Learning has healed my brain
28th February 2006
Kathy Sierra says it’s important to blow your mind on a regular basis. Well, she just blew mine with a post about neurogenesis and the discoveries that learning heals the brain.
You see, this month, as I think back on the DRI work, I can tell that my mind has healed. Really. I can almost feel it. I couldn’t put it into words until I read her post, but that is what I gained this month: a healthy mind.
In January, I thought I had just gotten tired of software, or Microsoft, or something. But I couldn’t articulate anything else I would rather do. I know that the first step in achieving something is to know what you want, but I had no goals, no dreams, and no visions of what I might want to do. My mind was dull and lifeless. I had never experienced this emptiness before.
What had happened to me?
I worked hard this month and I learned while I did it. That combination of duty and learning sparked some kind of renewal inside me. The flurry of ideas and projects and possibilities that have always been my constant companions are back in full force and I’m acting on them.
For something that I dreaded so much, the DRI work has been an absolute blessing to me. Hawai`i was transformative in one way, but I wasn’t ready to learn what it had to teach me: the lesson was incomplete. But I’m ready now. As I re-evaluate that experience, I’ll be writing about it here.