Personal Growth and Purpose: 2 Keys To Preserving Brain Health

Illustration by The Epoch Times

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.

New research links a lack of personal growth and loss of purpose with a downward slide towards dementia, reports Susan C. Olmstead.

The 14-year-long study published in the BMJ’s Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry followed 910 people to see how they fared across six key markers of psychological well-being:

• Self-acceptance
• Autonomy
• Environmental mastery
• Purpose in life
• Positive relationships with others
• Personal growth

The researchers found that two years before a subset of study participants were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, they suffered a general decline in psychological well-being across these markers.

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.

Research from Washington University suggests that a sense of purpose can also help us ward off loneliness, which is linked to dementia. That is in part because purpose often drives us to connect with others, but researchers say having a sense of purpose itself can drive away feelings of loneliness. People who live a life they see as purposeful are also less likely to fall ill, or have a stroke.

While research on treating dementia, and specifically Alzheimer’s disease, tends to focus on the role of brain plaques formed by amyloid and tau proteins, several studies have challenged this link, reports neuroscience researcher Stephanie Zhang. That may give us more reason to focus on our character as a primary factor in how our mind will fare as we age. It makes sense that how we use our mind, and to what extent we challenge ourselves, could be the defining factor in whether our minds stay sharp and capable as we age.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.