The Wonder of Childhood
The Wonder of Childhood
By: Dr. Roger Landry, MD, MPH
Never forget the wonder of childhood. The more we remain childlike (not “childish”) – where we’re learning new things, exploring and growing – that’s how we stay healthy and make life interesting!
In childhood, we heard the admonition to “act our age.” But for the older adult, it’s time to reconsider. Acting our age is too restrictive and based on faulty assumptions and an unenlightened view of aging. To age successfully requires us to never act our age. This includes not letting anyone else set expectations for our aging. Instead, we need to keep growing in all aspects of our lives. Consider what author and anthropologist Margaret Mead told us she did on her own aging journey: “I was wise enough to never grow up, while fooling most people into believing I had.”
In today’s hectic and competitive world, one that our ancestors could have never dreamed of, fear is self-inflicted and chronic, the by-product of our mind running rampant, chattering and creating virtual fearful situations … fear of failure, injury, sickness, loss, humiliation, pain or loss of status.
You see, we humans inherited a magnificent ability to respond to life-threatening situations through our “Fight or Flight ” response triggered in the amygdala of our brains. Great, great, great-grandpa Bruno is walking along and a lion jumps in his path. His body is immediately flooded with substances that make him able to perform like he’d been in boot camp all his life. He has strength and speed he didn’t have a few seconds ago, and he can either take down the lion or try to outrun him. Grandpa survives, and you’re here today because he did.
In his book, One Small Step Can Change Your Life, Dr. Robert Maurer discusses the two factors that hinder our ability to effectively change: 1) our innate “Fight or Flight” response and 2) our culture’s tendency to only value large change. To counter this, he advocates kaizen, the Japanese technique for making small changes – small enough where they do not trigger the amygdala.
The truth is that small steps lead to great change. When you observe nature in its slow and steady progress toward growth, you’ll understand that baby steps are enough.
Live long. Live well!