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!