Do you know anyone who is maladaptive to spring? Who shudders at the thought of more light and birdsong and colour in their garden? Who rankles at the increased activity in their neighbourhood? If so, when those first warm shafts of sun begin to loosen the clasp of winter, there is a good chance even the most curmudgeonly will eventually yield to the joy of a world re-awakening.
Spring, to me, has always been synonymous with transition and change. The earth knows it, the birds know it, children know it – it is a wonderful door-flinging, habit-busting time of year! A good time not only to re-order the closets and garage, but to invite new challenges into one’s life. Why not launch into a daring new house reno, walk across Spain, take up tennis, or get serious about learning that instrument or language you’ve always wanted to learn?
Each requires a bit of courage, belief and a lot of dedication and determination, but the outcomes – the new kitchen, proficiency or skill – fulsomely reward our grit and efforts. And new findings in brain research confirm that all of us, at any age, can achieve success in new fields of learning.
For centuries the brain was thought to be a fixed and non-regenerative organ, but recent studies have shown that many aspects of the brain remain changeable or “plastic” throughout our lives. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Richard Doidge found ample proof for this theory and published his findings in The Brain that Changes Itself.
Through a variety of cognitive and muscular exercises, heat, light and sound therapies and visualization techniques, Doidge and fellow researchers helped numerous patients overcome disorders by stimulating unused circuits of the brain, thereby building new neural networks.
Researchers at St. Mary’s College in California came to similar conclusions about the capacity of adult learners to change and grow.
“As adults, we have well-trodden pathways in our synapses. We have to crack the cognitive egg and scramble it up so that new synapses grow. Stretching the brain best keeps it in tune – you need to push yourself, to get out of your comfort zone to truly nourish the brain.”
They cautioned that integrating new learning wasn’t like “falling off a log”; long-lasting change in the setting up of new neural connections takes at least 10 months of daily repeated practice.
So, if brain cells and connections can grow, and learning can improve throughout our lifespan provided we are dedicated to it, what is preventing us from trying?
Not one to shirk from challenge, I put Doidge’s theory to the test by tackling new languages later in life. I didn’t want to be one of those insensitive travellers who presume the whole world will understand you if you speak English, so I attempted to become at least politely conversant in the language of the countries I visited.
Given that Spanish is a beautiful language, spoken by 400 million people around the globe – many in warm and sunny countries a five-hour flight from us – it was the language I focused on the most. And while my attempts to learn it had sputtered along for years, it was not until I was over 55, when I had time to study and practise Spanish on a regular basis, that I began to gain real confidence in my ability to speak it.
So, hats off to all of you who do “push the envelope” and are inspired to spring into change. And as your “mental capital” grows, don’t be surprised if the new synapses formed don’t jolt and rearrange the old, resulting in sudden recall of the most hazily remembered face or fact or figure.
That alone would be reason enough to fling wide the windows of possibility and get you going on your new kitchen design, don’t you think?