The brain you were born with is actually modified by your
experiences throughout your life. Your brain is changing all the time.
In fact, new brain cells can be born. Genes lay out potential and
vulnerabilities, but they do not dictate your thoughts, your feelings,
or your behavior. It turns out that behavior is not rigidly determined.
You can even turn genes on or off with your behavior.
maximize your potential and minimize your vulnerabilities
you can rewire the parts of the brain that are out of balance with the others, having become either overactivated or underactivated
Nurtured Nature
In order to rewire your brain, the first thing you should do is learn
how the brain works. Your brain works in response to and in relation to the world around you.
Neurons and Their Messengers
Each neuron is capable of maintaining connections with about ten
thousand other neurons. These connections change as you learn new things.
Neurons communicatewith one another by sending chemical messengers called neurotransmitters across a gap called a synapse. This is how one neuron gets another neuron to fire.
Cells That Fire Together Wire Together
The synapses are not hardwired but are changing all
the time. This is what is meant by synaptic plasticity, or neuroplasticity . The synapses between the neurons are plastic.
“Cells that fi re together wire together” aptly describes the way your
brain reorganizes when you have new experiences.
Repetition rewires the brain and breeds habits.
Not only does behavior change the structure of the brain through
neuroplasticity; just thinking about or imagining particular behaviors
can change brain structure as well.
Mental practice alone contributes to the rewiring of the brain.
Deep within the brain are two structures that are involved in
memory. One is the amygdala. The amygdala is triggered
by intense emotional states like fear, and it assigns emotional intensity to the incoming information. It often serves as a sort of panic button.
The other memory structure is called the hippocampus.
The hippocampus and the amygdala are involved in two different types of memory: explicit and implicit, respectively.
Implicit memory is often thought of as unconscious memory. It
reacts to the emotional intensity of events and situations; when the
situation is potentially dangerous, it activates the fear system in your
body. This is often called the fight – or – flight response.
This alarm system is automatic; that is, it happens before you
have time to think about it.
A balance between your sympathetic nervous system (which activates you) and your parasympathetic nervous system (which calms
you down) allows you flexibility.
Exercise, relaxation, and meditation, can help you to be calm.
The calming and focused practice of mindfulness meditation wires the brain circuitry that promotes better health.
FEED Your Brain
Now that you have a better idea of how the brain works, let’s focus
on a method of rewiring your brain that involves the following four
steps:
• Focus
• Effort
• Effortlessness
• Determination
Focus
You need to pay attention to the situation, the new behavior, or the
memory that you want to repeat or remember. Attention activates
your frontal lobes, which ensure that other parts of the brain are also
engaged. You may think of this step as the alert function. You can ’ t
rewire your brain without opening the gate or initiating the change.
Focus gets the ball rolling.
Focus allows you to pay attention to what ’ s happening
here and now, and this starts the process of neuroplasticity.
Effort
Effort shifts your attention from perception to action. Making a
focused effort activates your brain to establish new synaptic connections.
Effortlessness
After a new behavior, thought, or feeling has been established, it
takes less energy to keep it going.
Thus, to rewire your brain you ’ ll have to stay with the new behavior
long enough to make it become fairly automatic. In time, practice
will make it effortless. Your brain won ’ t have to work as hard once
you reach this level.
Determination
The final step in feeding your brain is staying in practice. Do the
activity again and again. Being determined in this way need not
be tiring and painful.
Determination simply means that you stay in practice.
Taming Your Amygdala
Exposure to the anxiety – provoking experience while staying focused on the subjectmatter allows you to break through a barrier.
Key points about how to tame your amygdala. Key points about dealing withstress and anxiety:
• Excessive anxiety often results from false alarms.
• Moderate anxiety is actually useful for neuroplasticity.
• You can tap into your parasympathetic nervous system and
calm yourself down.
• Avoiding avoidance and maximizing exposure reduces anxiety
in the long run.
Stress and False Alarms
Anxiety has a lot to do with fear.
Dealing effectively with anxiety requires you to turn off a false alarm or keep it from turning on.
Anxiety can be mastered. . You can manage your anxiety level by understanding how it is triggered in your brain.
Let’s start at the center of fear: the amygdala.
In addition to setting the emotional tone of any experience, the
amygdala can also serve as a panic button, becoming activated for
false alarms as well as genuine ones. This is possible because of
the reciprocal relationship between the amygdala and the OFC.
When the amygdala is overactive, it can overpower the OFC. Nevertheless, the OFC can tame the amygdala. I use the word tame rather
than shut down, because you need the amygdala. I t contributes to
emotional responsiveness in general, not just fear. You don’t want
to shut it down; rather, you want it to work for you.
There are two principal ways to activate your amygdala: the slow
track or the fast track. The slow track goes through the cortex. This
means that you can think about things before you become fearful.
This is both good and bad: good because you can remind yourself
that there is nothing to fear; bad if you develop irrational fears.
The fast track to activate your amygdala can trigger your sympathetic nervous system into action and can potentially cause anxiety
and/or panic. Your amygdala can sound the alarm before your cortex knows what ’ s happening. This means that you can feel anxious
before you even think about something that makes you anxious.
Within a fraction of a second, the amygdala can use norepinephrine
to spark electrical impulses throughout your sympathetic nervous
system to activate your adrenal glands. These glands will dump
epinephrine (adrenaline) into your bloodstream, which jolts your
system to increase your breathing, your heart rate, and your blood
pressure. This is called the fi ght – or – flight response.
The rush of adrenaline that you experience prepares your body to get moving by increasing your heart rate and your
breathing so that you can send more oxygen to your muscles. Adrenaline
binds to your muscle spindles, intensifying the resting tension
so that your muscles can burst into action. The blood vessels in your
skin constrict to limit any potential bleeding if you are wounded, and
your digestive system shuts down to conserve energy. Saliva stops
fl owing (so your mouth becomes dry), and the muscles in your bladder
relax so as not to waste glucose.
The shorthand sequence goes like this: The amygdala signals the
hypothalamus, which is responsible for many metabolic processes and
involved in the autonomic nervous system. This signals the pituitary
gland, which signals the adrenal glands to release adrenaline and
later cortisol. This chain is called the hypothalamus – pituitary – adrenal
(HPA) axis .
Neurochemically, norepinephrine, along with a substance called
the corticotropin – releasing factor (CRF), is sent from the amygdala
to the hypothalamus, which signals the pituitary gland. The pituitary
gland then sends a slow message through your bloodstream to your
adrenal glands, telling them to secrete cortisol, a stress hormone that
can keep you charged up a little longer than adrenaline does, to deal
with the stress. On a short – term basis, cortisol facilitates dopamine,
which keeps you alert and activated. However, cortisol can be corrosive
to the brain and the body if it stays activated too long. With excessive
and prolonged cortisol, the levels of dopamine become depleted, and
this makes you feel awful.
On a short – term basis, however, cortisol is actually very useful.
If you encounter stress that requires a prolonged response beyond
a quick fl ight or a fi ght, your body needs a way to manufacture fuel
(glucose). Epinephrine (adrenaline) immediately converts glycogen
and fatty acids, but when the stress is longer-lasting, cortisol takes
over. It works through the bloodstream, so its effects are slower than
adrenaline’s.
Cortisol works more systemically than adrenaline does. It triggers
the liver to make more glucose available in the bloodstream while
it also blocks insulin receptors in nonessential organs and tissues
so that you get all the glucose (fuel) that you need to deal with the
threat. Cortisol ’ s work is a long – term strategy of insulin resistance,
which serves to provide the brain with a sustained level of glucose.
However, you don’t always have a lot of glucose fl oating around, so
cortisol works to stockpile energy. It converts protein into glycogen and begins to store fat. If the stress is chronic, the increased
body fat is stored in the abdomen. If you have a growing bulge in
your midsection, it may be due to cortisol working to store energy.
Unfortunately, that ’ s not the way you want it to be stored. It’s better
to burn off such stored energy by exercise.
One of the many problems associated with chronic stress and
high levels of cortisol is that parts of the brain bear the brunt —
especially the hippocampus. The hippocampus has many cortisol
receptors; under normal circumstances, this helps to trigger the
shutting-off of cortisol, much like a thermostat, so that it can turn
down the production of cortisol. However, when cortisol production
is excessive and prolonged, the hippocampus receptors themselves
shut down. The hippocampus then begins to atrophy, and with it
your memory capacity.
Unfortunately, the reverse happens for the amygdala. Instead
of enduring atrophy, it is hypersensitized. The amygdala actually
becomes more sensitized by an increase in cortisol. From an evolutionary perspective this makes sense, because if our early ancestors
were stressed by something like dangerous predators, they needed
to be hyperalert and not think about anything else.
Because the amygdala can become hypersensitive, chronic stress
can make you more jumpy and anxious.
When you experience severe trauma or excessive chronic stress, the
once – cooperative partnership between your hippocampus and your
amygdala becomes skewed in favor of the amygdala. This is because
the hippocampus is assaulted by excess cortisol and glutamate
when the amygdala is pumped up. Cortisol and glutamate act to
excite the amygdala, and the more it is excited, the more easily it is
triggered.
Since your hippocampus provides the context for your memories, your ability to put stressful events into perspective becomes impaired. The amygdala, in contrast, is a generalist. When it gets excited, it doesn’t care about the context. Any loud noise sets off the fight – or – flight response.
By taking action, you also activate the left frontal lobe, which
can decrease the overreactivity of the amygdala. The right frontal
lobe is often overactivated in people with anxiety disorders. The left
frontal lobe is also more action – oriented, whereas the right frontal
lobe is more passive and withdrawal – oriented. Furthermore, the left
frontal lobe promotes positive emotions, whereas the right frontal
lobe promotes more negative emotions.
Thus, you have within you the capacity to turn off the fight – or –
flight response and the false alarms. The left PFC and the hippocampus work together to tame the amygdala and shut down the HPA axis. Taking action and doing something constructive can shutdown the feeling of being overwhelmed, which is generated by the overreactivity of the right frontal lobe.
Moderating Anxiety
The brain is a high – energy consumer of glucose, which is its fuel.
Your brain can’t
store fuel, however, so it has to “ pay as it goes. ”Since your brain is
incredibly adaptive, it economizes its fuel resources. Thus, during a
period of high stress, it shifts away from the analysis of the nuances of
a situation to a singular and fi xed focus on the stressful situation at
hand. You don ’ t sit back and speculate about the meaning of life when
you are stressed. Instead, you devote all your energy to trying to fi gure
out what action to take. Sometimes, however, this shift from the higher –
thinking parts of the brain to the automatic and refl exive parts of the
brain can lead you to do something too quickly, without thinking.
This is what happens when you are overwhelmed with anxiety.
Rather than shy away from anxiety, you should confront it and make it useful.
The main point here is that you shouldn’t try to run away from stress
and anxiety; you should learn to manage it. By managing it, you ’ ll
promote a healthy, thriving brain that generates neuroplasticity.
Activating Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system has two parts: the sympathetic nervous
system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system excites you, and the parasympathetic nervous system relaxes you. In extreme situations, the sympathetic nervous system triggers the HPA axis and the fight – or – flight response.
Challenging the Paradox
A paradox occurs when you avoid what you fear, because your
fear then grows. This is counterintuitive, because when you avoid
what you fear for a short time, your fear does decrease. Over a longer period, however, avoidance allows the anxiety to flourish.
You have to try to work against avoidance, even though it seems to
make you feel better. I call this challenging the paradox. Challenging
the paradox involves doing away with avoidance and replacing it
with exposure . Exposure means facing what makes you feel anxious.
By exposing yourself to anxiety – provoking situations, you become
habituated to them, and your anxiety will eventually diminish.
If you are prone to worry excessively, instead of engaging in the details of what worries you, simply observe.
Activating the Frontal Lobe and Changing Your Narrative
The frontal lobe — and particularly its foremost section, the PFC —
decides, through its powers of attention and emotional regulatory
skills, what is important and what is not. The hippocampus provides the context for any memories that are associated with the situation.
The emotional tone and perspective with which you describe
each experience can potentially rewire your brain. The more you
describe your ongoing experiences in a particular way, the stronger the neural circuits that represent those thoughts will become.
Your ongoing narrative is organized by three general levels of
thought: automatic thoughts, assumptions, and core beliefs. On the surface are your automatic thoughts. These are like short tapes that momentarily fl ash through your mind. They are a form of self – talk that you use throughout the day. You produce aariety of automatic thoughts, some consciously and some unconsciously. Your automatic thoughts can be rewired in your brain to represent more adaptive self – talk.
Your assumptions, which are positioned midway between your
automatic thoughts and your core beliefs, act as a kind of translator
between the two. They aren’t as fundamental as core beliefs, yet
they aren’t as superficial as automatic thoughts. Like your automatic
thoughts, your assumptions can be rewired by reflecting reality
instead of your worries. Assumptions are one of the prime targets of
cognitive – behavioral therapy, which aims to restructure a person’s
thoughts to reflect adaptable and constructive thinking problems.
Your assumptions can serve as theories that help you to cope
with your core beliefs. Core beliefs are broad generalizations about
yourself and how the world works. When these beliefs are associated with anxiety, they paint you into a corner psychologically, so that
whatever you do, you ’ re faced with an insurmountable challenge —
one that will always fail.
Negative core beliefs can contribute to anxiety.
Negative core beliefs keep you away from any hope or expectation of
relief from anxiety. They set you up to fail because you leave yourself
no hope.
Restructuring your core beliefs is a more ambitious challenge
than adjusting your automatic thoughts and your assumptions.
However, if you work on them simultaneously with feeding your
brain to reformat your core beliefs, the two more shallow levels can
be harmonized to work effectively.
By considering possibilities instead of limitations on a regular
basis, you ’ ll rewire your brain. When you focus on possibilities, you
recruit new connections between your neurons instead of using the
well – worn connections that reinforce negative emotions.
There are several methods of thinking that can help you to resist
negative thinking and moods and rewire your brain. These include
the following:
• Thinking in shades of gray: This perspective counters blackand-white thinking. By considering all possibilities between
the two extremes, you allow yourself to adjust to a reality
between extremes.
• Context checking: Here you adjust your opinions and perceptions to the context of the situation rather than just going with a preset opinion.
• Optimism: You consider every situation as an opportunity.
• Detaching: You disconnect yourself from repetitive negative beliefs .
• Externalizing problems: When something unfortunate happens, consider it a problem rather than a refl ection of your worth.
The key to making these methods work is to practice them often
and consistently.
Attention: The Gateway to Memory
Attention is critical for redirecting the resources in your brain and
promoting neuroplasticity.
Mindfulness involves observing and accepting your thoughts,
your physical sensations, and your emotions as they enter and
exit your awareness.
Attention is a necessary prerequisite for neuroplasticity. Mindfulness is also all about attention. Mindfulness meditation mentally engages one ’ s concentration, which alters the connections between the thinking (cortex) and the emotional (amygdala) parts of your brain.