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Rewire your brain – Neuroplasticity

Writer's picture: Lauren TanselLauren Tansel

“Our brains renew themselves throughout life to an extent previously thought not possible.” ― Michael Gazzaniga

 

Until the 1960’s scientist believed that the brain did not change after childhood and that as adults our brains were fixed! We now know that this is not true and that the brain is flexible, designed for learning and continues to adapt the whole of our lives, this is called neuroplasticity. It means we can reprogram at any time in our life and make real genuine change.

 

Every time we think, feel or behave in a certain way a neural pathway lights up in the brain and the more we repeat the pattern the stronger the neural pathway becomes. The stronger the neural pathway the more entrenched it becomes in our brain making the pattern more habitual and automatic. For example, when we learn to drive, we need to use all of our focus but once we have repeated enough times it becomes easy and doesn't take much focus at all. We might even start to drive while in autopilot, not fully aware or present to what we are doing but driving automatically.


This is the same for our habitual ways of responding, our stress response, our habits, behaviours and ways of thinking and feeling. We might see within ourselves or others patterns we have developed that we want to break but struggle to make changes, as the more we repeat something the easier it becomes. We might start to feel like we are functioning on autopilot rather than from a place of conscious awareness. This is why changing ourselves and breaking old patterns, habits and addictions are difficult as there will be a pull to repeat what is familiar to the wiring of our brain. It takes much more energy to do something that is not wired into our brain than to do something that we have done many times before. It takes stepping outside of our comfort zone repeatedly which takes a lot of courage, effort, energy and time.

 

The good news is that we have the capacity through learning and new experiences to make new pathways and to form new connections. The more we strengthen the new pathways through repetition the weaker the old ones become, allowing us to make radical changes over time. It means we can literally change our brain through learning and experience. Neuroplasticity is how it is possible to regulate our nervous system, heal from trauma and find relief from symptoms in our mind and our body.


The ways we can do this generally comes under main themes such as:

 

- Challenging ourselves and stepping outside our comfort zone

- Nervous system regulation and emotional regulation work

- Challenging and changing the way we think

- New and unfamiliar experiences

- Learning something new and developing new skills

 

Some examples and proven ways to improve neuroplasticity:

 

· Meditation (protects the brain from ageing effects and increases brain regions associated with sustained attention, self-control, compassion and bodily awareness)

· Regulating your nervous system and developing emotional regulation tools

· Practises that combine concentration and movement (yoga, tai chi, qigong)

· Learning new coping mechanisms

· Breathwork

· Counselling and therapy

· Traveling and novel experiences

· Physical exercise – increases blood flow to the brain triggering biochemical changes that spur neuroplasticity

· Learning a musical instrument, a language, dance (the list goes on)

· Non-dominant hand exercises – for example brushing your teeth with the opposite hand

· Getting enough quality sleep


 


 

 

 

 

 

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