The Power of the Brain

The brain is estimated to have approximately 100 billion neurons. These neurons form a neuronet (kind of like a web), where neurons are interconnected and attach to one another. The basic idea is that neurons that fire together, wire together.

According to neuropsychologist, Dr. Rick Hansen, "The number of possible combinations of 100 billion neurons firing or not is approximately 10 to the millioneth power, or 1 followed by a million zeros, in principle; this is the number of possible states of your brain. To put this quantity in perspective, the number of atoms in the universe is estimated to be "only" about 10 to the eightieth power." Ok, so I don't know if this strikes you, if not re-read, if still not then re-read it after you've read the rest of this post, if still not then come back one day and read again and see if connects more for you. Understanding of this seems to come in layers as we practice increasing our awareness of the experiencing of new brain states, including learning new ideas, thinking new thoughts, visualizing new images, and feeling new emotions. The possibilities and potential for what we can experience is mind boggling, in fact, the possibilities are more numerous than are the atoms in the universe!!

I spoke to some junior high students yesterday about the brain and change. It got me thinking about the power of the brain, and the possibility of change. One of the students asked, "Someone once told me that we use only 10% of our brain, is that true?" I have no idea what percentage of our brain we "use," but one thing that brain science tells us (as can be seen in the quote above) is that we have only tapped into a very small percentage of our brain's power.

So, what does this mean for change? The brain is considered "neuroplastic" which means it can change. Neurons that no longer fire together, no longer wire together. They break their long term relationship. While changing a brain that has become "hard wired" may mean a fair amount of effort, it can be done. We can break old connections and access new brain states, allowing us to then create new neuro pathways. If you imagine standing at the top of a hill and day after day, week after week pouring buckets of water down the hill in the same spot it would begin to form a rut in the ground. This is similar to how it works in the brain for most of us. We follow the same neuro pathways day after day, in fact, they become so ingrained we often believe they are our identity. The connection of the pathway gets stronger and stronger (or in the water metaphor the rut gets deeper and deeper).

While these connections become strong, they can still be broken and new pathways formed. Everytime we interrupt the "old" thought, emotional, or behavioral pattern we begin to break old connections. There are a variety of things that can help us to do this, and in the beginning it can be quite tricky as we may not even be aware that what we've always assumed to be, may not actually be so. When this happens we don't even know that there's a neural pathway to be interrupted, what we do know is we feel stuck. For this reason it is invaluable to reach out to the resources that can help us. For me and my clients the resources have included:
- readings
- therapy/healing work
- meditation
- prayer
- connection with certain things such as nature, art, dance, music, etc.
- trusted friends, family, mentors, religious leaders & teachers (they need to be emotionally safe connections, though the unsafe ones can still be helpful in our learning)
- and so on...the list is not inclusive but includes some of the most common resources.

May you continue to access new experiences, greater freedom, and less stuckness in your quest to maximize your brain potential!

Betrayal of the Authentic Self

"The need to be normal is the predominant anxiety disorder in modern life." -Thomas Moore

I had a client today who expressed his experience in our last therapy session. He explained that he had been describing something to me that he very much wanted me to understand. He had felt that I wasn't understanding and so he began to get frustrated, panick, and raise his voice. He explained, (paraphrased) "when I realized I was reacting this way, I thought that this is how I usually respond when I feel misunderstood. At this point I began to feel badly about myself, and I felt shame and embarassment the rest of the session."

As we explored the patterns and the process of this experience, he talked about what it was like for him to feel misunderstood. He illustrated with a visual: "When I feel misunderstood it is as if there is a mass of people coming towards me. As they get to where I am I begin to try to keep up with them, to keep their pace. I fear that if I don't, they will run me over." "So the fear is death, or at least getting a good squash?" I questioned. "I guess so," he replied, "and then I feel that my true self is back where it originally stood, now an empty shell and there's nothing within it to hold it together."

Feeling misunderstood is not what creates the great distress. Abandoning our truth, our authentic self (or at least doubting our truth or our ability to know our truth) is the great betrayal, and when it happens we are left with the feeling of an empty shell, in which pain we often experience doubts and blame which are frequently turned inward (this is where we begin to experience the shame).

Being true to ourself when we feel misunderstood is difficult in a world that so rarely is emotionally safe. If we do express that we feel misunderstood, we are often met with defensiveness, annoyance, frustration, etc. of another. This is hugely frightening and invalidating, and is one of the reasons I so appreciated my client's visual (the fear of getting RUN OVER by the mass). So...as we continue to practice being true to our intuition, our gut, the spirit, our higher power, may we first accept the reasons we often abandon our truth. In doing this, we can offer ourselves understanding: "no wonder I sometimes abandon my truth...there is a fear of emotional death or at least being emotionally injured."

I studied business, marketing for my first college degree. When I finished school I began working. I ended up having seven jobs my first year out of college. I'd get a job...feel disconnected from my work and quit, then get another. People in my life began to worry about me, I began to worry about me. The messages I received (from others and my own mind) were things like:
-"you know, work's just work. You can't expect it to be perfect."
-"you've got the personality for this, if you quit you're not going to find something you like more."
-"maybe the problem is that you like to play too much."

...and so on. I felt the strong sense to continue searching for my line of work was misunderstood (even by my own self). Most of the messages reflected the idea that something was "wrong" with me, that feeling disconnected from my work, and the push to continue searching had to do with some problem, or defect, I had. and, for a good year I bought into these messages to a large degree. Often feeling self-doubt, and wondering what was wrong with me.

Discerning between our personal truths and mission, and our "mortal" desires- including the desire to be understood and normal (or abnormal...same plane, different angle), which are manifested in unbridled emotions and behaviors that don't connect us with our higher self, is a lifelong practice for most of us. As we practice attunement with our physical & emotional bodies we can better read the messages coming from our authentic self, allowing us greater courage to give up the need to be normal (to whatever we are accultured to), and instead rest within greater connectedness to our original self.

Best wishes to us all in our practicing!