What pleases you

What pleases you? 

It could be a question or it could be a command fragment. It might be other things. Do what pleases you as soon as is possible. For as long as possible. Your brain will love you for it. Your brain and therefore the rest of you, too.

Today is the day after I wrote about Mark, the Marine vet that’s watching over his blind, 94 year old mother, guess who boarded the shuttle? Ruth.

Ruth has been in nursing for 25 years and specializing at the Neurosciences Center at Froedtert Hospital for the last six years. She specializes in caring for people with memory disorders due to stroke and Alzheimer’s. Endlessly fascinating.

Mostly we talked about caregivers not getting enough care on their own and the very wide gap in services specific to having too much in the way of assets in order to get help. You can be poor and get a reasonably fine quality of assistance but if you have a little too much you don't get any help at all. I did tell her about the number of people that I meet who are doing these things and how often this is spoken of in this shuttle space.

Help at Interfaith.

And so she said she has a friend whose husband retired and he was looking for a little something to do and her friend was also going to retire in a year and wondered what to do and Ruth says it is best to do what pleases you; neurologically best.

Do what pleases you as soon as you can. The people that retire early are most at risk for cognitive degeneration. The people who are angry, negative, and pessimistic are at most at risk for brain disorders. The people who are happy and busy and engaged have a better chance of long-term brain health.

I did tell her about Jeanette that I met yesterday; 87, driving, cooking, baking and winning big at bingo. Go Jeanette.

And we’ve all heard it before … but it sounds so much more real coming from a real practitioner in a face-to-face place that is delivered in a non-stressful way. In other words, it’s not too late for me to hear about me … just saying’.

Ruth was telling her friend who is going to retire soon that she met a guy who's been doing things right … or maybe she met somebody from the dealership who's active and retired and has a job and is writing books. Ruth is not quite sure.

"I think that might be me you’re talking about.” I said.

Yes: brain games, puzzles, music, socialization, yoga, but most specifically more general exercise. More for the body. It is not all about the mind.

This ‘do what pleases you' reminds me of the heart/brain specialist at the VA who said that reducing as much stress as possible (naturally) will add to the quality and quantity of your days.

And this also speaks to a recent second favorite book; The Power of Full Engagement by James Loehr. Loehr is a sports psychologist consulting on peak performance.

Hard work? Yes. Play and rest, too? Yes, absolutely. Without the full spectrum of work, play and rest there is no peak performance.

Mind you …let’s not start meditating just because management says it’s good for the minions. And let us not wait for retirement. Let us move toward the joy … now.

Less stress. More fun. On purpose. For you. Yes, you.