“Weight-Train” Your Brain

 

I have a new cell phone. I didn’t want a new cell phone; I was perfectly happy with my 2020 cell phone, but it wasn’t happy with me. Its connector charging port was ailing. Failing, actually, the service tech told me. And besides, it was an old phone, what did I expect?

Old? This to a woman who is more than content, read “thrilled,” to wear outdated fashions just because she likes them. And would willingly keep computers way past their supposed “shelf life.” Sigh.

OK, fine, so new cell it is. No more buttons, just a lot of swiping – up, down, left, right. How am I supposed to keep it all straight? The service tech was remarkably patient. I was not. “I can’t do this!” I swore to myself, silently, of course. But then it dawned on me. “Can’t” or “Don’t want to”?

Train Your Brain

Ah, there it is. The truth at last. Of course I can. I can learn. It’s not brain surgery or rocket science. Millions, probably billions of people, even those over the age of 12, have learned this. They weren’t geniuses, either, just regular folk. So, given a little time and patience, I can learn this. But I don’t want to.

I want my “old” cell phone, which was familiar to me, that I had long mastered. I want the comfort of not having to learn something new. My inner 3-year-old is stomping her virtual feet and having a mini-meltdown. Sad, really. Because I know all too well that when we stop learning, we begin to decline. As Albert Einstein succinctly put it: “The day you stop learning is the day you start dying.”

Learning is to the brain what weight training is to our muscles. The brain, like a muscle, weakens when we don’t use it, and learning new things is a great way to “weight train” our brains. Learning keeps our cognitive abilities honed and developing; it keeps us engaged in life and living.

So much as I fuss against having to learn yet one more technical what’s-it, I eventually surrender to the need to do so, and finally, feel grateful for the learning imposed on my brain.

After all, what’s a brain for, if not to think, get challenged to think about something new, and then think some more?

Choose Your Thought Reps Wisely!

One of my dogs, Kobe, has epilepsy. It’s very well controlled with--of all things--Chinese herbs, but when there’s a major stressor, Kobe may be wracked with seizures. In his world, mercifully, there are few major stressors, but one of them is--thunder.

We had a major storm in California last month, with a thunderclap in the middle of one afternoon that sounded literally like the sky was falling (no Chicken Little version, this!), crashing down on our very heads.

I rushed over to Kobe and held him, which is about all I can do when he seizes, as my poor puppy trembled all over.

My mind immediately started whirring: “What if he has a major seizure? What if this doesn’t stop at trembles and shakes, what if it’s a big one, and he’s collapsed on the floor, bucking and heaving? He’s 15 now, he hasn’t had a major seizure in years, what if his heart can’t handle it?” And on and on, until I was in almost as bad shape as Kobe.

Then I thought: “What are you doing?” My dog was still trembling and shivering, nothing more, yet I was readying for disaster.

Which is exactly what we do. We rehearse for disaster. We take an event, and rather than address what’s actually going on, we let our thoughts tornado through our mind, dragging us into the land of crisis or despair.

And the worst of it is, that repetition of thought is what determines how your brain changes and grows. Science these days is teaching us all about “neuroplasticity,” which simply stated, is how the very structure of your brain changes with what you repeatedly think.  That how your brain functions then also changes depending on what you think habitually.

If you stay in disaster mode, in “problem” mode, then your brain gets better and better at thinking in that mode, when what we really need, is to be getting better and better at the “solution” mode.

Your thoughts are like the reps you perform to keep your muscles in shape: whatever reps you do, that’s what muscles will grow.

I stopped my disaster thinking. I shifted into “solution” mode. I reminded myself that Kobe hadn’t had a major seizure in years, that he was a healthy dog despite his age. I reminded myself that I know good vets, that treatments are constantly evolving, that I would always see to it that my beloved pet would get the care he needed. I held him reminding myself that there was nothing more I could do for him in that moment, other than let him feel safe, supported and loved.

It was enough. The trembling eased, all was well. Not just with Kobe, but with myself, as I deliberately reached to grow my brain the way I want it to grow--solution and optimism oriented.

Don’t let your thoughts mindlessly drag you where you don’t want to go. Practice the thoughts that will take you where you do want to go. Choose your thought reps wisely!