COLUMN: Brain-smart remarks

I have reached the age where I sometimes reflect on my entrenched habits. Some I consider good, while others are simply bad habits.

The habit I can best skip these days, when the stakes are lowest, is to avoid going to the gym or doing yoga exercises because it is Easter. I have learned to sleep late, and a day off should be enjoyed and blah blah.

That habit probably needs to be retired. It is a leg brace that wants something, I say to myself a little reproachfully.

There are so many like that. We are creatures of habit. For example, I have always thought and tried to live by that I should have better habits and activate my inner “Dalai Lama”, as some say.

That means finding peace and being more observant instead of being judgmental – that is, getting away from: “I’m right, and you’re an idiot!”. I console myself by repeating to myself that practice makes perfect.

Brain-smart habits

I recently read an interview with Anette Prehn. She is a Danish sociologist and author of a book titled “Brain-smart habits”.

Her surprising point in the book is that emotions are also habits, and she mentions, among other things, that we may often have “trampled a wide path of wrongdoing in the brain”.

What most people do when the feeling of wrongdoing arises is to look for someone to blame for it.

We automatically start to scold our partner or colleague for being critical or for not giving us enough attention.

But when we scold others for something we feel inside, we end up on another familiar path: the path of blame, which for many of us is as wide as a highway, she explains.

You know that one well. There are many beliefs or assumptions in these times that point to this feeling of wrongness.

For example, are we green enough? Or Greenlanders enough? How do we feel about plastic waste and cigarette butts? Who is to blame for trauma and misery?

Amygdala scars

The explanation has a name, Anette Prehn happily says, and it is called “Amygdala scars,” and the word is an expression of thinking brain-stupidly, which we all apparently tend to do, more or less.

Amygdala scars are the brain’s fear center, and once it is active, it is difficult to think rationally or tread new paths.

Now the ten is probably falling.

Back to real habits: I have smoked for many years and tried to get rid of this habit. Gave up, tried again – for a long time.

Today I can say that it is great to get rid of the urge to smoke and become smoke-free. Finally you can walk or run a long distance without getting bloated or short of breath. Finally I could also get rid of the bad smell.

This way you can list both. But one thing is good for me, who is on my way to a life as a pensioner, namely that I can ask myself where I want to be in 10 years.

I then come to the realization that my dreams of living 10 more years require some healthier habits and a little more joy in life.