Dear Hruday and Nayna,
‘Electro-chemical reactions’ are what I want to talk to you about!! Now don’t get all worried that I’m going to take a science lesson. 🤓
Electro-chemical reactions are nothing but your thoughts! Your brain creates thoughts, day in and day out, even when you are sleeping! For example, when you see a bird, your brain with its 100 billion neurons (nerve cells) and trillions of connections is probably already thinking about flying or planes! Or perhaps even about painting it or the movie ‘Rio’!! While I am writing this my neurons are already forming the next sentence, rummaging through the various other things I have thought of writing about.
To put it simply, the workings of our brain is a complex thing that no one has truly understood. Not even the smartest of scientists or the wisest of wise men. But we know how to use it! And that makes us real powerful.
While you watch TV, YouTube videos or playing video games, you are using your brain extremely sparingly - probably only 1/1000th of what your brain is capable of doing. The visual brilliance holds your interest; but that’s it. The video games may tickle a minuscule part of your brain to work and plan the next move; giving you the pleasure of being a magnificent creator or controller of things for those few minutes. But when the game ends, that’s what it is. The End. Someone else has imagined it and made the attention grabbing video game for you. You are just a player. Somebody has done all the thinking and filmed the video in such a way that you might like it. You just watched it and used one tiny, tiny part of your brain.
Tell me something, how do you feel when you finish making a Lego from scratch without looking at the instructions? Or after you make a birthday card for a friend with just some coloured paper and colouring pencils? When the teacher asks you to write in your own words about the Sri lankan holiday that you just came back from; you write an interesting article, knowing that it is going to make her smile. Don’t you feel a special happiness?
I hope you do. Because that’s the happiness of creating something new. And that uses a whole lot of your brain’s capacity. That’s what a person’s brain is meant to be doing; really working it! Using all its neurons and it’s complex connections to create things. To learn. To add more connections. It’s a bit like rummaging through a gigantic laundry basket to find that missing pair of socks... and finding it!
Next time you see a bird I hope you will think of flying, planes, painting, the movie ‘Rio’, this article that I wrote specially for you two, making a video game about birds perhaps, maybe making a birthday card in the shape of a bird, a Lego eagle soaring in the skies as vast as your brain, and many many other things. That is what I wish for you my children. Exploring the world of possibilities within your head.
Ditch the easy way out. Let’s make sure that our brain works real hard for us!
Love,
Amma
