Staying still is impossible: as soon as a person stops moving forward, he starts moving in the opposite direction. It often happens that people (especially with age) notice that, for example, it is more and more difficult to take on work that requires concentration, learning new skills, or which is simply unusual. Increasingly, they are thinking about the issues of self-development and how to stop degrading. Spoiler: reading your favorite writers and magazines, your native language, your favorite cafes and movies, working in a familiar profession and hanging out with old friends all lead to degradation.
About degradation
Many psychologists do not recognize the use of the term "degradation" in relation to personality. However, this does not prevent the phenomenon from being: sometimes people at first slowly, and then more and more quickly slide down an inclined life. In general, this is a decline. To lose valuable qualities is what it means to degrade.
The brain and man have something in common - they are both lazy. They try to reduce energy costs for any activity by creating original programs that follow a pattern. According to biologist Richard Simone, these programs are called engrams, a physical habit or memory trace from repeated exposure to a stimulus.
If you dream up, you can see engrams in the form of paths that neurons lay in the brain, doing the same action. Runs longer, uses less energy. Sometimes the paths become roads, and then entire highways. And this is a great superpower, but only on the one hand. The other side of the coin is reduced brain plasticity.
The longer people use engrams, the less the basal ganglia function. And their main function is the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, an assistant to neurons in the passage of new paths among informational noise (this is approximately what happens after reading this paragraph).
It is enough to remember the way to school or to work. As a rule, people walk or drive along the same route. And if the latter is more than six months old, the “autopilot” turns on, and in parallel with walking or driving, people can already listen to music, read or respond to messages. It is quite difficult for a best friend to hide concern behind a smile, just as it is easy for a person who communicates with him to decipher such communication signals. The same thing happens with the menu at your favorite restaurant.
And it seems that there is no point in changing all this. But life is a continuous source of change (reduction, falling in love withSpanish, new tasks at work), most of which are not controlled by people. You have to adapt to them and this is a matter of survival.
This is why brain plasticity needs to be maintained and trained. You can imagine the brain as concrete, which after a certain period of time will harden. And you can also look at the old people who are not able to send SMS, do not perceive the new and prefer the same type of actions year after year. To cope with degradation, you need to constantly stir the mixture in your head, in no case allowing it to harden.
Signs and causes
In order to understand how to stop degrading and begin to develop, it is very important to understand the causes and symptoms of the phenomenon. Signs can be varied and related to all aspects of life:
- Decreased interest in the lives of loved ones.
- Loss of communication and social skills. A person does not want to communicate as before, and if he decides to make contact, then his quality is unsatisfactory for any participant. Most of all, a degrading personality avoids communication with those who point out mistakes and talk about the importance of changing life.
- Deterioration of intellectual abilities, as well as a cooling of interest in reading and learning, learning new things.
- Loss of interest in work, even if it used to be a favorite thing.
- Poverty of vocabulary, speech mainly consists of parasitic words and obscene expressions, and answers are monosyllabic.
- Clutter at home and/or workplace.
- Negligent attitude towards one's own he alth and the well-being of others.
- An abundance of laziness, irresponsibility, indifference. Absentmindedness, irritability, fears, pessimism and lies.
- Bad appearance. Such people stop taking care of personal hygiene and cleanliness of clothes, do not cut their hair on time, and so on.
- The appearance or aggravation of bad habits, questionable connections, gambling, a tendency to criminal acts.
A person may have all of the symptoms, most of them, or just one. Important: all signs individually do not necessarily indicate degradation. For example, a person who works in the field of trade may well get tired of people during the day and need time alone with himself. Writers who are passionate about the book (or other representatives of creative professions and people who are simply in love with their work) can forget about appearance in the process of work. Degradation can also be confused with burnout and vacation needs.
There can be many reasons too. Some of them:
- All kinds of addictions (gaming, alcohol or drugs).
- New circumstances to which a person is not yet accustomed. For example, this happens after retirement. People don't know what to do. Some never find suitable ways to spend their time and succumb to indifference and laziness.
- Crises (age and other).
- Guilty about doing something.
- A traumatic incident.
- Achievement of the main goal, after which it seems to people that they no longer strive forwhy.
- Mental disorders.
- Loneliness.
Development Methods
There are many ways to start developing intellectually and stop degrading. The most effective of them:
- Foreign languages.
- Personal care.
- Experimenting with smells.
- No repetition.
- Forget about labels.
- New routes.
- No criticism.
- Children or animals.
- Update playlist.
- Communication circle.
Foreign languages
Learning new languages is a great way to stop degrading. Everyone can find their own stimulus for activities, for example, related to hobbies, work or travel. A good motivation is the opportunity to read your favorite author in the original, listen to a musical group or become a polyglot.
Learning other languages is the most effective tool for training brain plasticity, since words and the semantic fields associated with them, as a rule, differ from the native language. This works especially well if you go beyond travel vocabulary and delve into cultural specifics.
Take care of yourself
Action and stops degradation. It implies a feeling of discomfort from all sorts of changes: a favorite magazine has updated its design or a favorite ice cream is missing from the store shelves. It is necessary to seize on this feeling and unwind it. not a bad ideato eliminate degradation will try all types of ice cream or even start making your own.
Experiments with smells
Smells still have a tremendous impact on humans, despite the fact that evolution has deprived the olfactory receptors of paramount importance. It's time to change your favorite perfume that a person prefers to use for years. It is recommended to do this at regular intervals.
No repetitions
Giving up various repetitions is one of the most effective ways to stop the degradation of personality. Psychologists do not recommend rereading previously read books. Even if it's Haruki Murakami's favorite or one of the best books in the history of world literature. Equally, you can not revise already watched series and films (even if it's "Friends" or "Sherlock").
It's a very pleasant and universal feeling to plunge into the cozy and so familiar world of Harry Potter or Max Fry's masterpieces: familiar characters, lack of surprises, knowledge of the ending and the opportunity to enjoy those little things that were missed the first or previous time. But by watching a season in a weekend or gulping down a book in an hour, people rob other literary and cinematic works of the chance to discover something completely new for them. No need to deprive the brain of the formation of alternative neural connections.
Forget labels
One of the significant answers to the question of what to do in order not to degrade is to stop labeling people. Yes, it's very convenient. You don't need to understand the personand the motives of his actions, you can simply succumb to weakness and stigmatize:
- drinks with friends - alcoholic;
- cheated on a guy - a girl of easy virtue;
- mentally ill - dangerous;
- does not say hello - impolite;
- reads cheap detective stories - no taste and so on.
Each person may be pressured by even more life circumstances than the same Rodion Raskolnikov. But many consider his thoughts interesting, and a divorced neighbor with three children something unworthy of attention and vulgar.
New routes
The next popular way to learn from your own experience how to stop degrading is the novelty of routes. The search for new ways is great for developing, it makes sense to reconsider the usual way to work and home, find another supermarket and bookstore, change your favorite billiard club to something new. It may cost time, but it will pay off in other ways - lower prices or fewer people in the establishment.
No criticism
Stop criticizing - that's another way to stop degradation. Negative reviews about new furniture, design or the ending of a novel, overflowing social networks and all kinds of conversations - it's all about resistance to changes that have come so suddenly and at the wrong time in life. As a rule, we are talking about things that people are not able to change. Or they can, but it will require a lot of effort that is simply not worth it. There are more interesting activities than keeping records in bookscomplaints.
If we talk about the benefits for development, then it is advisable to accept the changes and get motivated to continue living in the new reality. This is what it should look like:
- “Road repair? Great, because in a month there will be no more holes here. In the meantime, you can learn something new about the area.”
- "New menu? Super, the old dishes are long gone.”
- "A new work tablet? Why not treat it like a quest instead of being nervous?”
Children or animals
One of the important methods that will help prevent degradation and / or get rid of it. Children are an eternal source of chaos and uncertainty. Children are living "concrete mixers" in the head, they destroy all stereotypes. Sons or daughters bring something new every day with their behavior, questions and experiments. Parents often do not even notice how their thinking is liberated, and they begin to think in a completely different way.
If, however, it is not possible to have children (yet) or there is no desire, then you can try the option with pets. For example, dogs. They need to be walked, and fresh air is good for the brain. Dogs can be just as much of a source of chaos than children. And they involve owners in communication with other dog lovers.
Playlist update
New music is just about how to stop degrading and start living. Scientists can disappoint even music lovers with dozens of thousands of tracks on their playlists. Most often, people listen to 50-100 familiar songs. They are all pleasant for the same reasons - people have adapted to them, and the brain does not need additional resources to process and comprehend these works. But there is so much music in the world that even if you change the radio station every day, life will still not be enough to listen to everything. However, to strive for this is to take care of your own development.
Communication circle
You need to replenish the list of acquaintances and friends in order to learn how to stop degrading and start developing. It's great when you have your own company, with which it's nice to get together every Saturday in your favorite bar (probably the same one) and discuss basketball or new outfits of famous singers. It's about psychological comfort.
But at the same time, most people live in big cities and it is absolutely not clear why limit your social circle to 5-6 people. By the way, most often people do not choose their comrades themselves, they are imposed by geography, school, higher educational institution, work.
Man is a product of the environment. Society has a very strong influence on people and often they change because of friends not only their opinions and interests, but even such significant nuances as their occupation. Is it worth talking about the influence of the social circle on the way of thinking?!
Unfortunately, degradation is an almost universal problem, and many people are concerned about the question of how to stop degrading. The most important thing to do for your salvation and development is action. There are many ways to stop the process of decline. Among the most common and effective is the study of foreignlanguages, experiments with flavors, avoiding repetition, labels and criticism, new roads, animals or children, updating the list of friends and playlist.
