Watching the weatherman on the breaking news last night, I cringed every time I heard the anchor say ‘I will’ and ‘I want to’. What has happened to the beautiful art of speaking and writing? Young people who send text messages today write in a language that resembles the sketches of aliens from another galaxy. I recently ventured into a MacDonald’s restaurant and had to ask the young lady serving me to repeat each question at least four times before she could understand what she was saying. She was talking so fast and without any articulation or modulation in her voice that I thought a fast broadband internet modem was hitting me over the head. Is this a sign of where the future takes us?
So what do I do, speed up the way I speak, think, write and everything else? I mean, is it a case of “if you can’t beat them, then join them”? Sadly, I realize our planet has been invaded by aliens who once spoke slower, wrote with better penmanship, and had no trouble with time and space. The generation gap seemed narrower back then. But at this speed I think we’ll be doing a lot more damage to our own brain. More and more people I know are complaining about having a bad memory, being dyslexic when they write, and feeling unmotivated about life in general. What is causing all this and is there a remedy, or… is it too late?
I’m not sure when this metamorphosis to an altered state began, but Dr. Norman Doidge, a psychiatrist in the Research School of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in New York and the Department of Psychiatry at University of Toronto, makes a lot of sense to me. He says that people who speak and write slower and more clearly demonstrate better motor skills and enjoy healthier physiological activity. He was recently interviewed on ABC1 Television (5/1/09) and talked about ‘neuroplasticity’ being an important factor when it comes to brain activity. What is it, I hear you ask? Or should I say, “Whotsit orl abaut, mate?” Yes, I understood you the first time! Neuroplasticity works on the premise that if you stop using certain functions of your brain, you end up losing them.
A person used to talk to many people every day and found every day challenging in a good way, he felt that he was therefore mentally alert for most of his waking hours. The thought of him was sharper, the memory more precise of him. The same person would become a different individual once he retired and his lifestyle shifted to a more inactive existence. I can attest to this, as members of my own family who have withdrawn from a more active life now seem to lead seemingly aimless lives without any significant mental stimulation. For me, sitting idly in front of the television for hours on end is not the most exhilarating way to live life.
The things they were able to do before, such as remembering things clearly, getting instant mental solutions to problems, remembering times and dates, staying motivated, and experiencing a greater level of personal power, would be lost in their retirement years because those abilities no longer they would be used. Simply put, if you don’t use it, you lose it! I’m afraid our modern lifestyle choices are pushing the entire human race down that path and unless we do something about it now, our nursing homes will soon be filled with people who can’t even remember the names of their own. grandchildren.
Dr. Doidge also points out that to stimulate your brain and maintain a healthy level of functionality you need to do something new and challenge your brain to learn more on a regular basis (caution: mind at work!). For example, learning a new language will promote brain cells to grow and develop more connections so that your mental activity really improves. I don’t think anyone wants to end up in a nursing home with their head cocked to the side feeling saliva drip from one corner of their mouth and not having the presence of mind to wipe it away. That is a sad image and one that we are gravitating towards. Just yesterday I heard Olivia Newton-John from the famous classic movie ‘Grease’ speak during a radio interview about how to improve your mental awareness. Too many people today seem to be afflicted with some kind of disease or brain malfunction, she said. She was touting the benefits of using Nintendo’s new brain exerciser, and I think I’ll buy one myself. Indeed, her brain is the most sophisticated computer present on our planet, at this time. So how can we prevent it from degrading and becoming dysfunctional?
Dr Doidge further explains in his book ‘The Self-Changing Brain’ that the human brain is so plastic, and therefore flexible, that it has the ability to change, regenerate and adapt to situations and experiences even in old age. Our belief system about the brain must change as we discover more and more of what it is really capable of. “The brain is not, as previously thought, like a machine or ‘wired’ like a computer,” says Dr. Doidge. “Neuroplasticity not only gives hope to people with mental limitations, or what was thought to be incurable brain damage, but it expands our understanding of the healthy brain and the resilience of human nature.”
Where do we go from here?
Dr. Norman Doidge’s book can be purchased at any bookstore or online from his official website www.normandoidge.com
