Dr. Lila Landowski

We're looking at one thing and then looking at the next thing.

So we're actually training our brain to have bad attention.

We're training it to be able to move from one thing to the next because that's what we're doing.

And so the more you do that, the easier it becomes.

And so our brain will just naturally move from one thing to the next.

Well, I guess the more you have other stresses in life or the more burdens you might have in other places, the more you're likely to have a fragmented attention span.

So let's say you've got a huge emotional load trying to figure out things in the house and juggling family or whatever it might be or

we're hustling, we're doing lots of different jobs, then you're already a bit stressed, right?

And so that burden of stress makes it a lot harder to pay attention to things.

It actually fragments our ability to pay attention.

So when you're really stressed in life, it affects the brain.

And it's not just a small effect.

It's actually quite significant.

So let's say you're worrying about paying the bills and you're worrying about covering rent and you're worrying about getting from A to B and you're worrying about everything else at home and you're worrying about your job.

That is a chronic stress and over time it changes our brain structure and the way we behave.

So one of the things it does is it makes your hippocampus, the brain's memory centre, shrink.

Like brain cells actually die and so your memory gets worse.

So stress is shrinking our brains.

Yeah.

And actually it makes one part of the brain bigger.