Rewire your BRAIN
Practice makes perfect when it comes to reprogramming your mind to change unhealthy habis, writes Carolyn Hansen
Bnot healthy for anyone. Neither is a sedentary lifestyle. But it is not the odd hot fudge sundae, birthday cake, ormissed exercise routine that causes the body to expand beyond its ideal weight.
It is years of indulging in unhealthy habits— wrong foods, sedentary lifestyles and indulgent, over-eating that creates this monster.
Where did these unhealthy habits come from? Years of conditioning, beginning in childhood and our responses to the environment around us. We are constantly programming ourselves with repetition and this goes on to dictate our habits.
Repetition is what gives our brains a break from thinking toomuchabout any single task and saves on energy expended. But this works whether our actions are healthy or destructive.
Whenwekeep repeating unhealthy actions they become automatic.
Enter the science of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form and reorganise synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following an injury. It is the brain’s amazing ability to adapt and change.
These physiological changes occur as a result of our personal interactions with the environment around us.
That’swhy our childhood years are critical. It’s during these times that our brains are gettingwired for the first time, establishing patterns that, for the most part, will be used and have some effect on us for the rest of our lives.
It was previously believed the brain ceased to be plastic after childhood. But all that changed when research revealed our brains continue to adapt and change throughout adulthood.
Even teenagers experience a second surge ofwiring, providing another valuable opportunity for new patterns/behaviours to be formed.
Without a doubt, younger children adapt more easily because their brains are still very plastic. Compare howfast a child might learn a newlanguage with the struggle for most adults.
But adults can change, it’s just not as easy. Their brains have lost some youthful plasticity, causing fixed thoughts, actions and perceptions.
Life does not just happen to us while weare “sitting ducks”. Weare not victims (unlessweclaim it by being it). Weare creators and participate in our ownevolution by the choiceswe make about what environmental factorsweengage in. It is these factors that play an integral role in what shapes and structures our body.
If you find yourself in an unhealthy situation (such as being overweight), don’t dismay, and most of all, don’t become a victim. Be responsible. Accept the situation you find yourself in (without judgment).
This is what empowers you to change it, not placing blame outside of yourself. Playing victim and placing blame outside of yourself gives your power to those people or circumstances you are blaming.
The good news is, you are not stuck with those unhealthy habits.
According toDr Bruce Lipton, such patterns can be rewired and changed with conscious focused attention.
It is conscious focus that creates newelectrical pathways in our brains.
It creates a newelectrical pattern/ cable to replace the old one. This new cable keeps getting thicker as long as our focus is there.
But ifwestop focusing on ournew pattern, the electricity reverts to the old unhealthy pathway if it is still the thicker of the twocables because, like everything else, electricity flows through the path of least resistance.
Once ournew neural pattern/ pathway becomes thicker than our old one, ournew cable/pattern operates on auto-pilot and will run on itsown without the need for our focused conscious attention. In otherwords, we have created a newhealthy habit to replace the old unhealthy one!
In his book The TalentCode, Dan Coyle says the main key to making our consciously chosen wiring stick is to hold the powerful intention that “Iwant to know this for the rest ofmylife”.
This suggestion causes the brain to coat thenew electrical cable/pathway with myelin insulation, making itmuch more permanent pattern.
Neuroplasticity comes into play lifelong because the brain can do anythingweput our minds to.
You could think of neuroplasticity as the “muscle-boosting” part of the brain. All actionswerepeat become stronger while thosewe ignore becomeweaker and fade away.