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tend to develop may also be a cause for alarm.
If you've ever wondered whether tree-hugging has any intrinsic value, listen up. In an article titled "City Life Changes How Our Brains Deal With Distractions," The
Atlantic Cities reports that "city dwellers have developed a form of attention that puts priority on 'the search for potential dangers or new opportunities…' - which "comes at the cost of a generally reduced level of attentional selectivity." What this means to mindfulness-oriented folks is that meditation, contemplation, or other pursuits that require healthy doses of concentrated attention might be way more challenging within an urban environment.
Writer Eric Jaffe presents relevant findings from the research team at Goldsmiths' College in London. After
conducting a study of "the
Himba people of Namibia" (traditionally rural cattle herders), this team found that those Himba who remained in remote regions "showed more focused attention" during "a basic spatial attention task" than others of their group who had moved to "the nearby town of Opuwo." After comparing the Opuwo group's attention spans with those of Londoners, these researchers found the spans in question to be quite similar.
This might help explain the tendency of urban people to "explore the ever-changing conditions of city life," while their rural counterparts are more prone "to focus on the task at hand" (such as actively appreciating trees).
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stepford_Wives
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/01/city-life-changes-how-our-brains-deal-distractions/4536/
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