A Constant Leg-Up Program

I had some really strange Hive dreams last night - and when I woke up it reminded me of when I used to game a lot. Back then, I would spend so much time in front of Ghost Recon, that I would close my eyes and see crosshairs in my vision. However, I haven't been Hiving as much as I normally do the last few days, as I am unable to concentrate for long periods of time on pretty much anything. I have turned into a goldfish.

Plus, my eyes can get a bit tired, which means that after writing a post, which takes me a fair bit longer than before, I don't have the ability to jump straight back into replies. I still plan on getting to them all, but I hope people will be patient. It is good for me not to avoid these things though, as it is useful (I believe) for my recovery also.

With mild strokes, the advice is to essentially" go home and get into normal routines" which is fine, but what most people tend to do is do normal daily routines, so they end up getting comfortable with general life again. The problem is arising though, that many of these people's recovery stops there, meaning that they are able to function in daily life, but not get back to where they were. Work life for instance is generally (at least for me) more complex than my home life, as I have to spend time finding solutions in areas that are outside normal living.

Hive is good for this, as it is "unnatural" in many ways, as what needs to be considered is not along the lines of brushing teeth, eating food, taking out the garbage. Granted, sometimes it can be like that too, but it intertwines a whole range of other things to consider that push the brain.

Essentially, what I am aiming to do is create new connection in the brain that bypass the old routes that have been roadblocked by the 2.5x1.5 dead-zone in my cerebellum.

The cerebellum receives information from the sensory systems, the spinal cord, and other parts of the brain and then regulates motor movements. The cerebellum coordinates voluntary movements such as posture, balance, coordination, and speech, resulting in smooth and balanced muscular activity. It is also important for learning motor behaviors.

It is a relatively small portion of the brain — about ten percent of the total weight, but it contains roughly half of the brain’s neurons, specialized cells that transmit information via electrical signals. source

But, it seems that while my motor skills are largely okay, there are other things going on in there too, as my thoughts are still struggling to connect into a smooth stream, and everything seems very forced. I wonder if this has to do partly with the way the brain uses visualization to access memories, as the cerebellum is also responsible for vision and eye movement, so if it is disrupted, I assume it will lose some ability for recall.

A couple of questions:

What color was your first bike?

If you could choose a new name for yourself, what would it be?

Can you remember someone that has passed away and you miss?

The answers aren't important, but did you notice the direction your eyes were moving as you searched for answers? There is a reason that when we are lost in negative thoughts we look to the ground and there are reasons when people lie, they tend to look in certain directions too. The brain accesses memory and creativity through visualization and it is easier for it to use muscle memory to catalyze the thoughts.

So, if a person like me who is recovering from a stroke and needs to build new neural pathways, isn't doing a wide range of activities that look to access those parts of the brain, it can be that they are never rebuilt or they are tenuously built, making them narrower and less likely to be found when needed. For me, I value my ability to think and my ability to have a conversation on various topics I may not know well, but still be able to hold my own by being able to put two and two together, so that even though I may not have answers, I am able to ask the right questions.

As said, Hive is good for building new thoughts in my opinion, as it introduces a lot of information and complexity, that looks at things from the technological, mathematical and social sides of things and if paying attention, can give a huge mount of data streams to work with, that all are tied to common threads of Hive itself. This means being able to think across various topics, but still relate it to some kind of continuous narrative.

For my work, this is quite important and while quite unrelated in many ways by topic, the components are largely the same, as is the things that need to be considered. This means that Hive is much like a playground for me to practice the skills and thinking needed in order to do many of my tasks that earn me income. It is like games and sports for children that help them build what they need as adults, or cross-training for a sport that increases complementary abilities to support the core.

Over the years I have been spending more time looking at how skills can be developed through compounding of other skills. This is actually how a normal business works, as it brings many varied skills together that complement each other for a singular direction - yet most of us do not do this when thinking about our own abilities. Instead, we do a lot of random and many of us wonder why we do not get consistent results.

I have spoken about consistency a lot on Hive as I think it is one of the core requirements for building success, but it isn't just consistency in posting daily for example. That might not be what it is at all in fact. The consistency I generally talk about is yes, regularity, but also stability of delivering value, personality, approach, attitude and all of the other aspects that build trust.

But, after the stroke, I am thinking about consistency in my approach to rehabilitation of my brain and processes, by building an environment that consistently delivers what I need, when I need it. This is like any investment, because if you want a consistent return, you have to build a profile that delivers it. For example, even though crypto is volatile, a lot of people are looking at DeFi as a way to give a consistent return, even if it is variable, on a daily or weekly basis. There is some peace of mind in having something to "rely" on, even if there is still risk.

Since my brain is the central point for my conscious life, investing into its development is the most valuable thing I can do and that has to consider all aspects (as many as I can) of it that can affect my outcomes, whether it be functional things like processing ability, or emotional things that give me the attitude or mindset to be able to accomplish tasks. There is very little point being functionally good, if there is no will to apply activity.

Hive for a long time has been a core component of my ability to affect my IRL outcomes, as it helps me consider aspects of life that might be unfamiliar or unknown to me, as well as see them in action and play with them a little. For example, I do not think I would have ended up in the second job I have if it wasn't for Hive forcing me to consider various aspects of risk, reward, work ethic, stability and my own evaluation of my time and what is valuable to me. However, not everyone is going to get the same lessons from Hive, in the same way that not everyone is going to take away the same learnings from similar experience.

But yeah, there are many things to consider in regards to actively and with intention rebuilding one's own brain and I wonder what would be the average outcome if we did more of this without having to experience a stroke first, rather than leave it up to the world to shape who we become.

We are what we eat and we are products of our environment, as much as we are of our genetics. What we surround ourselves affects us fundamentally, no matter if it is in childhood when we are learning so fast, or in adulthood when we are consolidating and forming habits that become increasingly difficult to change. Our surroundings matter, what we fill our surroundings with matters, what we create matters and who we share our time with matters.

And all of this matters in ways that affect our life, for a lifetime.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]