So Reader, this really happened to me. And Iâm not making it up.
In 2016, I purchased a book named The Prophet. Mostly because I had heard a lot about the author Kahlil Gibran. In fact, during my schooling, we had a Gujarati-translated prose from this book.
So, I thought to myself alright, now Iâm fluent in English, letâs read the original.
When Flipkart delivered the copy to me, I opened it.
Andd, I just couldnât understand what the author was saying.đ It was one of those moments where the critics appreciated some movie, but you watch it and wonder what exactly they found worthy of acclaim.
â©Fast forward to late 2020.
Out of boredom, I picked up the same copy from my closet.
And started flipping through it.
Instantly, it became my Geeta. My heartwarming home to retire. And I seriously believe that the spirit of the Universe has spoken through Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet.
But how did this happen?
How did an incomprehensible piece of text transform into a sacred home for me? Someone who couldnât even gather the meaning in 2016.
Brain changed
In the period of 4 years, due to constant practice and reading abstract topics in English, the composition of the brain changed. It changed to fit the abstract content and make sense of it.
Now, that’s not my pet theory (though I have a hundred of such theories, this is not one of them)
Letâs see what I mean.
The Backwards Brain Bicycle
8 years ago Destin from the YouTube channel SmarterEveryday posted this incredible video of his brain transformation.
Watch this video and come back. (Duration: 07 minutes 57 seconds)
If you donât get to watch the video, hereâs the summary (but hey, the video is much more fun than this):
- Destin introduces a special kind of bicycle: a backward bicycle. Turning the handlebars left makes the wheel go right and vice versa
- He fails to ride the bicycle no matter what technique he uses
- But, after 8 months of practice, he can ride the backward bicycle
- His 6-year-old son learns to ride in just 2 weeks!
- When Destin tries to ride a normal bicycle, he can not. Although he eventually learns it in 20 minutes
- Watch the fun video with people attempting to ride the backward bicycle
Destin is right, itâs neuroplasticity
When Destin and his son learned to ride the backwards cycle, they literally created new neural networks in their brain.
This process is called neuroplasticity. This is the same process that makes us learn anything: from hard skills to soft skills.
Let me share another great story where people have learned outstanding skills by literally shaping their brain.
The PolgĂĄr sisters: chess prodigies
The PolgĂĄr sisters were part of an educational experiment by their father LĂĄszlĂł PolgĂĄr. Being an educational psychologist, he and his wife decided to test their belief that âGeniuses are made, not bornâ.
They married and provided their three daughters nothing but chess education. No Barbie dolls, toys, or other distractions. Just chess.
Two sisters earned the title of Grand Master and the third one earned Woman Grand Master at a very young age.
Of course, we donât need to drop everything we are doingâŠ
âŠand become a chess grandmaster, or learn that weird backward bicycle.
â
The point isâŠ
The point isâŠ.
The point is that we can change our brain tissues.
We can learn anything.
Literally, anything in the world.
Remember my letter Do you look at the keyboard while typing? I assure you, I have seen neuroplasticity in action. My fingers rhythming on the keyboard week after week, month after month, and nowâŠjust typing as I think.
Have you experienced the feeling of learning?
Anything, no matter how tiny or big.
Learning cursive writing, or embroidering or a tiny software or coding orâŠjust anything.
Hit Reply and share it with me.
Reads of the week:
In this New York Times guest essay, clinical psychologist Dr. Saxbe argues that the wide-scale launch of mental health awareness and mitigation programs after Covid are not only unhelpful, but theyâre damaging.
Dr. Saxbeâs essay affirms my personal experience of dealing with people around me and my observations over the past three years.
Teenagers are feeling triggered due to some of the most normal occurrences of life. The problem is the internet exposure. When you learn that so-and-so discomfort is called anxiety, you start labeling incidents that would have been otherwise labeled normal.
Thatâs called the âhammer and nailâ approach. To a man who is holding a hammer, everything else looks like a nail.
Nowadays, most of the articles provide âTWâ (Trigger Warning). Iâm no exception. When I shared the draft of my May 2020 article In for collateral damage? Anyone? One of my closest friends advised me to add a trigger warning. It is still there. But I donât think thatâs the best decision.