Brains and Silly Putty

The brain, like silly putty, is plastic and can be molded and trained to be ambitious. When the brain is referred to as plastic, it is referring to the fact that the brain is a changeable organ that continuously grows and changes in response to the individual's experiences and genes. The psychological term for this is neuroplasticity. In other words, it is scientifically proven that we can change our own brain activity.

As an adult, I find it invigorating that I am capable of changing my, ever so comfortable, neural pathways. They (the comfortable neural pathways) don't like it when I do, and can sometimes send me into fits of "fight or flight" anxieties. Once the experience is over and my mind realizes I am not at war and it's just a new thought; I turn around look at the completion of my work and I, sometimes, am comforted with warm feelings of satisfaction.

This means that you are not stuck. There are things you can do to take over your own mindset. You have to want it. If you are making a change for the positive in your behaviors, mindset, or life in general, you must fully immerse yourself in the place you want to be or the changes you want to make.

Some steps adults can take to change a behavior:

•         Do your research: YouTube, Google, etc…
•         Find someone who has gone through the same thing and listen
•     Teach others about your findings
•        Think about it. Think about where you are and where you want to be
•         Plan it out and set goals
•         Use self-regulating tools
•      Find a group or forum who have similar goals as you.

Neural pathways are developed through the experiences we have from childhood until current day. We are born with an overwhelming amount of neural pathways and they are pruned when not in use. When they are pruned, it doesn’t mean they are lost forever, it just means we have to work harder to recreate the pathway. “I was born like this,” is never an excuse. Change is possible. Whether you want to or not, change is a choice. I don’t demand change, your journey is yours. I have given you neurological evidence that you CAN do it. It is now your choice, what you do with this knowledge.



Side Note: The brain is not physically like silly putty this is a metaphor. I have actually never touched a brain.