CAPSULE | READS: The Power of Neuroplasticity

Key takeaways on Rewiring Your Brain, Mind ≠ Brain & Neuron Builders.

ON REWIRING YOUR BRAIN: The ingredients for the neurochemical cocktail of neuroplasticity are intention + focus + repetition.

• neuroplasticity is fueled by the interaction between the mind & brain to create new neural pathways.
• the patterns that breed success and happiness isn’t luck; it’s the result of programming and reprogramming positive neural networks into the brain.
• each repeated message the mind feeds the brain either
  > creates a new pathway
  > reinforces a pathway that already exists / is stored

ON MIND ≠ BRAIN: The mind and brain work together, but they have different responsibilities. Let’s compare our brain to a computer:

1. Software: the neural pathways | software library the computer has stored through repetition
2. Hardware: the physical brain | mental brain where programming of OS is stored
3. OS (operating system): the conscious thinking mind | the sense of self
4. Silent controller: the brain on autopilot | the invisible, synaptic process that runs behind the scenes | voting on and determining who you are through feelings & actions

• When the mind sends the brain a message:
  ➡ the brain records it ➡ filters through every program that has been previously stored that agrees with it ➡ if it’s a new message, the brain temporarily stores it and thru repetition, it will form and strengthen the neural connections ➡ over time, the brain will begin pruning (getting rid of) circuits that are no longer being used.

ON NEURON BUILDERS: Building your brain requires effort.

• Treat it like a mental workout.
• Engage in activities that allow you to convert work to play to a way of life.

1. Intentionality (know what + why of each activity)
2. Focus (inject highly focused interest)
3. Repetition (keep doing it and stay with it)

• Some requirements for neuron builders:
  > newness
  > difficulty
  > stimulation
  > reward
  > emotional contact

It’s not who who are, it’s who you decide to become as it change the story you live.

Think with clarity, focus and intention to wire your brain to accomplish your goal. This is the holy grail of personal growth.

Success is the in brain of mental programs that are wired. If you want to change your life, change your wiring.

Neural Activity Feedback Loop

A neural feedback loop is when you are talking to your brain and it responds to what you tell it.

• everything we think, feel and do imprint or rewires our brain
• our perceptions wire our brain and in turn our brain wires our perceptions (endless loop)

> Neural feedback loop of waking up in a bad mood (not a good sleep) | Neural networks look for similar connections that agree with current moods/perceptions/self talk and perform in ways that have fulfilled those programs (chemically and physically)

• negative doubting messages, recorded the programs that caused a sharp response
• series a neurochemical connections in the brain that bring failing programs from the past.

Cycling Through Reinforcing Loops

When you think it, your brain records it, then goes back to every program that has been previously stored that agrees with it. In that moment, your brain not only acts on those programs, but also begins to record the same messages again.

• when the brain re-records these programs, the wiring becomes stronger and stronger — they become so strong that you believe that it’s part of who you are. thought by thought, moment by moment, day by day, you act out the results.

Happy Brain vs Unhappy Brain

The coloring of the brain is the essence of the neural activity feedback loop.

• your brain is looking at the color of your thoughts, recording, programming them in and sending those colors back to you as a picture of you
• your programs give you colors
• your brain is designed to feedback to you the colors of your thoughts & programs, opinions & beliefs that are strongest
• each day we view life through the color that dominates the picture of our brain

➡ happy brain: colored brain | gold, positive programs

➡ unhappy brain: grey brain | negative experiences

• the difference between having one or the other depends on you
• everyday that we decide to think in a more positive self directed way, your brain gets it and records the thoughts. when you repeat the same thoughts often enough, your brain wires them into neural pathways and connects them to other similar pathways you have already stored. the brain then sends those same messages back to you as thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that you act on.
• why we do what we do is interconnected to how we change throughout our lives

The Brain is Like a Computer

You can reset and reprogram your usable intelligence (IQ is not fixed)

• the patterns that were repeated, formed neural pathways and networks called ‘programs’
• the metaphor that the brain being like a computer is accurate so that it helps illustrate how the programming of the brain works

➡ like a computer, the brain does not evaluate the accuracy of each message you give it.
> can you type something into your computer that isn’t true? yes. the process in the brain that stores all of those message from everyday accept everything we tell it.

➡ the storage part of the mental computer doesn’t know whether what we’re feed it is
- T/F
- right/wrong
- +/-
- good/bad
it just stores it and if the same message is repeated enough, the brain wires it in and acts on it as though it’s true

• neural pathways are created by repetition, repetition, repetition
• in the simplest terms: each repeated message we feed the brain either creates new neural path or reinforces a pathway that’s already there.
  ➡ when the brain first receives a new message, it’ll first do a quick search to see how it correlates with other information the brain has already received/stored
  ➡ if it’s a new message the brain will store it (temporarily), then if the same message is repeated, the brain will begin to form new neural connections.
  > think of building roads, in time and over time, new roads become used more frequently and regularly and they become roads we use and take — roads, highways, freeways)
  > they hold beliefs, attitudes, opinions about everything

Wiring your future starting today

You are the programs you have now.

• every image you see is filtered through who you’ve been — based on all of the old programs you’ve stored. we may recognize old neural circuits of ourselves that may or may not be true.
• you have to wire your brain with what you want to do next
• pruning: the brain gets rid of circuits that are no longer being used | this is where use it or lose it term comes from
• the brain is designed to work for you | the power of neuroplasticity will work for you as you use its tools

Computer Brain

1. The Basic Computer: the physical brain is the mental brain where programming of the OS is stored
   > does not actually think for itself
2. The Software: the neural pathways, programs of information that act as software library the computer has stored through repetition
   > software allows hard wired hardware to function interaction with beliefs
   > the software can change over time
3. Computer Operating System (OS): the conscious thinking mind
   > self-aware part of yourself
   > sense of self
4. Silent Controller: the brain on autopilot — invisible, synaptic process that runs behind the scenes — choosing, selecting, making 1000s of choices for you
   > conscious mind vs silent mind
   > voting on and determining who you are
   > feelings determines action and silent response
   > makes decisions without asking you first

Your keyboard = Your 5 Senses

When you’re by yourself and in control of the input you get, you can decide what gets typed into your keyboard, but when you step out into the world, the world types whatever it wants to type into your computer.

• mirror neurons are like mind reading neurons. we unconsciously mirror the people around us, simulating neurons that infer the actions/feeling in others.
• our mirror neurons even fire when we’re not the ones taking action and observing | think of when someone is smiling at you or yawning
• proximity and empathy with the people around you will enable their thoughts, attitudes, moods, feelings to be mirrored and wired into your own | that’s why we become like the people we spend our time with most

Our Most Powerful Programmers

1. Our friends
2. Our family
3. The people we work with
4. TV
5. The environment of our homes
6. The rest of our mind’s time

Our friends:
Choose your friends with care, choose how you spend time with and be selective about how much time is spend with them. Your friends are your neural networks even when neither of you are aware of it & choose + change friends.
> how qualified a programmer are each of your friends?
> their words + attitudes + feelings are recorded as your own
> which of your friends would you give a mental keyboard to (for a day) & let them type anything into your brain?

Our family:
Programs from family are filled with emotion. These programs are imprinted and programmed into the brain faster and stronger through emotion via proximity and amount of time spent together.
> in many cases, family is bedrock

The people we work with:
A high amount of our programs are engrained through the people we work with as we spend a high amount of time with them.
> mirror neurons program opinions, ideas, and beliefs
> unless you ask for them, other people’s opinions don’t count

TV:
When you watch TV or it’s just in the background, it’s programming your brain by design.
> it’s created to keep you watching and buying

The environment of our homes:
Our brain picks up the feeling in our homes as message for everything it perceives around us
> colors, textures, architectural trim, enhancements, sound, etc.

The rest of our mind’s time:
The brain is constantly receiving input through activities, hobbies, environments, conversations, etc.
> ask yourself: “Are my activities helping me program my mind in the healthiest and most positive way?”

Key Requirements for Brain Builders

• newness
• concentration + focus (fine tuning mind of every detail of activity)
  > look for opportunities to see things differently
• difficulty, as it increases strength of neuron connection (if there’s no thought going into it, it’s not a neuron builder)
  > think ‘no pain, no gain’
• reward / value
• measurable progress
• stimulation
• uniqueness
• variety
• emotional contact (find things you learn to love, not learn to like)
• something you look forward to doing

Neuron-building Activities | Brain Builders

Work to play to a way of life | Exercise your brain (requires an effort)

1. Highly focused interest in the activity over a period of time
2. Repeat each newly learned activity frequently & regularly
3. Stay with it and keep doing it

• when you begin to send new messages to the brain, change can come sooner than later

Being aware rewires your brain.

The brain in mental-stasis is a brain that stays alive, but does not grow. The brain is ‘here’, but isn’t participating in here.

A brain in mental-growth continues to grow and change. The high levels of mental activity are good and will continue to operate on the mental-growth mode as opposed to the mental-stasis mode.

When you’re actively rewiring your brain to see yourself as interested, alert, and aware, stimulating your brain will keep it that way.

Making mindfulness a way of life: start by using daily reminders.

31 steps to mindfulness:

1. What can I do today to make myself aware of my own programming?
2. What is the attitude I choose to have all day today?
3. What is the #1 program I choose to focus on today?
4. How do I know my thoughts and programs are up to me and are mine to choose?
5. How mindful am I of my emotions today?
6. What is one thing I can do today to create more positive programs in my brain?
7. How much do I like myself, love myself, & care about myself today?
8. How often am I aware of other people’s programs & self talk?
9. How important do I feel my programs are to my success?
10. How much in control of my own programming do I feel today?
11. Who is the #1 person in charge of my my mindfulness, attitude & my programs today?
12. What creates my beliefs, my programs, & my opinions each day?
13. How is my self-talk today?
14. What is the #1 key to making my most positive programs strong and permanent?
15. How can I be mindful that I have unlimited potential?
16. How important is it to be aware of my thoughts and programs today?
17. If I think a negative thought, what is the first thing I do?
18. How do I know I was designed to succeed?
19. What do I like most about being mindful?
20. How often do I choose (each day) to be completely mindful?
21. What is 1 goal I can set today to help me be more mindful of myself each day?
22. How do I feel about improving my mind while being aware of all my thoughts and programs?
23. What is 1 thing I can do right now and throughout the day to make my mind sharper and more aware?
24. What is something I can do for someone else today to create more positive programs for myself?
25. How often do I program my mind for more positivity?
26. Who is in control of every thought I think?
27. Who is in control of my feelings (positive or negative)?
28. What is the first thing I think about each morning and the last thing I think about each night?
29. What is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received from making my life better?
30. What is the best way to create a practice of being mindful?
31. What is the key to making life work for me?

Introducing Reads as a capsule in the Learn Segment. Each week for the remainder of the year, we’ll be extracting key takeaways and notes from 26 books read in 26 weeks as a practice to nourish learning. Join us in the (re)wiring!