You can literally change your mind. Well, I guess what I mean is you can change your brain. It’s called neuroplasticity, and it’s basically the process whereby interactions with your environment alter the neural connections in your brain. I suppose it seems obvious. You might just call it “learning.” But here’s the thing: until recently, people generally believed that your brain “grew” until you were an adult, at which point, it pretty much stopped growing and you were stuck with what you had.
At some level, that’s true. But it doesn’t really capture how we learn. Our brains don’t really grow so much as develop new neural connections. And we now know that you can develop new neural connections at any point. London cab drivers, for example, have more gray matter in their hippocampus, which is responsible for memory, than normal people. Why? Because they have to memorize the 25,000 streets in London, not to mention hundreds of landmarks and routes, to get their taxi license. It’s called “The Knowledge.” Training their brains to do that literally forms new neural connections -- so many that it changes the composition of their brain. Someone should tell these folks about Google Maps.
My point is this: practicing something, or creating new habits -- whether it’s memorizing a map, playing a musical instrument, or meditating -- sparks your brain to carve out new neural pathways. And the more you practice, the more efficient those neural pathways become. You can literally change your brain.
It’s true that there are points in your life when it’s easier. In fact, there are two points when your brain is most malleable. Any guesses? Newborn to 3 years old. And then adolescence. I tell my students that it will literally never be easier for them to learn something. There’s a reason we teach foreign languages in high school. It’s way easier for them to pick it up than for me (or you) to pick it up. And likewise, there’s a reason that companies that produce nicotine (and other addictive) products target high school kids. You’re twice as likely to become addicted in high school than you are as an adult. The teenage brain is ferociously carving out new neural pathways, so the environmental stimuli we give teenage brains to work with is hugely important. Give them a vape pen and their brain will carve a vape pathway (at hyperspeed). Give them a meditation practice and it will carve a meditation pathway.
What we feed our brain matters. Of course, mindfulness meditation is a tough sell. There’s not really the instant gratification bonus that comes with other sorts of behavior. It takes time and a lot of practice to change those neural pathways. But there is evidence that even after small amounts meditation, the “echoes” of the neural patterns of more experienced meditators start to develop in the brain.
With that in mind, this week’s guided practice is a very simple thought awareness meditation -- carving healthy neural pathways in your brain.
Comments