Personal Growth and Purpose: 2 Keys To Preserving Brain Health

You hear a lot of talk about “chasing your passion” but growth and purpose are the stuff that a substantial life is really built on—and research suggests they may be key to protecting the brain and living well.
A year before this general drop, however, these same people reported lower levels in their sense of purpose. And 3 years before that, they reported lower levels of personal growth.
While the research does not show causation, only a correlation, the implications are worth reflecting on. The suggestion is that when we stop growing as people, we also lose our sense of purpose. We then suffer a general decline in well-being, and our minds begin to deteriorate.
Olmstead reports that the researchers hypothesized that personal growth and purpose in life “may be more cognitively demanding than other components of well-being, and therefore may serve as more sensitive indicators of cognitive aging.”
But what if one of the core purposes of being human is to grow? And if we stop growing, would that not lead to us to feel a loss of purpose?
And if one of our core purposes as human beings is to grow, it would raise the question of how we grow. Growth can refer to skills, abilities, and the cultivation of mind. The latter is harder to achieve.
Those measures of psychological well-being listed above certainly provide some good parameters of how to grow, so do the sages and great spiritual leaders of history. Many of them have told us to cultivate virtues like compassion, fortitude, forgiveness, honesty, and patience.
While I try to make a point of learning new skills each year, from home electrical to animation, my deepest day-to-day sense of growth comes from the ability to better control my thoughts and emotions. Growth in these areas changes how I react to everyday situations and every social interaction.