Wellness Science Videos
Attention is a spotlight. Choose where you wish to shine it.
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Attention is a spotlight. In these days of many skilled attempts to hijack our attention, we still have choice about where to shine that spotlight.
Our attention is a quiet power that cannot be taken from us: It's in our brains.
We have an opportunity to shine our attention on what truly serves us and the greater good.
Why stop to actually smell the roses?
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I'm Dr. Gina Clark, a dual-board certified physician with a PhD in neuroscience as well. I like to think about wellness science in real life, like this: Why stop to smell the roses? Obviously it can make your day better, and it also gives you brain practice at something called cross-modal integration.
That's your brain's ability to connect multiple types of sensory input, in this case from your nose and eyes, to create a unified perception, including that of the rose.
A 2021 review in Psychology and Neuroscience by Karim and colleagues examined how these connections are enabled by neuroplasticity. Cross-modal integration allows the brain to adapt to changes around us, and should you have some sort of sensory loss, it can compensate.
Give it a try!