Use
it OR lose it!
Tim
Connor
It’s common knowledge that if you don’t keep developing
muscles, over time, they will atrophy.
Well folks the same is true of your brain. Here is just one of thousands of
illustrations I could give you to make my point.
There are approximately 400 billion brain cells in the
average human and each one of these has on average - 10,000 neural connections
– do the math – that’s a lot of intricate stuff going on between your ears.
Estimates are that there are over three trillion chemical reactions in the
human brain every second. OK, enough of
my biology lesson and to my point. In
summary, there is a lot going on, thousands of activities in your body every
second, that are driven by or monitored by your brain. When it stops – your life as you know it is
over.
The brain is no different in many ways than your muscles –
if you don’t keep exercising them, over time they will atrophy and how do we
know this – dementia and Alzheimer’s are typical outcomes of years of brain
inactivity (a lack of stretching/growing) as current medical research is
finally coming to realize. Yes, there
are other factors but in this brief article I just want to focus on how or
whether you are exercising your brain to keep it healthy, vibrant and working effectively
on your overall benefit - moment by moment for all the years you are given.
For a moment think of yourself on the treadmill walking at
a vigorous pace. And the benefits are –
improved cardiac function, stronger more resilient muscles, improved stamina
etc. So, you continue to do this
routinely to maintain these abilities. Yes,
at twenty the benefits might be better than doing this at eighty but in the end
doing it is better than not doing it.
The same is true of your brain. It needs challenges to maintain a healthy,
creative and useful ability. And how do
you accomplish this? Duh – read more,
study more, play word games, artistic creations, contemplate more, evaluate
more, question more – got it – use it or over time or you will lose it.
And the cost of losing it? Well for starters the ability
to remember, focus, feel, share, love and create. Need I go on? OK, the ability to be of
service to others, the skill of using talents and abilities in a positive and
proactive way and the over ability to be a valuable human being to and for the
people in your life. Don’t think this is
enough – think again.
I watched my mother in her seventies lose her mental
function as I’m sure many of you have had the unfortunate experience as well
watching a loved one become less valuable and I can’t tell you how observing
this downward spiral saddened me. And,
to some degree it could have been avoided if she would have just spent a little
more time during her life challenging herself mentally with any variety of mental
activities.
Let me repeat – use it or lose it.
No comments:
Post a Comment