Staying in the Now with Essential Oils : Feel Good Friday

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” Eckhart Tolle

(Companion essential oil: Young Living Present Time™)

Is multi-tasking overrated?

The short answer is “Yes.”

And there’s a groundswell of support for ditching it faster than you can say, “Twitterfacebookinstagram”.

This great article by the ABC explains the facts behind the growing tide of expert advice urging us to ditch the surfing and skimming in favour of giving our brains an environment they can thrive in.

According to neuroscientist, musician and author Dr Daniel J. Levitin, multitasking is an illusion. But whether we call it ‘multitasking’ or the more technically correct ‘task switching’, the habit is one of the most damaging side-effects of the internet age.

“We think that we’re doing all these things at once but the brain doesn’t work that way,” he says. “Every three or four seconds we switch to another thing, we are paying attention to one thing and then the next and then the next and then we come back around again to the first. All of that switching comes at a neurobiological cost. It depletes essential neuro-resources that you need for actually doing things and thinking things.” Dr Daniel J Levitin

The ‘switch’ in the brain that flicks every time we switch between different modes is called the insula. Glucose fuels this neurochemical switching, so when it’s depleted, cortisol is released. If you haven’t heard of cortisol, it’s known as the ‘stress hormone’ and it’s not something you want to encourage, let alone roll out the welcome mat for. Cortisol is released in response to fear or stress by the adrenal glands as part of the fight-or-flight mechanism.

Excessive cortisol clouds your thinking and impedes higher cognitive activity. It can interfere with learning and memory, lower immune function and bone density, increase weight gain, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease — and on and on the list goes.

So how do you break the habit?

One cheeky way to do it is by turning your smart phone into a dumb phone. Designer and educator Paolo Cardini is a self-confessed creative multi-tasking person with an innovative solution in his fun TED talk titled ‘Forget multitasking, try monotasking.’ I’ve deliberately put the link to the talk at the bottom of this post so that I’m not encouraging you to switch mid-flight. But apparently our effective IQ drops by 10% if just one email is sitting unread in our inbox. That’s quite a discombobulating thought. Maybe knowing there’s a link you haven’t yet clicked on does the same!

“Multi-tasking? I can’t even do two things at once. I can’t even do one thing at once.”  Helena Bonham Carter

Creating an environment that shields you from distractions is one of the single most powerful ways to control the multi-tasking habit. How can we do that?  Here’s a quick list to get your mind rolling:

• Turn off your phone and put it in the cupboard after 8pm tonight. Get yourself an old-school alarm so you can leave it off until you’re up in the morning. Remember what it’s like to enjoy really listening and being present for conversations, and what it’s like to savour your food without photographing it and uploading it to the world.
• Shut down your email programme aside from say three dedicated email reading and actioning sessions each day. And delay the first session until you’ve completed at least one of your key ‘must do today’ items towards living your life purposely.
• Figure out what gets your mind into a relaxed yet focused state and create that zone. It might be a five minute meditation then playing Bach while you’re working. Or you might prefer the sound of silence or going for a quick walk first. If you really don’t know what works for you, check out what other people find works for them and systematically work your way through their ‘go to’ methods. Something will click. Do that something.

For an essential oil to help keep you in the present moment, Young Living Present Time™ is a beauty.

You might have thought of this blend as something to reach for only when you’re feeling like you need to snap yourself out of dwelling in the past. But how about we also take Present Time™ for a spin with a view to keeping the distractions at bay and staying on track in a practical day-to-day way? I know I want to get better at monotasking, especially having read more on the detriments of flitting from one browser window to another while checking emails on my phone. Time to action it, I say.

Present Time™ includes the essential oils of:

• neroli (an absolute extracted from flowers of the bitter orange tree, known for promoting peace and awareness)
• spruce (fosters a sense of grounding)
• ylang ylang (restores confidence)

This beautiful-smelling blend can be inhaled directly from the bottle and diffused (please click here to learn why burning oils is a no-no) and it’s also lovely to rub a drop onto your the centre of your chest.  As always, use the label as your guide and follow the usual steps for safe essential oil use.

Here’s the link to Paolo Cardini’s TED talk. Bonus points if you read this far without clicking it and kept up your IQ at the same time.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy the good oil daily.

The information on this site does not constitute advice. Please consult with your health practitioner. When using any of the products mentioned throughout this site, please be sure to read the labels and follow their suggestions for safe use.