At a First Aid course I was on recently we eventually got onto the topic of defibrillators. Stand clear as a one off massive voltage shock is applied across the heart. Not a series of series of rhythmic shocks but just the one large shock is applied. It seems that in a heart attack situation the heart develops such an irregular beat that it becomes inefficient and fails to perform its function of pumping blood around the body. A defibrillators job is not to set up a regular rhythm, but to stop the heart completely.
From here we were told the heart comes with its own inbuilt boot up system. An inbuilt start up and rhythm regulator which reestablishes the coordinated beating of the four chambers of the heart needed for it to perform its job properly.
Again I was struck with the parallel with a computer system. It too has its BIOS (Basic Input Output System) system that kicks in on pressing the On button. Its job is to start up the computer components and integrate the hardware and software into a running mode where it can all function. When our computer malfunctions, technicians oft go back to the BIOS system. Unlike a light bulb being turned on, the Boot Up process of a computer is not instantaneous but traditionally takes a period of time.
Sometimes people get massive shocks which cause them to reevaluate and change their lives. You know the stories of people going to the Doctor and being told they have just months to live unless they stop drinking, smoking and change their diet dramatically. For many more of us the scenes are not so blunt.
The loss of a family member, moving house, changing jobs, being burgled and more are all stresses to our systems often leaving us with a message that change is needed in our system to get back to healthy functioning. Often our responses range from finding an empathetic someone to talk to, reading self help books, taking a vacation and so on.
The Wharf Hub puts itself forward as being a useful place for taking stock of ones life and inputting a few, perhaps new, life functioning skills, a place to reboot.