Neuroplasticity: “It’s not rocket science” part 1
HeadGym Neuroplasticity explained
Mental activity strengthens the neural pathways in your brain that are linked to what you focus on with your thoughts and feelings. Focus on happiness with your thoughts and feelings, you strengthen happiness pathways. If you focus on stress with your thoughts and feelings, you strengthen stress pathways. Every thought you think and feeling you feel, strengthens your neural pathways. Neural pathways are the basis of your habits of thinking, feeling, and acting. They are what you believe is true and why you do what you do in areas such as relationships, food, money, career, health, and happiness.
Focus & Feelings
Mental activity strengthens the neural pathways in your brain that are linked to what you focus on with your thoughts and feelings. Focus on happiness with your thoughts and feelings, you strengthen happiness pathways. If you focus on stress with your thoughts and feelings, you strengthen stress pathways. Every thought you think and feeling you feel, strengthens your neural pathways. Neural pathways are the basis of your habits of thinking, feeling, and acting. They are what you believe is true and why you do what you do in areas such as relationships, food, money, career, health, and happiness.
Tips for rewiring
- Awareness: “neurons that fire together, wire together,” direct your attention is a simple way to shape the brain over time. Spend a lot of time thinking about negative things and criticism your mind will react emotionally with anxiety and negative moods. Focus on positive things around you at the moment and practice gratitude as in our previous blog the mind will become calm and peaceful, be mindful of what you focus on.
- Focus on the Good: Our brain has a preference for the negative it will look for bad news then can become fixed on this, spin different scenarios and overreact. Capture the positive experiences in your awareness and hold them for at least 30 seconds. Take notice of the positive by writing them down or practicing gratitude be deliberate and let them filter into your brain.
- Compassion: Self-compassion will build your resilience and self-worth. We will have difficulty in connecting to others if we have no love and connection to ourselves. Build self-compassion by supporting yourself tell yourself “I AM ENOUGH” If you feel hurt by a situation or another person validate rather than deny your feelings, move on and work out how you can address it.
- Relaxation: There are both physical, mental and neural consequences to stress. It can affect our immune and other systems the increase of the stress hormone cortisol creates a vicious cycle between the mind, the nervous system, and behavior. Practice meditation and mindfulness, see our previous blogs for more strategies for relaxation.