I am talking about being optimistic enough to sow some seeds in the hope that some of them will germinate and grow into flowers.

The extreme of flexibility is chaos and the extreme of being structured is rigid and staying sane, or indeed using your creativity, is about being aware of these extremes and steering yourself to areas where you work best which usually tend to be more in the middle than at either extreme edge.

As we get older it is our short term memory that fades rather than our long term memory. Perhaps we have evolved like this so that we are able to tell the younger generation about the stories and experiences that have formed us which may be important to subsequent generations if they are to thrive.I worry though, about what might happen to our minds if most of the stories we hear are about greed, war, and atrocity

If someone is depressed they tend to retreat within the inner circle of their comfort zone which in the longer term, may contribute to exacerbating a problem rather than soothing it and if not seeking to expand the comfort zone becomes the norm.

If we keep practicing mental skills it is likely we can strengthen neural connections and make new connections.

In order to stretch ourselves we do need to experience the vulnerability of not knowing the outcome.

If we think of our brains as a map, those early roads are like grooves, tram tracks, easy to fall into.