Rewire Your Brain

I am reprinting the following article about change by Dr. Keith E. Webb for this issue of my eNews. I hope you are challenged and blessed.

Your response is welcomed below!

Winston Churchill said, "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." I believe this is true.

Coaches help people change. Yet change is difficult. Our brains are wired to do what we've always done. We need to rewire them. That's the subject of this month's article.

Rewire Your Brain for Change

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks." We all know how difficult it is to change. We get set in our ways.

Neuroscientists used to explain our difficulty in learning "new tricks" by saying the brain didn't change during adulthood. Our brains, they thought, are wired to do what we've always done.

New research shows our brains can change. We can rewire them.
Your brain is like a circuit board with impulses shooting from neuron to neuron along pathways called synapses.

Let's try it. If I say "chocolate," what came to mind? "Yumm!" "Let's eat." "Where can I get some?" The thought of chocolate started in one neuron and shot across a synapse to your response neuron. Synapses are like muscles, the more you use them and the bigger they grow.

The trouble is our thinking forms ruts, like deep ruts in a road. When the synaptic pathway is well-formed it's difficult to respond is a different way. Like trying to steer a car out of ruts.

The solution, neuroscientists says, is to form new pathways and strengthen and enlarge those preferred thoughts. In other words, change your mind and literally grow your brain.

The Bible told us as much. The Greek word for repent means "to change one's mind." "Do not conform to any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2a).

"Stop It" Doesn't Work
When you focus on stopping doing something, you are still sending impulses along the old pathway, strengthening it further. The more you focus on that pathway, even negative attention, the stronger it grows. Thus, making change all the more difficult.

From... To...
Again, the Bible helps, look at the pattern of turning from something to something better: "You were taught,... to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:22

The pattern is significant. Move from what you want to change, to how you want to be. The key is to focus on the new thought or behavior to strengthen that new neural pathway. Or as the Bible says, renew your mind.

3 Steps to Change and Grow Your Brain

1. Recognize: What thought or behavior would you like to change? What do you want to move from? What reasons do you have to change at all? Why change now?
2. Refocus: What would you like to change it to? Be specific. What would it look like? How will you know when you have achieved it?
3. Revalue: What benefits will you receive from the new? What will change? How will you feel? What will make this change worth it?

Change means renewing your mind: starting with making a decision to move from something, then focusing attention to a new way of being until that new way forms a strong pathway.

Copyright © 2010 Keith E. Webb & CRM

Dr. Keith E. Webb is a trainer and cross-cultural leadership coach helping non-profit organizations, teams, and individuals multiply their cross-cultural impact. Find more free articles at http://www.CreativeResultsManagement.com.

Copyright © 2010 Stanley J Troyer & CRM