Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 138 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast. I’m glad you’re here! You know how you have those friends or family members that you know when you’re with them it’s going to be fun? That’s how I feel about my favorite podcasts. I know they will be inspiring or I’ll learn something so I am always looking forward to the next episode…and the fact that you are here listening means we connect in a way and I love that. Don’t forget to leave a review if you’re enjoying them!
Ok, I talked about this in a recent episode where there is a movement where people are starting to recognize they have to exercise their mental muscles just like they do their physical muscles. People are realizing that it’s super important to protect their minds from distractions which cause us to live on autopilot, where everything we do is routine and we aren’t learning new things and we aren’t open to trying new things because we only want to be comfortable and we have lived long enough to know how to be comfortable so we stay doing the same predictable things. We could repeat our daily life in our sleep. Does that sound familiar? If it does, don’t despair! We CAN fix it! That’s great news!!!!
So, Have you seen the movie one Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest? Jack Nicholson is brilliant in the movie but it sticks with you because of what happens. He is a charming, mischievous character who has been in prison and doesn’t want to be transferred to a hard labor camp so he gets himself put in a mental ward by acting insane, even though he is not. Long story short, you kind of fall in love with his personality but the resident nurse is hateful and ultimately ends up scheduling him without his consent for a lobotomy which turns him into a zombie. It actually is kind of disturbing but that was a procedure they used in the 70’s. Anyway, a lobotomy they remove or deactivate the frontal lobe. The prefrontal cortex part of your brain which is the part that is basically your personality and your decision making. They don’t do this procedure anymore thank goodness, but it turns out if we have allowed ourselves to fall into a life that is completely routine where we have stopped growing and learning and having new experiences then we can actually cause our frontal lobe to stop functioning fully It can be deactivated or asleep! Now the good news is if we have allowed it to go to sleep we CAN do something about it because it can make the difference between living a life we are excited about and living a life where we are just waiting to retire.
So what does it look like if the frontal lobe is not functioning fully?
It can cause us to be
Lazy and listless
Uninspired, unmotivated
Desire for sameness routine and predictability
Able to be easily distracted
Dislike change
Does any of that sound at all familiar?
Are we basically lobotomizing ourselves by living on autopilot?
How often do we just allow ourselves to sink into the familiar feelings we get from scrolling, watching the news or the latest Netflix episode? How often do we find ourselves talking about Netflix or TikTok rather than what we are learning that’s new or what we are excited about doing that’s new. It doesn’t mean those things are all bad but if it comes at the expense of a life you’re excited about, is it worth it?
It takes very little brain power to perform things we do regularly, especially watching tv. In fact one study showed that you burn less calories sitting watching tv than you do just resting with the tv off which is pretty crazy to me.
So what does it look like if our Frontal lobe is active and awake?
Joy
Ability to plan and stick to the plan
Focus
Disciplined toward goals
Ability to hold an idea that is independent of external circumstances (that’s a big one. How many of us have seen especially in the last year with covid and masks that people just sort of lost their common sense? For a time, most of us did.
When we are focused on drama, which is basically what we get from news, politics, talk shows, all those good things then you are actually allowing your thoughts to be controlled by your old brain which disables your frontal lobes of the brain. Without the frontal lobes, you can’t think clearly, make rational decisions, or control your responses.
I don’t know about you but I for one want to make sure my brain is firing on all cylinders. In order for that to happen we have to steer clear of a lot of the drama that the news and the media are throwing at us because it shuts down the part of the brain that is the intellectual part. We also need to be constantly learning new things. Learning doesn’t have to stop after college. When we were younger, we were learning all the time, we thought nothing of learning new things or trying new things. So much of what we do becomes routine because we do it every day. Driving, brushing our teeth, even our work can become routine, maybe we do the same things with the same people, going to the same places even for vacation we will do the same thing. It’s comfortable and we know how it is going to make us feel.
I have to say there have been many times where I wasn’t excited about going somewhere because I didn’t know several of the people that would be there, only to find that I thoroughly enjoyed talking to someone new. It happened just this last week. Wonderful conversation about interesting topics is another way to wake up that frontal lobe.
It’s exciting to me to know that we don’t have to settle for just that normal aging brain, we can actually stimulate new brain cells by exercising our mental muscles! I knew I loved to learn and try new things, but I honestly didn’t realize how important it is to the actual development of your brain.
My challenge to you this week is to take a look at your weekly routine. Are there things you can do to throw a new experience in there? Take a different route to work? Try a new restaurant? Is there something you have been wanting to learn or a class you want to take? Sign up for it. Maybe a new yoga class or a language class. It really can be that easy to fire up that front part of the brain and make you feel more excited about your life. Who knew the life of your dreams actually IS just outside your comfort zone. It’s never too late and you are never too old. I love you guys and I will talk to you in a few days!
