response in a teenager, but not in an adult.
If we maintain this childish attitude, it is very difficult to have confidence in ourselves, our self-esteem is affected. Well, how can we trust ourselves if we fail to take care of ourselves, fail to make the right decision, fail to meet our objectives and goals. By not trusting ourselves, not even in the most everyday and small things, we once again turn all our attention outwards and not inwards.
The speed, the amount of information, not having this idea that we must gratify all our needs and our instincts immediately, causes us to be under high levels of stress all the time. This leaves us with no time for breaks, for boredom, to stop and see how we feel, what we are thinking and what is best for us. We move into this second plane of importance, bottling up our internal world to survive in the external world.
But what happens if, instead of surviving, you decide to live? Learn to go at your own pace, learn to enjoy everyday things, learn to connect with your emotions and not just react to your environment. Learn to be bored, concentrate and explore the potential your mind has.
To do?
I leave you here some tips to take care of your mental health in the modern world:
