.......... especially now that you're Older??
The truth is everyone forgot things & information when they were 11, 23, and 36 years old – they simply don’t remember. Now it’s a big deal. “Somebody” has made it a big deal – and I won’t point fingers, because whoever ‘they’ are – they’re not wrong they’re average.
Good news alert: The once long-held alarming view that 40% of brain cells are ‘lost’ has been reversed. Hurray! That’s one more fear thought, which seriously terrified millions of folks, we can promptly toss away. Now scientists confirm that our brains continue to develop through and beyond middle age. And what’s ‘middle-age’? That too is a matter of opinion. It’s been altered/ adjusted. Now they’re saying the span is from 40 years of age into the late 60’s.
Can’t remember what you had for breakfast yesterday? So what! It’s a triviality compared to your mental health. Yah, and here come those But’s: but remembering is part of my mental health; but I last week I couldn’t remember what the boss asked me to do; but yesterday I bought some fish at the market and can’t find it, etc.
A couple of months ago my sister and I were talking about our Father’s funeral, and she mentioned something I had no recollection of – no recollection whatsoever. Does that mean I’m going to worry, be mindful of all the times I forget, start keeping track of them, and start diagnosing? NO. NO. NO. Absolutely NOT.
By the way: Using labels such as ‘absent-minded’ and ‘scatterbrained’ are a form of attaching danger and diagnosing. Those are insecure thoughts.
Sorry – I refuse to attach danger to forgetting a name, a date, a specific word, something someone else remembers about an occasion, a very close friend’s birthday several years in a row, or anything else. Period. Exclamation point!
My rationale:
1. It’s AVERAGE to forget.
2. I’ve got a lot more information tucked in my brain today than I had when I was 35. That thought is realistic, and because it’s realistic, a fact, it’s also a secure thought.
Another fact: secure thoughts cancel out insecure thoughts. Always.
I guarantee you: the more you worry about forgetting, the more forgetful you’ll notice yourself becoming. Why? Because your mind is occupied/busy with fear thoughts, and what you’re trying to remember can’t come through.
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And now I’m laughing… while writing this piece I took a break to check email. Received one from a friend I had dinner with in mid December. He was away, traveling over the holidays. Here’s part of his note: “I think I told you at our dinner that I would try to get some info for you. Not only did I fail to do so, I forgot what I was to obtain. Can you remind me?”
And here’s the humorous part of my side of it: I don’t remember, so I can’t remind him. The best I can come up with is that it ‘might’ be about a spiritual book he was reading or had heard about. But, I’m ‘not sure’ of that either. Maybe something will ‘ring-a-bell’ and maybe I will remember. And if I don’t, that’s OK too. TOTALLY OK.
My Supreme Goal is MY mental health, which to me means being
At Ease & In Control. Right now.
© 2010 Rose VanSickle ~ All rights reserved
