Beth Terry, CSP

Information Overload Causes Accidents

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Beth Terry — No Comments ↓

Just wondering, did sleep deprivation contribute to Seattle crash?

The famous Ride The Ducks vehicle crashed into a bus carrying 58 foreign exchange students. Here’s a picture courtesy of Channel 7 in Seattle:

photo courtesy KIRO-7 News — Ride the Ducks Bus crashes into bus on bridge

I watched along with others as pictures of the crash on the bridge in Seattle took over the news. My heart goes out to the families of everyone involved, especially those parents so far away who trustingly sent their children to an exchange program, only to lose them.

So today isn’t a light and airy saying. It’s a reminder to BACK AWAY FROM THE ELECTRONICS once in awhile. I don’t have all the data or facts yet from the NTSB. That investigation will take weeks. But I do know that being wired all the time is making all of us very tired. Our reaction times are just not what they used to be if our systems are deprived of much needed sleep.

We aren’t sleeping as well as we used to. People often complain about fatigue and numerous police reports indicate that sleep deprivation causes 20% of traffic incidents. It’s no wonder: if you are exposing your brain to intense light and activity just minutes before bed, you’ve activated adrenaline and squashed melatonin receptors. Your brain thinks it really IS in danger from those little piggies or monsters or whatever video game you’re playing. Or it’s still replaying all the bad news that fits on your TV screen or computer. The bright lights and action is changing your biological clock.

Not only that, and this is vitally important: your brain has activated its learning processes. Your repetitive activity in those games is creating new synapses and connections within your brain. You are creating a new brain pattern!

So what do you do? Make an effort to turn off the electronics periodically. Leave your cellphone behind and go for a walk on the beach. Go play a game of touch football with your kids this weekend. Go sledding when the snow falls. Decide to not open your computer until noon one day. Take an entire weekend away from all electronic communications. Most of all, let there be a little time between electronics and bedtime. Sit and talk with family. Take your dog for a walk. Sit outside and look at the night sky.

It’s not just texting and driving that’s causing accidents. Get enough sleep and give yourself — and the others on the road with you — a fighting chance. I’m on that road, too. I’d like to stay in this side of the ground for a few more decades.

Thanks for listening!

© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved

Relationships Influence our future

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Beth Terry — No Comments ↓

Friendships influence our level of success or failure

Mom was right. Who we hang out with really does influence how successful our lives will be. If everyone in our group learns a skill or has a hobby, it becomes a given that we will do that, too. This is how I wound up with a pilot’s license. I got a part time job in college working the Unicom at the regional airport. Everyone there had a pilot’s license. Instead of people saying, “I would love to get a license,” the comments to me were, “What do you mean you don’t have your license?” The peer pressure alone and the daily opportunity to get one made it easy to jump in head first.

When I moved to Hawaii, my roommate was already on a canoe paddling team because her coworkers at the hospital had formed one. They were able to take time off from work to practice because they were competing with other island medical centers in paddling competitions. For her it was natural and normal, and the time and equipment were readily available.

Look at where you are today and what skills and hobbies you have. Who influenced you? Why do you have those abilities? Conversely – What has held you back from getting where you want to go? Because the reverse is also true: If what you want to do is strange or out of the ordinary for your immediate group, they may discourage you from acquiring those skills and hobbies that you desire.

We always have choices. We can decide those things aren’t all that important, or we can enlarge our circle of friends and find some influencers who do what we want to learn.

Figure it out! How long do you think you have?

© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved

Never Thought of it that way ~ Traditions

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Beth Terry — 4 Comments ↓

Traditions keep us together

Many of my friends have left the planet in the past few years. Still we have babies, weddings and graduations to remind us Life Goes On.

The funeral wasn’t a surprise. He hadn’t been well. I was asked to MC and had only written a few words on a scrap of paper.

Traditions weighed heavily on my mind… I’ve noticed how many people push them aside and don’t understand their importance. Then again maybe those people are starting their own. I know this: humans need anchors in life. We need to be tethered to something or we’ll float away. Our disconnectedness is masked by the illusion of connections via cell phones, iPads, chat rooms and ever-present media.

It was my turn. One of my friends transcribed what I said and handed it to me at the end of the service.

“Humans need to come together and Celebrate all that Life represents.
It’s in these moments we are reminded of our connectedness and our humanity.

~ We attend graduations to remember to Learn.
~ We attend weddings to remember to Love.
~ And we attend funerals to remember to Live.

While we’re here, we’ve been given a Task:

Live for our friends who have gone ahead of us.
Live for the unexplored potential within ourselves.
Live for the possibilities we harbor and have yet to express.
Live for the pure unadulterated joy of being alive.

Here is a friend who has gone ahead.
No one knows when we will follow.
Don’t miss special moments by looking back or worrying too far forward.
Celebrate your breath, your pain, your joy, your suffering, and your lessons.

Love who you are right here, right now.

Don’t compare yourself to others or to that younger version of yourself.

Love those who love you.
Love is all you take with you.
Celebrate your Life.

Honor the lives of our friends taken from us too soon.”

Blessings,

© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved

Never thought about that – Traffic Jams

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Beth Terry — No Comments ↓

The Kaleidoscope Effect – Everything has another side to it and nothing is as it seems

@2015 Beth Terry Traffic Jam view — Sometimes slow is a blessing

It was a usual drive-time-slow-jam on the freeway. I didn’t mind it when I was alone. It was expected and I usually would put on some Aretha Franklin music and dance to it in my car. But this day was different. I had a mainland guest with me and felt somehow responsible for the traffic jam. She was coming with me to work and was going to use my car while I was busy.

I muttered and swore under my breath at the idiots on the road who caused even more problems than usual on this sunny day in Hawaii. She ignored me and kept exclaiming at the beauty and wonder of scenery I had seen thousands of times.

“Oh! Look at those birds! They’re beautiful! What are they?”

Me, “Egrets. I don’t know how they got here. They don’t look like they could fly across the Pacific … mumble grumble mumble.”

“They’re elegant! They look like mini-cranes! Oh! Look at that, is that Pearl Harbor?”

“Yeah. Oh LOOK at that guy! He’s the cause of this traffic! Why doesn’t he pull his car to the side!”

“Is that why they call it Pearl Harbor? It looks like a gray pearl in the morning sunlight! WOW!”

“I don’t know. I think it had to do with finding pearls there before all those ships came in… Oh, come ON people! Don’t WALK YOUR CARS! DRIVE!”

“Look at that pink building up there! What is that? It looks like a Parrish painting. It almost looks like it’s floating in the middle of all that green!”

“Oh, that’s Tripler Hospital. I don’t know why they painted it pink. Prolly got extra paint from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Come ON PEOPLE!”

Traffic came to a complete stop and she put her hand on my shoulder. “Beth, you are so lucky to have slow traffic in an area as beautiful as this. All I see are semi-trucks on all four sides of me at home. If I didn’t have a sun roof, I wouldn’t even know what kind of day it was. And it’s usually smoggy and ugly. Here, you can look over there and see down the valley. You can look up to the mountains and see the beauty of Hawaii every single day on the way to work. Wow. You are so very, very lucky.”

I stopped grumbling and looked around. She was right. Time to wake up. People spend their entire life savings to come to the islands. I get to “go to Hawaii” every weekend. And during the week, I’m treated to some of the most amazing and beautiful scenery the world has to offer.

I never looked at traffic jams the same since.

How ’bout you?

Cheers,