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

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.

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.

Our brains do not have to be fixed, they can be plastic.

People tend to slip up and go along the old road before they realise what they've done and climb out of it again.

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

We don't have to have suffered brain damage to take advantage of the plastic nature of our brains.