Why Do Small Questions Matter?

Boredom of the brain is rampant. If you repeat the same thing over and over, your brain shuts off unless you are paying attention. The repetition of scales on a piano gets you nowhere unless you pay attention to playing scales well. Practice for the sake of practice is almost useless. Your brain is bored.

However, if you ask your brain small, not big-frightening questions, it perks up. Brains like to play. When you go to work today, write down what you had for breakfast yesterday. You probably won’t remember it the first few times, but after a couple of days, your short term memory will begin reminding you at the time of the breakfast today that tomorrow you will need to write down that breakfast.

That’s the hippocampus (not a hippopotamus) working. It stores short term memory, and helps us retrieve information when we are learning new skills, technical terms, or how to juggle. It’s small, non-threatening repetition, with attention. Asking for seventeen numbers in order is tough. Asking for three numbers isn’t. Threat versus non-threat. Your brain loves questions because it is stimulating, novel, and new. It responds by forming new neurons, thus keeping your brain active, and young.

We respond to small, non threatening questions, but not statements. The color of your shirt is blue (as a statement) does not elicit much interest. However, if we ask a question, we get an interested, activated, and thinking  brain. Quick. Close your eyes. What color is your shirt?

You have to think. Your brain engages in play. Telling a child something (the dog is under the bed) gets that bored-child-ho-hum look. However, where is the dog, engages the child. They have a better perception of you because questions indicate caring attitudes. A person who doesn’t care will ask no questions.

We respond to questions, take more responsibility, and are likely to change our behavior more so than not. I know that I should exercise more is a statement that we recite and ignore. What is something that I could do for one minute, or three, that moves my body and exercises some part of it? We respond to that. After it, it is only one minute, or three.

We form a habit that we repeat, because it is simple and short. We might repeat it two, three, or four times a day, thus increasing our sense of mobility. It’s small and quick. Instant result. The more we move, the better we feel, and the more we want to move.

Mobility starts in the brain, like everything else. Really, it’s all about the brain. The more engaged the brain, the better the mobility, the stronger the balance, the more fun the aging process. Because you can do more things with no pain, stiffness, or fear. Forever.

That’s Aging Intelligently