What is neuroplasticity?
Our brains are constantly being shaped by experience. Most of us have very different behaviours and thoughts today than we did 20 years ago. This shift is neuroplasticity in action: changes in our brain structure and organisation as we experience, learn, and adapt.
With every repetition of a thought or emotion, we reinforce a neural pathway - and with each new thought, we begin to create a new way of being. These small changes, frequently enough repeated, lead to changes in how our brains work.
Neuroplasticity is the 'muscle building' part of the brain; the things we do often we become stronger at, and what we don’t use fades away. That is the physical basis of why making a thought or action over and over again increases its power. Over time, it becomes automatic; a part of us. We literally become what we think and do.
Neuroplasticity is at work throughout life. Connections within the brain are constantly becoming stronger or weaker, depending on what is being used. Younger people change easily; their brains are very plastic. As we age change doesn't come as easily; the brain loses some of its plasticity and we become more fixed in how we think, learn, and perceive.
Since the brain is pivotal to all we think and do, by harnessing neuroplasticity we can improve everything we do and think.
You can watch a short animation here:
‘Neuroplasticity’, by Sentis Brain Animation Series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELpfYCZa87g
How can Neuroplasticity Help with Depression?
The connection between neuroplasticity and depression is a good news/bad news one.
The bad news is that, when it comes to psychiatric disorders, there’s a sort of negative neuroplasticity; depression can cause damage to the brain, encouraging unhealthy and maladaptive pathways and discouraging healthy and adaptive ones (Hellerstein, 2011).
The good news is that some treatments for depression seem to be able to halt the damage and perhaps even reverse. The even better news is that research on neuroplasticity has shown us that “your day-to-day behaviours can have measurable effects on brain structure and function,” which can offer healing and recovery from psychiatric disorders (Hellerstein, 2011).
It may not be easy and it will likely take sustained effort, but we have the ability to “remodel” our brains at any age in ways that can help us to function more effectively.
Using Neuroplasticity to Help with Anxiety
The same principles apply to managing and treating anxiety disorders—our brains are also perfectly capable of rewiring and remodelling to improve our ability to manage anxiety.
However, life coach and clinician Ian Cleary (2015) says:
“Any brain changes are at the expense of other changes. The development of these parts of our brain that effortlessly trigger anxiety, it is at the detriment of the ones that aid calmness & confidence… it is not enough to just stop anxiety in any given moment which is often people’s focus. The anxiety wiring is still there and waiting to be triggered. We need to create competitive wiring. We need to create specific wiring of what we want to achieve which is ‘competitive wiring’ to the problem. Without this we loop endlessly in anxiety with no neural pathway to take us forward.”
Basically, neuroplasticity can be applied to help you manage, treat, and perhaps even “cure” anxiety, but it takes some time and effort! These more permanent brain changes can be achieved through adapting and changing thought patterns, through recall and memory patterning, breathing exercises, eye patterning, modifying postural habits, increasing body awareness, and targeting sensory perception (Cleary, 2015).
The Role of Mindfulness in Neuroplasticity
Proponents of mindfulness meditation have long thought that meditation can actually cause physical changes in the brain; as it turns out, they were right. Mindfulness meditation can, in fact, change the brain, through neuroplasticity.
Jessica Cassity (n.d.) writes this about mindfulness meditation and neuroplasticity:
“With meditation, your brain is effectively being rewired: As your feelings and thoughts morph toward a more pleasant outlook your brain is also transforming, making this way of thought more of a default… The more your brain changes from meditation, the more you react to everyday life with that same sense of calm, compassion, and awareness.”
The more mindful we become and the more we meditate, the more our brain adapts to this state as our default state. This is why mindfulness meditation has such a big impact on regular practitioners even outside of their dedicated practice time; they have taught their brain to be mindful, calm, at peace, and centered all throughout the day, not just when they are actively meditating.
You can watch a TED Talk from Sara Lazar on how meditation can change the brain here:
How Meditation Can Reshape Our Brains: Sara Lazar at TEDxCambridge 2011: