Your brain is like a bunch of clay. You can shape it and mold it through deliberate effort. You can do this because of neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to rewire in response to learning new ideas and engaging in new activities. Any change in your knowledge, abilities, or behavior produces physical changes in the brain.1 The choices you make determine how the clay is molded.
But unlike a bunch of regular clay, your brain’s clay never dries. It remains pliable throughout your entire life. True, the mind is more flexible and open to learning when we’re young, but it’s a mistake to think that we lose that plasticity when we become adults. Moreover, because of neurogenesis – the growth of new neurons in the brain – the amount of clay isn’t even fixed.
“Twenty years ago, it was almost universally accepted by neuroscientists that the brain contained all its neurons at birth and that their number did not change in adult life. We now know that new neurons are produced up until the moment of death. Moreover, scientists speak of “neuroplasticity,” the brain’s ability to continually change its structure and function in response to new experiences, so that a particular training, such as learning a musical instrument or a sport, can bring significant and lasting functional and structural changes in the brain. Mindfulness, altruism, and other basic human qualities can be cultivated in the same way. In general, if we engage repeatedly in a new activity or train a new skill, modifications in the neuronal system of the brain can be observed within a month.” –Matthieu Ricard2
Because you can change your brain, you can change your life. Dramatic shifts in both your outward behaviors and your inner experiences are possible. If you don’t like who you are today, get to work reshaping your brain.
Although the brain is capable of great changes, the process of rewiring it is done through small, daily practices. One does not take a sledgehammer to a ball of clay in order to reshape it. The molding is done by applying gentle pressure here and there, over and over again.
“If I know one thing for sure, it’s that you can do small things inside your mind that will lead to big changes in your brain and your experience of living … You really can nudge your whole being in a better direction every day.” –Rick Hanson, Ph.D.3
Of the many practices you can engage in that will rewire your brain for the better, meditation is perhaps the most important. The benefits of meditation include greater happiness, resilience, intelligence, creativity, and willpower.4 These benefits accrue slowly and steadily with daily practice.
“Mindfulness meditation carves new channels in the streambeds of the mind.” –Richard Davidson, Ph.D.5
Coming in at a close second is gratitude. The deliberate practice of gratitude rewires your brain to see more good in the world. It changes what you focus on. This is why I recommend the practice of gratitude journaling. When you think about what you’re grateful for, you’re training your brain to be happier.6
“What flows through your mind sculpts your brain. Thus, you can use your mind to change your brain for the better.” –Rick Hanson, Ph.D3
No matter where you are in life, you’ll always be a work in progress because your mind remains capable of change. A long-practiced bad habit may be ingrained in your mind like a deep river that is carved into the land, but you can still build a dam, dig a canal, and divert the water toward a better purpose.
And no matter how old you are, it’s not too late to change. Even if it seems that the clay of your mind has been left untouched, baking in the sun for decades, you can still manipulate it, because the clay never truly dries.
1 Doidge, Norman. The Brain That Changes Itself.: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. Penguin Books, 2006.
2 Ricard, Matthieu. Why Meditate?: Working with Thoughts and Emotions. Hay House, 2010.
3 Hanson, Rick, Ph.D. and Richard Mendius, M.D. Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom. New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2009.
4 Seppala, Emma, Ph.D. “20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today.” Psychology Today. September 11, 2013.
5 Davidson, Richard J., Ph.D. with Sharon Begley. The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live— and How You Can Change Them. Plume, 2012.