Reflections From A Chair

Stuck in a rut? There is new research that explains how, under high stress loads, the brain prefers habits and routines over new learning. The New York Times published an article about this study titled “Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop” on August 17.

In the rats studied, “regions of the brain associated with executive decision-making and goal-directed behaviors had shriveled, while, conversely, brain sectors linked to habit formation had bloomed.”

These neurological changes can evidently be reversed: “with only four weeks’ vacation in a supportive setting…the formerly stressed rats looked just like the controls…”

So if you’re under a lot of stress and keep repeating the same behaviors, getting the same frustrating results, then take a lesson from these rats. The answer may lie in putting the problem aside for a while. Take a break and give the brain time to regenerate “atrophied synaptic connections in the decisive regions of the prefrontal cortex…” Then you can approach the problem from a fresh and hopefully more effective perspective.