If you have noticed your memory isn’t what it used to be, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get busy. Your brain may need an energy boost to perform better for you in 2020.
The good news is that you already have a major source of rejuvenating energy within you. Sharing the wisdom from your decades of life experience can boost your health and longevity.
Group of laughing seniors in a coffeehouse
Human beings have won the evolutionary lottery when it comes to longevity. We can live upwards of 80-100 years or more, decades longer than other highly intelligent, social mammals. For example, chimpanzees live 40-50 years, dolphins live 40-60 years, and elephants live 60-70 years.
Why do we live so long? As the 20th century psychologist Carl Jung pointed out, “The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.” A human being would not grow to be seventy, eighty, ninety or 120 years old if this longevity had no meaning for the human species.
Wisdom arises from our life story
Wisdom is the quality of having experience, applying knowledge, and using good judgment for the common good, be it a relationship, family, or society. Our wisdom flows from our memories of life experience as we search for belonging and love from cradle to grave.
Wise elders have helped groups make adaptive decisions to get through tough times and avoid self-destructive violence. Sharing wisdom also keeps elders learning from others of all ages and remaining young at heart.
As far as our brain is concerned, survival is the ultimate success. Our life story tells the tale of how we have managed to survive, first and foremost. How did we navigate through the manic highs and depressive lows of the human condition to hang in there year after year?
Sharing wisdom improves health and survival
But it is not just personal survival that our brains aspire to. The survival of the people we love and the groups we belong to also matter to our brain. And how well we survive matters too: we want to thrive, not just barely survive.
The link between our personal story and these survival interests is the sharing of wisdom. Wisdom is the driver of our ability to survive and thrive as unique individuals in groups.
If we mind the glory of our story—our wisdom—we matter to ourselves and others. In a biochemical triumph of “mind over matter,” pro-social hormones in the brain and gut generate powerful antioxidants that reduce inflammation and promote resilience. The high-energy default network, which generates our story and our wisdom, invigorates the brain. We survive and thrive.
So the human species’ winning formula for rejuvenation over age 40 is: more days, more experiences, more neuroplasticity, more memories, more wisdom to share, more social utility. Being useful to other people as we get older brings more meaning, more smiling, more vitality, less oxidative stress, less inflammation, more years of life.
Six ways to share your wisdom
This wisdom-making work is never finished if we want to have a story and a brain that keep getting better with age. In addition to sharing wisdom within your family, some of your best opportunities for sharing wisdom include:
- Volunteering with one-on-one interaction
- Serving on a committee
- Getting involved with multi-generational activities
- Writing about your life experiences as part of a writing group
- Participating in a discussion group
- Having a meaningful conversation with neighbors and friends
To rejuvenate your brain and improve your memory, find new ways to share your wisdom and matter to others in 2020.
