Ultimately actioning the understanding of neuroplasticity puts the power back in your hands! You become the driver of your future.
Elle X
Neuroplasticity, WHAT? Neuroplasticity is a marvelous thing, it is the ability for our brains to constantly mould, adapt and change throughout our life. Gone are the days of thinking that when you get to 30 years old your brain has learnt all it can and it’s all downhill as it begins to die off. Thank goodness is all I can say to that one!
Have you heard of the saying: ‘Neurons that fire together, wire together’? This is neuroplasticity in the making. When you learn something new, you begin to fire and wire together new pathways in your brain. The more you practice that new thing the stronger the new pathways become and the more ingrained the learning in your brain and body. Take learning to drive for example – when you first sat in the car for that first lesson you had to think about everything you did: accelerator, clutch, brake and gears. Putting your foot on the accelerator and switching the windscreen wipers on at the same time felt like a mission. Now look, you can drive to a destination and have no recollection of how you got there. Bit scary actually when you think about it!
You have travelled the neural pathway of driving a car so many times it has become ingrained. Now think what it’s like when you go on holiday and drive a different car on a different side of the road. You have to create an altered pathway in the brain pretty quickly to be able to get to your destination – Neuroplasticity in action. The same goes when you learn anything new: dancing, language, riding a bike or painting.
I think of neuroplasticity like walking along an over grown footpath. The more you walk the path the clearer and wider it becomes and the faster you get to travel along the route helping you arrive quicker at your destination. Neuroplasticity can work for you and against you, so do be careful what you are teaching your ever evolving brain. For instance using a crutch or a walking stick after a fall can initially help you get around but we often become dependent on using them. The body begins to compensate for what it sees as another limb – new neural pathways are created to allow for the new movement patterns. Have you noticed when taking the crutch or stick away a persons balance can hugely decrease often causing older people to rely on the stick for evermore. This is neuroplasticity working on the negative……
You become the driver of your future in how you experience your life – just as it should be! Need more? Checkout this video at the top of the post to learn more.