Did you know that your mind—that immaterial part of your being by which you generate thoughts, feelings, and choices—changes the programming and chemistry of your brain? Although your mind and your body are two facets of who you are, they are inextricably interwoven. Our thoughts unquestionably impact our bodies, including our brains and DNA.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to alter its structure, connections, and functions. It is a very significant contributor to changing our thoughts and behaviors.
Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communications pathologist and audiologist who has worked in the area of neuroscience for nearly 40 years. In her eye-opening book, Switch on Your Brain, she states:
“How we react to the events and circumstances of life can have an enormous impact on our mental and even physical health. As we think, we change the physical nature of our brain. As we consciously direct our thinking, we can wire out toxic patterns of thinking and replace them with healthy thoughts. New thought networks grow. We increase our intelligence and bring healing to our brains, minds, and physical bodies.”
She points out that, although we have a fixed set of genes in our chromosomes, how those genes are activated, and in what ways they are active, are largely caused by how we think. The neuroplasticity of our brains is a constant process impacted by “a positive, good-quality-of-life direction or a toxic, poor-quality-of-life-direction.”
So, the bad news is that toxic thoughts such as bitterness, anger, irritation, unforgiveness, or obsessing over regrets of the past change our DNA which subsequently alters our brain’s “wiring” in a negative direction. But the good news is we have the choice to rewire our brains in a positive direction. Dr. Leaf expands on that very liberating reality, referencing experiments conducted by The Institute of HeartMath, an internationally recognized research organization, that teaches people how to reduce stress:
“The most exciting part of this study was the hope it demonstrated because the positive attitude, the good choice, rewired everything back to the original healthy positive state.”
Although our emotions, behaviors, and relationships tend to be shaped powerfully by negative stimuli, that doesn’t mean those negatives need to rule us. It just means that they need to be countered with positive misdirections. It takes intentionality and practice to reverse that natural tendency and misdirect from the negative to the positive. How? One effective technique is developing a daily practice of looking for the everyday positives that inevitably will cross our paths, then misdirecting our thoughts toward those positives, pushing out negative, destructive thoughts.
Adapted from the book The Magic of Cultivating Positive Emotions: Four Powerful Secrets Mentalists Use to Influence Thoughts and How You Can Use Them to Improve Your Emotional Health. Available at www.TucsonMagician.com/books.
Rod Robison is a Tucson, Arizona based author, mentalist, and magician who provides entertainment, inspirational speaking, and sales training for corporations and organizations. Learn more at www.TucsonMentalist.com .
