Neuroplasticity
Change your Brain
The Plastic Brain
Your brain is plastic, and that is a fact. No, it is not made of plastic, but it is plastic in nature. This means you can change it!
Neuroplasticity is the beautiful ability you have that allows your brain to adapt and change. Neuroplasticity is a lifelong ability that changes according to your habits, health, and knowledge. Your brain is constantly updating its neural networks, strengthening used circuits and pruning unused ones.
Every day your brain changes depending on your experiences, behaviors, and thoughts. You are constantly changing your neural connections. This is why choosing to focus on positivity and your goals is so important. Research shows that if you focus on positivity, your neural circuits will reflect that by strengthening synaptic connections between neurons associated with positive thinking. By positive thinking, we mean continuously focusing on the good, and not ignoring issues but instead taking a more constructive view towards them. Doing this makes it easier to think positive thoughts since the connections are more integrated. Conversely, the more negative thoughts you generate, the more your negative neural pathways are strengthened. Your brain then accommodates for the negative thoughts to come more frequently.
To put simply, you can rewire your brain depending on your thoughts and habits. It is true, you get out what you put in.
Establishing a positive mindset does not just change your outlook, it changes the circuits in your brain! Studies show that a positive brain is extremely beneficial.
Benefits of Positive Thinking
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boosts immune system functioning
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improves cognition & focus
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reduces the risk of illness
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decreases depression
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increases longevity
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cortisol decreases (stress neurotransmitter)
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serotonin increases (happiness neurotransmitter)
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improves coping skills
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increases psychological & physical wellbeing
Fast Brain Facts
It's Electric
The brain is made up of neurons (100 billion to be approximate) which communicate through electical and chemical signaling. A small electric signal passes from neuron to neuron to transmit information. Your brain actually generates enough electricity to power a small lightbulb (12-25 Watts) when you're awake!
Natural Negative Bias
The human brain has a negative bias developed in the primal era when it was useful for people to be more aware of negative threats since it was a matter of life or death. Those who paid attention more to danger were more likely to avoid it and thus survive. Now, we live in an age where we do not need to fear so much. We must make the conscious decision to rewire our brain to become more positive.
Thought = Reality
Your brain cannot tell the difference between a thought and reality. For example, if you are stressing over the thought of failing an exam, your brain's functions alter to resemble how your brain would react if you did fail the exam. You experience the stress response of failing solely because of the negative thought.
No, we don't use 10%
It is a POPULAR myth that we only use 10% of our brains. This is not true, we use all of our brain, just not all at the same time. We trade off using different circuits for different tasks. The human brain works hard! Your brain actually consumes 20% of the body's energy, despite only making up 2% of the body's weight.