I’ve lived with my brain for a few decades at this point, and it’s served me reasonably well. I sort of take it for granted though—don’t you? Lately I’ve been getting to know it better, and I wish I’d done it sooner.
You have but one brain (as most or all of us do) and it has to last your entire life. If you’re lucky, that life will be long, and if you’re even luckier your mind will stick around and serve you right until the very end.
It’s easy to think your brain just “works how it works”, but we could say the same for our eyes—and I know many people who wear glasses (myself included). We never tell folks to be “optically tougher.”
When it comes to our mind though, we often do the equivalent. We throw some negative self-talk at it and expect it to simply improve.
“Just suck it up.”
“Be mentally tougher.”
“Power through it again.”
“Stop being so weak; stupid etc.”
I saw a post on Threads recently that summed up this sentiment pretty well (and whilst it was a joke, it seemed to resonate with a lot of folks—me included). In case that link dies, the post read:
Me, to my nervous system: “Regulate you fucking fuck.”
Sometimes, we really do just try to will it to be. We get mad that our mind isn’t working the way we want it to, and then we get mad because we’re mad. You might be thinking that there must be a better way.
It turns out that there is, and it starts by taking your mind seriously and then being serious about your mind. Your specific journey is your own to embark on, but I can fully endorse embarking on it.
We have but one brain, and we deserve it to be in the best condition that it can be. To serve us as best it can. To treat it as best we can. I’ll write more about my journey some day, but I’m glad that I started it.