What Is Neuroplasticity | Can You Change Your
Brain?
Table of Contents:
- What Is Neuroplasticity?
- Does Neuroplasticity Decrease with Age?
- Can You Change Your Brain?
- Can You Train Your Brain to Be Positive?
- Neuroplasticity – Rewire Your Brain
- A Priceless and Fascinating Video
- How Long Does it Take to Rewire Your Brain?
What Is Neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.
Can You Change Your Brain?
Thank God, the answer is YES.
This is not going to be a religious sermon, but it seems to me there is a fair bit about this in the Bible, which does seem to have stood the test of time, as far as truth and life advice goes. I will just let you ponder them, if you wish to:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Ok, one more, which ties in:
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” -Proverbs 23:7
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Can You Train Your Brain to Be Positive?
Is it possible that our lives are not reflecting what we are actually called to be, because of lies we have believed?
Who spoke these lies to us, and why did we assume they were true, and decide to believe them?
Could we actually have been “programmed” to be far more kind, adept, valuable and blessed than we ever knew?
You have surely heard terms like, “living up to your potential”, or, “believing in yourself”.
Well, pardon me, but how do you know what your potential is, or if you are even worthy of yourself’s believing in??
It has to come from somewhere. There has to be a plumbline for goodness and potential. You can’t just guess. And I wouldn’t advise it, because no matter what you believe, there is actually a standard for what is good and valuable. I have come to see God as having set those standards. What other standard would a person want, and why?
I fully and readily admit that the source of all good for me does not originate from me. In fact, a quick look back over my life bears starkly obvious evidence that I don’t know what is best for me. And a quick look around the world and I see not much of a standard at all, which is why everything is quickly going down the toilet, in my estimation.
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Neuroplasticity – Rewire Your Brain
The reader has to either know, or decide some things in his/her heart, or this will be wasted time.
One has to decide what thought patterns and false beliefs have brought him/her here, and decide which beliefs about him/herself are false, and which are true, based on some kind of standard of truth.
Once this is done, the person will likely be able to recognize the false beliefs, and want to expose them, and change the thought-patterns that tend to lead to bad places.
Also, if they have come this far, they will likely believe that it is possible, with a bit of discipline, to actually change these toxic thought patterns, which only enslave and lead to death and disease and depression and failure and bitterness.
Fortunately, our brains are actually reprogrammable!
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Have you heard of neuroplasticity? It means our brains are malleable. Like, if your brain can shape itself around horrible lies that you have believed about yourself in the past, it can surely bend back towards truth, right?
You had better believe it!
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A Priceless and Fascinating Video
I am going to refer you shortly to a lady who took the Biblical concept very seriously, of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind”, and “rewiring” thought patterns, for the purpose of aligning oneself again to who they really are.
Our brains are very susceptible to either negative or positive stimuli, due to “neuroplasticity”, which means that we can essentially tell our brain to re-assess who we are, or go on trusting the belief that we are as bad as the lies have dictated.
It is a discipline we adopt , as we learn to see it as a skill. Like losing weight, or any other goal you set for yourself. Once you have resolved in yourself to do it, the rest is relatively simple. Notice I didn’t say “easy”. The process will likely get harder before it gets easier, especially if you have had intense trauma, because you will have to revisit that trauma.
Here is a great article about neuroplasticity.
This is something I discovered quite a few years ago, which honestly freaked me out a bit, but the more I learned about it, the more it intrigued me, and the less leary I was. She is a South African Doctor named Caroline Leaf, and in this fascinating video, she discusses brain building, and using your mind to actually change your brain and your DNA.
This is not about positive affirmations, or law of attraction, or trying to change circumstances, or anything of the sort. This is purely scientific, and explained in a very practical way, teaching us how we can actually build, change and manage our brains, and subsequently bring healing to our brains and our bodies.
One crucial fact that Dr. Leaf discusses in this video is that all of these mental “diseases”, or “disorders”, like schizophrenia, bipolar “disorder”, autism, etc. are not diseases or disorders at all, but signs that something needs to be dealth with. They may be past traumas, or negative thoughts, or other toxic patterns, which end up causing us all kinds of health problems, if not dealt with.
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How Long Does it Take to Rewire Your Brain?
As anything, after you have resolved and settled it with your will, it is just a matter of how fast you are comfortable with going. But this video (she has tons of videos on this) will quickly inspire you to get going.
There are always ways to live our best. Often times it involves dropping one thing in favour of another, which you just know is much more beneficial.
As mentioned above, depression and anxiety, addiction, PTSD, etc. are not “illnesses” to be managed, but signals of an underlying cause, which can be fixed! They are survival mechanisms to tell you that something is not working as it should be.
To get to the question of “how long does it take to rewire your brain?”…
Reconceptualizing is what we are talking about. It would take me a long time to explain this all, so I highly recommend watching the video, if you haven’t. But essentially, we have to think of a forest, with good and bad trees in it. The bad trees come from trauma (and are there as a coping mechanism), and grow by negative patterns in our mind.
We want to recognize the bad trees and “re-conceptualize” them. And to do so, there is a cycle we will have to go through. It lasts around 63 days of going through around a 40 minute process per day. This is a “neurocycle”, and can be repeated as often as you feel you need to repeat it.
Here is the link again to the video.
Conclusion
In the video, Dr. Leaf refers to her latest (at the time of the video, at least) book, which obviously would be a good investment for anyone reading this who is interested in learning to take control of their mind (and overall health, subsequently), which is what this is all about, in essence.
Rewiring our brain is possible, and advisable. The health of our brain is always reflected in our physical health, often no matter how nutritious and healthy our physical lifestyle may be.
Dr. Caroline Leaf’s Book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess.
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As a fellow South African, I have come across Dr Caroline Leaf before and the work she has been doing. I do think it is possible to rewire our brains and let go of negative thought and bad habits, to learn new ways. We are often held back by our own self-limiting beliefs, and if we can overcome that, we can move forward.
I like the way in which Dr Leaf talks about our reactions to stressful situations. Her book is well worth reading. Thank you for sharing this thought provoking article on neuroplasticity.
Yes, indeed!
I recently rediscovered Dr. Leaf, as well.
Thanks for the response!
Craig
Hey, JJ. I am so glad to hear of your plan to follow through with this! I know that if you are vigilant with it that it will help you a lot.
Cheers,
Craig
Thanks Craig, for this bombshell article. Years ago I was diagnosed as having anxiety issues and post trauma disorders and I was put on medication. The pills helped me to go to work and to operate at some level but I decided that I was not going to stay medicated for life so I started reading and searching. This video( and I watched the whole explanation) gave me an understanding, one that I have been searching for. The main lesson is that mind and brain activity are different and I can learn mind management. I am going to buy that book and go through it carefully. Thank you for this information.
This reminded me of the book “The Power of Positive Thinking”. So yes, I do think it is possible for one to recharge your brain and your way of thinking. If you have a negative mindset and keep on telling yourself you cannot do it, you are bound to fail, because you are not even trying. But change that to a positive outlook and say I will do it and I can do it, and you are far more likely to succeed.
I have come across Dr. Caroline Leaf before, and will re-watch her videos. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, it is simply a matter of making a strong habit of deliberately thinking differently than you are used to, until it becomes the way you think and perceive, etc. Transforming yourself by the renewing of your mind!
Although I was not familiar with the term Neuroplasticity I had read a lot of articles on how you can rewire your brain and change many aspects of your life. It’s not something that everyone can do or something that is easy but from what I have read and seen it is doable and is very much based on science.
Yes, I agree with what you have said here, and thanks very much for sharing it, Cynthia. 🙂
This video by Dr. Leaf was fascinating! What she says makes perfect sense but I’m surprised that I never thought of it in this way before. She says it has nothing to do with “manifesting” what you want but I think that’s not entirely true. When she speaks of the adverse physical reactions to stressful situations, we can take that a step further and say that by mindfully managing our response to those situations, we can manifest good health. We can say the same about freeing ourselves of what we consider to be our limitations, which can hold us back from pursuing what we want to achieve. This is heavy stuff. I’m going to have to research it more. Thank you for posting.
Definitely nothing wrong with declaring truth to yourself! Just maybe don’t do it outloud in the grocery store…
I’m very happy to hear about your overcoming!
Thank you, Christopher. Blessings to you!
Very fascinating article here. I am one who tries to find ways to better optimize my way of thinking and our brains ability to adapt and change is amazing. I had dealt with severe anxiety for years and I truly believe in the power of transformation. I really liked how you had a scientific approach to this as well because it’s not just about positive affirmations but there is an underlying fundamental truth to this. Keep posting!
Indeed! Thank you, Debora. I would love to hear a report if you get and read the book!
Hello Craig, I watched the video and it got me interested in dr. Leaf`s book. I like the fact that her theory is based on science, and that it`s effective. Every one of us experiences hard times in our lives, and if neuroplasticity can improve our response it`s worth trying. The book comes at a good price, it`s absolutely a good investment.
Regards,
Debora
So, you won’t likely be forgiving her anytime soon, it sounds like.
The problem is when you spend years tryying to be positive about things only to find out that your positivity is only being abused by others, then things get tricky. Also when you have a partner or ex partner with a long record of driving peopple to suicide and they’ve hgotten round to you. Sometimes hate keeps you alive because you end up only staying alive to spite them.
Hi Bill. Please let me know what you think of the video, and thanks for the response!
I discovered Dr. Leaf a few years ago, and started practicing some techniques she was teaching. I noticed some good results, but then I sort of let it fall by the wayside, due to other things going on… but much of it stuck with me, particularly just keeping my thoughts always in check and evaluating them. Then deciding if they were true or not, and filing them accordingly.
Very interesting article on neuroplasticity. 40 minutes a day for about 63 days is a small price to pay for changing your brain in a more productive and positive way. I have not heard of Dr. Leaf before but I look forward to watching her video.
How long have you been practicing neuroplasticity and what results have you seen?