This time, on our current adventure through the weaving wonders of the brain, let’s look at some strategies for actually how to use Neuroplasticity, and how our NICE model can start to leverage the power of your mind.
You, Me, and the Infinite Mind Makes Three
As the name suggests, our brains are like plastic. Or playdough. Or… whatever the kids are doing with these strange slime things nowadays that look like poo emoji. Children are strange.
ANYWAY, our brains are open to change, and as I demonstrated earlier on with my sneaky sixth finger, it’s fairly simple to do.
As I said in my previous post, our minds are (not quite literally, but almost) infinite. Going back to my city metaphor, each of our brains are made up of interconnecting streets, roads and alleyways, powered by the chemical and electrical signals we put into our bodies. These little signals (citizens of our wonderful city) are passed through our neurons (the roads, streets and alleyways), and every single one of these roads connects at different junctions (our synapses).
The thing to keep in mind (pun unintended) is: “The more connections we have, the more connections we can have.”
As magicians, mind-readers and mirth-makers, we see this happen on an almost daily basis.
Magic is a great way to explore the intriguing and fascinating complexities of the mind, in fact, if you watch the following, you’ll see how quickly you can change how you experience your entire world:
Now you’ve seen it done a couple of times, and see it can be done by people regardless of age or physical abilities, how do we start to use Neuroplasticity for ourselves?
Like anything in the body, it’s like a muscle. You have to build it up slowly before you can start dancing around in a tight unitard and stand next to Arnold Schwarzenegger. There’s a lot of different ways of building up your brain, but here’s a few, in a neat little model, that you can start looking at: The NICE Neuroplasticity Practice.
Novelty
One of the biggest drivers for creating new brain connections is novelty. Do you often find yourself feeling stuck, bored, listless or just a little bit ‘blah’?
This is often the sign of a lack of novelty.
Novelty is about the new, the shiny, the different and the out-there. It’s breaking with routine, doing something different, going somewhere new, or even looking at something old with new eyes.
Do this exercise, the next time you’re walking somewhere that you’re super familiar with (like a walk around your park, a jaunt to the shops, an adventure to the dark side of the moon, that sort of stuff) and you aren’t in a rush, look around and see if you can count 20 distinct yellow (or close to yellow) objects.
Once you’ve finished this, notice how you feel. Don’t you feel like you were far more present, far more involved, far lighter, and like the time went faster? This is the power of novelty, doing something different and unique.
Novelty works because it literally leads us to creating new connections in your brain. You’re seeking out new things, going to new places, doing different stuff with your body and allowing your brain to take in all kinds of new stimulus. You’re branching out (neuroscience pun) your neural megacity into new areas, and your brain LOVES it!
Imagination
One of the most common things I was told growing up was that I had a ‘very vivid imagination.’ I didn’t know at the time that this was adult-code for ‘you’re a weird kid’, but I took it as a compliment, and I still do.
Imagination, creativity and indulging in art of any and all kinds is like caffeine for your neural pathways. It charges them up, super-fires those jet engines, and gets all sorts of neurons from all kinds of different areas of your brain to start interacting.
Reading a book is a good start, but why not start writing one? Going to a museum or art gallery is great, but why not paint your own masterpiece (just use your own canvas, they tend to frown at you when you nick the ones they’re already using). Watching movies and TV is good, but talking about them with your bestie over a cup of mocha choca Fijian latte with extra whipped cream and a topping of pumpkin spice is EVEN better.
It’s less the absorbing of art and more the active engagement of it that stimulates your little grey cells. Sitting and passively enjoying a piece of art is decent (and better than TikTok!) but being active in it, or in the creative process, massively accelerates the connections in your brain.
Do this exercise, and be as present, silly and as open-minded as you can be: The Wrong Use Exercise. Go around your house and find 3 to 5 small, ordinary and everyday objects. Then, spend 5 minutes coming up with the wrong use of each. For instance, the rubber band sitting on my desk as I type this: It’s now a small but incredibly intense arena for The Grand Gladiator Ant Fight. Choose your favourite one, and imagine, now, trying to sell this on a late-night shopping channel: What does it look and feel like? Who would use it? What problems would it solve? What reviews did it get on Amazon?
Imagination works because it’s a little like getting a one-day pass on London’s Tube: Those chemical and electrical signals that run through all of your mental synapses can jump on at Piccadilly, change at the Embankment, wander over to Waterloo, hope off at London Bridge and skirt around Elephant and Castle for the rest of the evening.
Challenge
A pattern you already might be observing is two-fold:
One, it involves taking action. Sitting back and waiting for neuroplasticity to happen isn’t going to work, you have to go out there and do it.
Two, it often involves doing something a bit different.
This is where our C comes in, Challenge.
Challenge is not a bad thing, trust me. It might seem scary at first, but anything worth doing seems scary at first, and should be a challenge. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, but they’re not.
Doing new things, creating new art, actively engaging with people, making new connections, all of this is probably challenging unless you’re used to it. You should be pushing yourself in order to make yourself grow.
We, as humans, love a challenge. If we didn’t, why would magic still appeal to people? Or murder mysteries? Or climbing Everest, running marathons, going to the moon? We strive on challenges, and facing these challenges really stimulate our minds to grow.
Do this exercise: Make a note of at least 20 small but challenging things you’ve had on your to-do list for ages, but just never got around to. Do just one a day for the next three days. Get that warm, glowing feeling of ticking off a small but challenging item. After four days, do two every day. Then, after a week, do three every day. You’ll soon get addicted to doing these small, irritating things, and you’ll start to feel your brain itch to get more and more challenging things done.
Challenges make our brains grow because we get that quick, powerful burst of positive hormones known as endorphins when we make progress towards our goals. It’s often been hijacked by apps and other nefarious organisations, but believe me, there’s nothing like the natural high of facing a big challenge and proving to yourself that you are good enough!
Enjoyment
Lastly, at least for now, we come to a key factor of making your brain fizzle and pop with growth: Enjoyment.
The internet is absolutely swamped with topless dudes promoting their thinly veiled grifts under the ‘RISE AND GRIND’ banner. But real growth, real development, real self-improvement, shouldn’t be a hard grind. You shouldn’t have to pay your dentist extra because you’ve been gritting your teeth this whole time.
Real development may be tough and challenging, yes, but you should never feel like you’re on the verge of giving up, burnt out or worn down to a tiny speck of dust with your will to continue destroyed. If you’re feeling anything like that, something has gone severely wrong.
Enjoyment is about doing something that fills you with JOY, something you love, and something you’ll be happy to repeat over and over again. You’ve no doubt heard of the cliché of the magician practicing for hours in front of the mirror every day for years? Unfortunately, that one is absolutely true.
The reason we do it, though it might be a bit boring and repetitive and make your teeth itch sometimes, is that we absolutely love what we do, sharing magic fills us with pure joy, and the only way to do that, is rigorous repetition and practice, until what we have is worth showing off to people.
Enjoyment comes in those moments where we’re really engaged, connecting with people and entertaining them.
Do this exercise: The Pleasure Remix. Take something you already enjoy doing, and do it S-L-O-W-L-Y. I mean, SLOWLY. So slowly that a turtle would tell you to hurry up. Do it so slowly and deliberately that you really, truly experience it like it was the first every time you did it… And no, Jeff, you can’t do THAT thing, you disgusting man. Make a couple of notes on this and revisit them after a week or so, do you notice these aspects more once you’re more aware of them?
Enjoyment stimulates neuroplasticity because our brains are pleasure seeking monsters. As Anthony Robbins so succinctly put it, we do things for two reasons: To avoid pain, or to gain pleasure. Doing something you love, but doing it deliberately and mindfully (once again, not passively and without art, doing it in a way that challenges your normal habits) starts taking those old connections in your mind and rewards your lovely little senses with those pleasurable hormones for doing them in interesting ways.
Conclusion: Your Infinite Mind
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief little jaunt through the wild wonder that is your Infinite Mind. You should know by now that your brain, the 8th wonder of the world, is a wholly amazing thing, growing itself, changing itself, regenerating over disease and illness, expanding your horizons and pushing yourself to new heights, every day.
Please, please, even if you don’t do any of these exercises, please, even if you never read anything from this strange, rambling man, please just take on board this message: You don’t ever stop growing, you never stop connecting neurons, you are made (by whatever forces you believe made you) to live up to an incredible and amazing potential, and your brain is made to grow with you.
You are Infinite, and your Mind is too.
