The Poisoning of Presence

Say you drive a car often.

Then one day your friend is in a car accident. It is terrible. You see them in the hospital; you hear their story. You worry about them.

Then something strange starts to happen.

It appears that there are more car accidents. You become super aware of bad drivers. You notice how easily an accident could happen.

Did the world just magically change?

In a way it did, but not the real world, the world your associative brain constructs for you. Whatever is most recently available will bias your world view. Roads that once looked safe to you now start to appear dangerous.

You have what psychologists call an "availability bias". You catch upon things that are recent in your thinking, such as your friend in a car accident. Right now – with the COVID-19 crisis – we are witnessing what has been termed an Availability Cascade. 

An availability cascade is a self-sustaining chain of events. Sound familiar?

It can start small and cascade to a world-wide panic, leading to significant government action. It has the potential to get to the point where the cure begins to becomes much worse than the disease. I believe we are witnessing such an event.

And I find my Self affected by it personally.

I notice this availability bias is unconsciously affecting the way I approach door handles, elevator buttons and bars on the train. Touching them never bothered me before. Now my associative brain wonders...

But here's something my associate brain cannot do. 

Process numbers. Like this:

1 in 238,794.

As of today, 1 Japanese for every 238,794 has contracted the COVID-19 virus.

Now compare that to the odds of some other things:

I die in a plane accident (1 in 188,364) - National Safety Council USA
I get struck by lightning (1 in 15,300) – National Weather Service USA

So logically - at this exact moment - I have more chance of being struck by lightning or dying in a plane accident that I have meeting someone carrying COVID-19.

But our brains don't do numbers; they devour stories instead. 

And I didn't hear any stories about people being hit by lightning or dying in a plane accident, so I don't worry about those. Instead, I hear other stories, scary stories, so I start wondering whether to touch that door handle or not. 

Personal fear is not going to stop the virus from spreading. 

Washing your hands will. Staying at home will reduce those astronomical odds even further, as will staying away from large gatherings. These are all effective.

And your executive brain can handle those things.

It can also handle numbers and risk calculations and sensible ways to behave. However, it can only do that with rock-solid information and plenty of it.

Innuendo, fears and gossip are low-level sources of information.

This process of using the executive brain to gather well-sourced information is the methodology we employ at BodyChance to improve postural movement. Because most people have inadequate information upon which they are basing their postural decisions.

Learning how to gather information and apply it to a postural problem is the process you can witness again and again at a BodyChance class. You also start gathering reliable information in our BodyThinking Online course. BodyThinking is a comprehensive course of over 60 videos giving you a detailed journey into the structural movement of your Posture. 

Anyone with a physical skill can benefit from studying this.

And it can be very helpful in navigating you through this current situation – because improving and applying postural information is an effective way to reduce stress.

If you suddenly find your Self with more time at home, now might be a good time to fill your brain with constructive information, and avoid the availability cascade.

Read more about my offer here:

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/store/oTZvjLye