GREAT INSIGHTS: Neuron Connections in the Brain

GREAT INSIGHT: Our brains are shaped by the things we pay attention to. ANY new experience will physically create a new connection. And with your 100 billion neurons, each with the ability to make thousands of connections, there are more potential neuron connections inside your brain than there are stars in the sky.

Since the science of neuroplasticity has taught us that we can reshape our brains by what we pay attention to, there have been many books and studies written about this. And since your mind and brain are intricately interconnected (think about this; where does your mind stop and your brain begin, and vice versa?) it’s worth learning to use your mind/brain. Most of us only learned ONE way of using our mind/brain, we learned “recall”. We memorized a subject and then would recall that subject for a test of some sort. 

Since part of our pain, especially chronic pain, is “learned” then it’s important to learn as much as we can about how to use our mind/brain capacity beyond just “recall”. 

Remember, our brains are shaped by what we pay attention to. And I don’t think anything gets our attention quite like pain does. So the pain reshapes our brain, the pain creates new connections and neural networks. And while the brain is creating new networks of pain it’s also connecting seemingly benign memory associations with the pain! For instance; you go out to dinner in a favorite restaurant and while you’re sitting there in that restaurant you experience your pain. Believe me, your brain is connecting your favorite restaurant with pain! So now, the next time you just THINK about your favorite restaurant you may also activate a pain network. And it goes on and on with seemingly un-connected thoughts and experiences. Until your mind/brain has built up a huge network of pain.

And it will take a different way of using your mind/brain to “unlearn” these networks. The skill of recall can help, but you need other ways of using your mind/brain as well.

We CAN use our mind/brain in other ways, we just have to learn how to do so. 

There’s a cool book I read recently entitled: The Net and The Butterfly. In the book the authors give some really cool ways of learning to do just that, to use your mind/brain in ways other than just recall. The book is primarily about how to develop the skills of breakthrough thinking. You might ask “How will that help my pain?”. Because it’s imperative that you play a part in your healing. And only you are in your mind/brain! No one else is in there. So your own breakthroughs are important as you work in partnership with your doctors and healers. 

And who knows what else, what other amazing insights you may gain by learning to use your mind/brain more fully…