Our plastic brains

Neuroplasticity… what?

I’m sure you’ve heard the word. If you know me, we’ve probably talked about it. A lot. I do work with the nervous system, after all, and this is important stuff. Neuroplasticity is the ability our brains have to reorganize itself throughout life- making new connections, severing old ones, literally changing shape.

The analogy I like to use goes something like this-

You are travelling from one location to another. How do you get there? If you’re like most folks, you take the roads!

Those roads are your brain’s pathways. In making any decision or responding to any internal/external stimulus, you take one (or more) of those roads. The coolest part? You can form new roads and have the option to take them instead.

But what does all this mean?

The conservative estimates show that humans are on autopilot, taking those old roads, about half the time. Up to 95% of our overall cognitive functioning happens in our unconscious- that includes thoughts, emotions, behaviors, responses. It can be startling to realize that we are doing nothing more than running old programming. Not quite sold, yet?

We have all driven to work when we were supposed to be going somewhere else. (Oops.)

If you cut a path through the woods, you would generally keep taking it due to ease, energy, and time saved. After all, trail cutting is hard work. After a while, the trail widens, deepens, gets filled in with wood chips, then gravel, gets paved and eventually becomes a superhighway. In other words, the more you take a path, the more ingrained it becomes- which for some things, is fantastic (think playing an instrument, learning a martial art, developing the skills for your job) but the downside of our system being so malleable is that we tend to make paths, and then stick to them. This leaves us, if we are not paying attention, at the mercy of the software, taking the same routes just because we’ve taken them before, which can be a serious problem when you look at an anxiety response, addictive patterns, or traumas.

When you apply this concept to changing a behavior, a reaction, or an emotional response, there is so much opportunity for growth and transformation. Cutting new trails can be difficult, but only because you then have to keep taking the new trail and avoid the super convenient, automatic toll free highway you’ve been driving your whole life.

Being aware, compassionate, and curious are the keys to success. When these things start to soften, often with it comes the realization of just how deep down they go- we really can live on autopilot, and miss out on not only being an active participant in our lives but also the richness of exploration. It is a beautiful, wonderful world out there, and it’s up to us to experience it.