Have you ever heard comments like “you will have to live with this pain for the rest of your life” or “sorry, you will never walk again”………and on and on it goes.
May be you were never told any of those gloomy predictions but you may know someone who was. In my own practice as a physical therapist I have met countless people with stories like that and many of them have proven the world otherwise. Their belief, determination and will power has created change with a healing capacity much beyond their told prognosis.
Neuroscientific research over the recent years has shown that our brain can change and adapt to trauma. The “old” belief, for over 400 years, was that the brain is fixed and no change through life possible. This meant that any injury to the brain could not be healed,ever!
Thanks to the revolutionary discovery we now know that the brain can change itself, not through surgery or medication, but through thought and activity. What does that mean for our lives? In short: we can learn, grow, change at any age and at any point of our life. Habits and patterns that most of us have developed and live by, reduce our capacity for a more full life experience: we can not only create new patterns of thought and emotion, we can also undo old ones, that are not suiting us any longer. Such as limiting self beliefs. We can train an injured person to use the body more fully again, help someone to build trust and confidence, move against the so familiar pattern just because “this is how I was brought up”.
Through communication with our brains, we can almost achieve anything. Pretty cool. Why have we not all achieved our dreams and greatest wishes yet? Well, most likely because somewhere in our belief system, we have not ever identified ourselves with the possibility that we can achieve that what we truly want.
How can I change and get closer to my goals? While I am not a psychologist or brain scientist, I have read much about brain plasticity and am absolutely fascinated with it. And I have worked with many people over the years that have recovered well above anyone’s expectations. One advice experts give is to begin attending to yourself. Notice your thoughts and see how they may be limiting you. Once you are more familiar with your own thought pattern, it becomes more clear why certain things are the way they are. May be you never thought of yourself having the ability to get your dream job. Or that you could paint! (my own personal “old” belief). Once aware, you can begin to change your thoughts. Each time the old one shows up, replace it with the new one. As a Feldenkrais practitioner I am right in the center of this exciting scientifc discovery: in the Feldenkrais work, we teach people to pay attention to their movements, listen to the quality and sensations. Why? The brain wants to grow and change. When we move (and think) in the same ways over and over again, we do not create new connections in the brain. Through attending to our movements, we create awareness; as we invite new ways of moving, our brain makes new connections. Just imagine, billions of neurons that can create new connections. At any age and time. How can I create new connections in my brain each day? Do some things different to introduce new brain connections: brush your teeth with the opposite hand, play the piano while standing up, look into the sky with your head upside down, walk on the other side of the street, smile to your unfriendly neighbor, have an “opposite kind of a day”………….and come to a Feldenkrais class, for a change.
