Neuroplasticity 101 -Experience the mind's limitless potential

Neuroplasticity is your brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life.

Analogy: Your house is your brain and the plumbing pipes in your house are your neural connections. You have the ability to lay new pipes and change the messages that flow to and from your brain. You can replace the old worn-out pipes that aren’t serving you and replace them with new pipes that will provide you the happiness and peace of mind you seek.

If you do the hard work by building new pathways (laying new pipes) you will adapt and adjust quickly to help you experience a new world.

Becoming neural agile is what you’ll need in order to change your life.

The central nervous system of the brain is made up of two kinds of tissue: grey and white matter. The gray matter is where the processing is done and the white matter is the channels of communication. This is where learning and thinking take place.

Your brain on its most basic level functions electrochemically.

Your brain generates about 23 watts of electricity (enough to power a lightbulb). This is enough to cover your entire thinking ability.

There are also chemicals being released in your brain that transmit messages from one cell to another. Your energy influences other people’s energy. What energy are you bringing to your encounters with other people?

When you drop a pebble into a pond of still water, a circular pattern of alternate crests spread out. The kinetic energy makes the particles oscillate which come in contact with it.

The energy gets transferred to the particles of the next layer which also begins to oscillate. This is often referred to as “The Ripple Effect.”

Your brain’s energy influences other brain energy all of the time. The moment you choose to change your thoughts and emotions you simultaneously change the energy that you radiate into your world.

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that your body can't function without. Their job is to carry chemical signals (“messages”) from one neuron (nerve cell) to the next target cell. The next target cell can be another nerve cell, a muscle cell, or a gland.

​​If you stress too much your brain can also produce Inhibitory neurotransmitters that block or prevent chemical messages from being passed along any further. Your thoughts and emotions regulate the chemicals that are produced in your brain.

You control what chemicals are being produced.

As you read these words your brain cells are connecting and making structural changes.

If you sufficiently reinforce these structural changes it becomes a permanent pathway.

If it becomes a permanent pathway your behaviors, habits, and emotions will become automatic.

You are the result of your neural pathways. If there are habits or behaviors you don’t like you can change them.

In order to do so, you will need to carve a new neural pathway into the white and grey matter of your brain (lay some new pipes).

It requires repetition and intensity to replace old pathways with new ones and if you do you will bring about a structural change in your brain.

This discovery means that you never have to be a “victim” again.

You can change whatever you want if you rewire your brain and become your own electrician. You can’t outthink your ego.

To sufficiently rewire your brain takes sufficient reinforcement and intensity.

• You must replace negative behavior patterns with new and constructive ones.
• Assess all of your bad habits or the behavior you’d like to change.
• Make a conscious choice to reinforce the new behavior so much more than the old behavior.
• Focus on solutions more than problems.
• It takes a lot of hard work to build new neural pathways.
• Your brain loves good TEA - Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions.
• To reinforce the behavior you have to think it, feel it, and act on it.

Just do it. Act upon it. When you do it you seal the deal in the deepest part of the brain known as the limbic system.

The limbic system is the part of the brain involved in our behavioral and emotional responses, especially when it comes to behaviors we need for survival: feeding, reproduction, caring for our young, and fight or flight responses.

• Say it.
• See it.
• Do it.
• Experience it.

When you change your thoughts habitually you start changing your emotions.

When you change the fuel you run on (thoughts and emotions) you change your behavior.

When you change your thoughts, emotions, and behavior you change your performance.

Now you’re in the driver’s seat of your own life. Master of your own destiny. Architect of your own life.

Here's what you need to know about these happy hormones, including ways you can harness them to help improve your mood:

When it comes to happiness, in particular, the primary signaling chemicals include:

1. Serotonin - Helps balance mood and promote feelings of well-being and reward.

How to harness: Be kind to others and yourself, exercise, spend time outdoors, and eat a well-balanced diet.

2. Endorphins - Your body's natural pain killer, they help overcome stress or discomfort.

How to harness: Spend time outdoors, exercise (runner's high), meditate, and laugh.

3. Dopamine -The "feel good" hormone plays a role in feeling happy, pleasure, and rewards.

How to harness: Be kind to others and yourself, exercise, get plenty of sleep, and listen to music

4. Oxytocin - Not technically a "happy" hormone, its role in promoting social interaction may help you feel positive emotions.

How to harness: Showing love and affection, spending time with friends and loved ones, sharing a laugh, and listening to music.