I have mentioned before my desire to become a nicer, kinder person. I also would like to have a more positive outlook on life in general. I used to be quite a bit nicer and I think that the lecture I had in behavioral sciences today can help explain what changed and how to change things back.
The brain is scalable. Since brain matter is so costly to an organism the animal can choose to reduce the size of the brain physically when it's not in use. However we relearn faster and the brain will return to it's previous state rapidly if stimulated correctly. The thing I need to do to return my brain to the happier Rory of yesteryear is to look at the stimuli that I was receiving and try to repeat and possibly even intensify the stimulation.
Back when I was younger I drew, studied, read, watched TV, played games, played music and exercised much more than I do now. These are a range of cognitive activities that developed my brain in various directions.
Now days I rarely draw, study, read or play music and the exercise I take part in is sporadic, unstructured and highly irregular. What I need to do to develop my mind is to return to a situation where I perform these tasks. It seems from here that I don't have enough hours to do all these things but that is because the things I do to spend my time at the moment expand to fill the time. I watch far too much TV, play games for extended periods of time and waste hours every night online and on the computer. I need a schedule and I need to work to it. I'm not sure if a simple daily diary would be enough to make me stick to the tasks but its worth a shot. Tomorrow I will buy a pocket notebook and fill it out for the next week in order to test the theory. I will have to use trial and error to figure out the best way to schedule all these tasks and still live in a way that can cope with reality and the risk of plans falling through. I will have to donate evenings to reading, drawing and playing either guitar or keyboard as well as taking up a regular and realistic exercise regimen. I also need to factor in study, lectures and socializing to prevent myself going in the wrong direction. I feel that the wasted hours of breaks I have in college are the key to this. Perhaps I could even bring art supplies or instruments as well as books to college so I can use the hours for things other than study and exercise.
Well I'm rambling now and its rather late so I'm going to sleep. Got a big day ahead of me tomorrow, I'm changing my life (hopefully!)
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