Flying Life: The fascinating human brain

However, worriers, take heart, for I think I have found the secret for those of us, male or female, who sometimes let anxious thoughts replay in our minds. It’s a trick shared by musicians, athletes, and—yes—pilots. I noticed it one day while flying the Beechjet on a corporate trip for a local bank. For the week prior, I had been worrying about an issue one of my kids was having at school. It wasn’t anything serious, but the worry was just there, constantly in the back of my mind, popping in uninvited whenever I grew still. On the day of my corporate trip, however, my mind was preoccupied with everything related to the flight. Where did my passengers need to sit in order to keep the weight and balance within limits? Should I put on some more fuel for the weather en route?

Because of the demands of planning for and executing a flight, I was forced to just be in the moment, to give all of my focus to flying the airplane.Once in the air, we had our hands full, navigating a busy departure out of congested Memphis airspace. At some point, maybe 30 minutes in, when we were safely at altitude and on autopilot, I realized with a smile that for the last hour, my mind had not once wandered to thoughts of the kids, or work stress, or any other concern.

What a wonderful gift the Beechjet had given me. Because of the demands of planning for and executing a flight, I was forced to just be in the moment, to give all of my focus to flying the airplane. I’ve noticed the same ability to keep anxious thoughts at bay when I play the piano or go for a run, although not to the same extent as flying the airplane that day.

Fascinated by this newfound mind trick, I called a friend who is a neurosurgeon and flight instructor/designated pilot examiner, Dr. Morris Ray. I told him about my experience in the jet and asked what happens in the human brain that inhibits outside worry while we fly. He explained, in mercifully simple terms, that humans aren’t very good at multitasking. So, when we fly an airplane, our brain shifts priorities from that anxious thought we’ve been harboring, to what is arguably a more pleasant sensation, flying. Because flying does require a certain amount of multitasking—we are scanning for traffic while also monitoring instruments, listening for changes in engine noises, using hands on the control wheel and feet on the rudders, and more—our limited human minds must put everything else aside in order to focus on the task at hand.

Doc did caution me, however, that sometimes, when the anxious thought or outside stressor is too great, our minds do not have the ability to push it aside in order to fly the airplane. That’s when flying is dangerous. Psychologists have come up with a list of these stressful life events, including things such as death of a loved one, divorce, moving homes, major illness, and loss of a job.

It seems that the mentally demanding nature of flying is a double-edged sword—wonderful in that it forces us to focus on the present, but dangerous for those facing major life stressors. Regardless, here it is, reason number 973 in an infinite list of things I love about aviation: It doesn’t matter who you are, man or woman, flying gives us the ability to leave our worries behind, if only temporarily—but perhaps long enough to remind us that everything is going to be just fine.

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