Take Back Control of Your Brain!

Did you know that once you see, do or experience something a few times, you never REALLY experience it as it is again?

Pardon?

You know when you move to a new city, everything appears jumbled and confusing and you are likely to get lost? At some point, that stops happening.

Why is that?

It has to do with neural pathways, and while I don't want to get too "science-y," knowing a little bit of the science can help us understand why we often seem to live our lives on autopilot.

It all comes down to neural pathways.

Neural pathways are the "paths" or connections between neurons that fire up the first time that we think of something. The connections then form a pattern (or pathway) in our brains. Our brains then attach a "meaning" to the pattern which previously had none because it had frame of reference.

Our brain, in effect, takes a non-literal snapshot of people, places, things and situations in that we automatically refer back to during future occurrences in order to make sense of them. We automatically, repeatedly, rapidly and unconsciously refer back to that mental image or blueprint from then on.

This goes for all aspects of our life. Things that we had to learn, eventually become rote.

Do we think about walking? Nope, our bodies just do it.

You ever drive to work without actively "driving"? You're behind the wheel but you somehow wind up at your destination without being fully conscious of how you got there?

The exciting news is that a new neural pathway is formed each time we learn something new! The cautionary take away is for better or worse, that neural pathway, if not chal-lenged, becomes a habit.

Neural pathways are formed not just for objects or actions but also for feeling emotions and thoughts that are linked to them.

If we have an initial reaction to something, and the reaction is repeated a few times, presto...neural pathway.

This reaction can be good or bad, and effect every area of our lives. Think of how we may react to dogs, heights, even dating. Anything and everything is a trigger for our pathways.

Neural pathways can almost be seen as the cause of self-fulfilling prophecies. Once we experience something a few times, we form an association, and for better or worse, we seem destined to react accordingly over and over again.

The good news is, we have free will!

By practicing mindfulness and being aware of all of this, we can change it!

By consciously reviewing and altering old habits, emotions and responses we can change and "shut down" the neural pathways that no longer work for us.

This is called neuroplasticity.

In a nutshell, neuroplasticity explains how experiences can change and reorganize neu-ral pathways.

The really cool part is, we can change our brains and change or lives by actively experi-encing and learning new things!

There are so many things we can do in all areas of our lives to challenge our brains and keep our thinking flexible. Things like traveling, learning a new language and making music or art are all on the list.

Once again we are reminded that we have more control of our lives than we believed and it all starts with being mindful