Enrichment programs for zoo animals often involve toys that basically create frustration---like the old Halloween game of trying to bite an apple hanging on a string, with your hands behind your back.
Isn't it funny how our brains need that: if it's done by choice it's a fun game, or at any rate, somehow enriching.
But if it's imposed, or too hard (or too boring!), accompanied by shame and failure, it can just be torture. Similarly, anxiety and excitement are physiologically related, but feel entirely different psychologically.
I'm thinking as I gear up to hunt for a job,
How can I approach it as if I were a parrot facing a gift-wrapped goodie?
Isn't it funny how our brains need that: if it's done by choice it's a fun game, or at any rate, somehow enriching.
But if it's imposed, or too hard (or too boring!), accompanied by shame and failure, it can just be torture. Similarly, anxiety and excitement are physiologically related, but feel entirely different psychologically.
I'm thinking as I gear up to hunt for a job,
How can I approach it as if I were a parrot facing a gift-wrapped goodie?
What a conundrum! I like your analogy for problem solving, an enviable skill to own and you have it in spades, Fresca.
ReplyDeleteI'm a good parrot. You too? :)
ReplyDelete