Summer’s Over- Back to Work!

Time to get moving….

I took 3 months off of my blog (to be clear… I did not get the summer off…full time case load but no workshops, no writing.) After 9 years, I needed some time to clear my head, some space to think things through without sharing… not my usual MO at all. I missed you all. Weirdly being alone in my head doesn’t make things easier. Maybe I just needed to be reminded that writing is good for me.

I’ll catch you all up on my deep thoughts and life transformations throughout the coming weeks. I feel like I am hitting midlife…which means I am intending to live to be 108 and will not be able to retire until at least 2040 so hang with me. That’s a lot of blog posts.

I was explaining teen brains to a client last week. The research says that their brains calculate risks, decisions much the way we adults do except that in the balance of risk/benefit, they attend strongly to novelty and pleasure and less to potential costs. As we age, we focus more strongly on the risks and minimize the potential for pleasure.

Think about it. If your BFF called and said “Hey, a bunch of us are going out tonight- downtown 9pm, come on, it will be great!” The calculation looks like parking and cost and out too late and how will I feel tomorrow and that isn’t what I thought I was doing tonight and who’s going and will I really have fun? 10-20 years ago, the same details would have been met with “SURE!” Nothing about the facts is actually that different… ok, maybe now you’d have to get a sitter… or check with your partner and no way can you sleep in tomorrow… but you get it. As we age, we avoid novelty, change and often opportunities for fun and connection.  Better safe than sorry.

For this second half of life… I am working on increasing my receptivity to risk/pleasure, my focus on growth over stability and relationships over Netflicks.  

I expect to fall more, look stupid, make mistakes, hurt people’s feelings, apologize a lot and suffer enormous confusion. I just love September.

Maureen