Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Neuroscientist from
Spain)
There is a general notion that once an adult is set in his ways, it’s next to impossible to change him. His beliefs, thought patterns and habits are based on his life experiences and he is now incapable of moving past those, no matter how much he tries. This has been believed for so long and with such unquestioning certainty that there are now sayings and proverbs based on it. “Old habits, die hard”, “you cannot teach an old horse, new tricks” and many many more. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because other than the neuroscience and related communities, not a lot of the general population knows about the progress science has made in this regard over the years. But it is never too late to know about our own brain and the miracles that it is capable of.
Changeability of the human brain
It was as
early as 1900 that the Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal was talking
about ‘neuronal plasticity’, a concept that suggests that human brains can
change even after a person has reached adulthood, a notion that we still
struggle to accept in the 21st century. His initial concept was
worked upon till it was discovered much later that neurons can actually
reorganize themselves and form new pathways after a traumatic incident. It came
to be known as neuroplasticity as some of us might already know.
So, what does it mean? It means that not only can the
human brain undergo a change in thought pattern like therapists have been
espousing all along, it actually takes this change a step further to prove that
the hardware of our brain, its physical structure, can undergo a significant
amount of change as well through constant repetition.
The magic of repetition
We have
all grown up to learn the value of practice. As children, we were made to
repeat our lessons in order memorize them and then reproduce them whenever
required. And if you think carefully, you’ll see that though you may forget
what you ate for a fancy breakfast, you can still remember some of those
childhood lessons verbatim, as if you just memorized them yesterday. That is
the magic of repetition. The more we repeat a pattern, the more it becomes a
habit. If you practice for a sufficient number of times, a thought pattern has
the power to form new neural connections and alter existing ones in your brain.
E.g. Take Pavlov’s famous experiment with the dogs and
the buzzer. The buzzer, at one point was a neutral stimulus. The dogs never
salivated to it. But because Pavlov continued connecting the buzzer with
arrival of food, the dogs started salivating extensively in anticipation later
on, every time they heard the buzzer. Repetition is powerful, isn’t it?
Think, Act, Repeat!
Following
the core principle of neuroplasticity, we at Dharma Life Sciences have
developed software applications to understand the existing wiring/cognitive
biases of maladaptive personality traits and then to apply repetition through
certain activities, so as to rewire those networks and form new connections.
We have created some highly specialized brain games
that trigger the existing mindset of people facing emotional health issues with
a situation and then reward them, through these games when they go against this
existing mindset to progress in the game. With sufficient number of repetitions
in playing these games, any individual can get rewired to form a new neural
network in their brain which will help them get rid of their biases and give
them a fresh perspective to look at life.
Pros of our Tools
Our tools
can be used by any lay person who wants to work on personality development. But
the full potential of our apps lies in being used in conjunction to therapy by
practicing clinicians. Because what better way to ensure enough number of
repetitions of a certain thought pattern than keeping a track of it through an
app?
Our Enhance Personality app, in fact, provides a
comprehensive guideline of activities that every client can practice by
themselves even outside of therapy sessions: sometimes when bored at work,
sometimes when stuck at traffic, sometimes even before going to bed. And the
best part? All activities can be logged and sent to respective clinicians so
that they can track each client’s progress in a more concrete manner.
Creativity your destiny
We, as humans constantly fear loss of control: over our mind, over our life, over our destiny. It is because we still struggle to accept that control
actually comes from within. But stop right there! It’s high time we realize the
immense source of power we have within ourselves to outgrow the genetic and
environmental components of our development in order to rebuild better, more
meaningful version of ourselves. No, there’s no magic charm. It’s just practice
leading to its proverbial perfection. But in this world where people are
getting increasingly unhappy with themselves and their lives, isn’t it worth
trying this simple, neuroscientific method of change for a better life and
emotional health? Think about it. Because the answer is the difference between
giving up and succeeding.
Written by Sanchari Bhattacharya, Manager - Creative Writing at Dharma Life Sciences
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