Use it or Lose It

Use it or lose it!! How many times have we heard that phrase. I am not sure lose it is the right way to end it but there is no catchy phrase for atrophy. We don’t really lose it we just lose some functionality in either our physical or mental state if we don’t use it. This goes back to the fact that in life if you don’t keep moving forward you aren’t standing still you are going backwards. It might seem like you are not moving but everything else is, so by resting for too long we lose ground. Don’t use one arm for 30 days and watch how it deteriorates. Did you ever see someone’ arm or leg after being casted for a long time? The muscles shrink. Atrophy. Now apply this all to your mind and life. Lifelong learner isn’t some quaint saying but a vital part of your existence. If you don’t use your mind you lose your mind. Literally. Scientist have shown that we create new pathways when we learn something. Channels of memory coin our minds that work to automate what we learned so that we don’t have to worry about it. The mind is the ultimate automation machine. It Cretes routine out of what it is shown when those cows are repeated. In other words it creates habits. And if we stop learning we just continually live the same habits over and over again. This is why so many people fail at these fad diets out there. Yes they have success but they know in their mind they won’t be able to do it forever. So they trick their mind into doing it until the pressure is off. Then once the weight comes off they return to the old habits. The science on all of this is amazing. Our body is smaller when we lose weight therefore it burns less calories and when we return to our old eating “habits” it can be almost triple the calories we need once the weight is gone. So we yo-yo and the cycle continues. It's time to begin learning again

Here’s today’s message,

If you don’t use it, you do lose it, but you can get it back and make it better.