Hard thinking
In my younger days, hard work was seen as a golden virtue. Many stories and narratives celebrated the hardworking chap who toiled to become successful. As I grew up I realized hard work was not the key to being successful. It was the hard thinking that gave people their edge. It is not in popular narrative because it is invisible. The narrative of Edison undergoing 100 failed experiments is more appealing to us than Newton sitting and thinking under the apple tree. Hard thinking is hard. Given a choice, our brain would like to answer easy questions rather than hard ones. We may be substituting thought with action because it is easier for us to get into action. Applying thought to action is as important as acting on our thoughts.
“A general ‘law of least effort’ applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the
same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. Laziness is built deep into our nature.” – Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow
Challenging customs
It is hard to challenge customs that may be irrelevant, unhelpful, and yet followed for the sake of social pressures. Taking up a stance not to follow a custom is hard as our stance is not against strangers but against loved ones. Our egos may get inflated and we may take a stance beyond reason. It can slowly grow as anger towards the loved ones championing it. It is important to recognize this before it is too late. Understand that everyone has a belief system and we have to understand where people come from before we judge or defend their opinion. The world they grew up in may not exist anymore but they still believe that their world exists. We are then able to take a better stance and handle the emotional turmoil that comes with it. Getting into another’s frame of reference does not mean giving up on your own completely.
“Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Brain plasticity
These days I noticed my mother having a slight struggle in hearing something from a distance. I did not realize it could be an indicator of her declining capabilities due to old age until I read a book soft-wired by Dr. Michael Merzenich. It was truly illuminating to know that the adult brain is plastic and soft-wired. This meant our brain could keep changing positively and negatively. Positive changes meant we became more agile, faster, and sharper in our responses. However, negative plasticity means our brain rewires itself resulting in slower, and fuzzy responses. These include even basic functionalities like hearing, sight, walking, and comprehension. These are gradual declines that we hardly notice but can be managed and improved if we start caring when we are young. Some things that help maintain our brain health are
- Choose mindful living. A mechanical and unconscious life results in neural circuits simplifying these functional capabilities
- Positive self-talk about our capacity to learn. Shift from “I used to be …but now …” to “I can still …”
- Challenge our limits in small ways by using less tech for convenience
Personally, it was a reminder for me to be more empathetic to older people, not to take my capabilities for granted, and to start preparing for my last years from now on.
“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you have to start young.” – Fred Astaire, American dancer, actor, singer, and presenter