Retraining or rewiring your brain can transform your life in all areas, which is why it’s a biohack I highly recommend.
How do you rewire your brain? You rewire and change your brain through Neuroplasticity. Do this by thinking and physically acting in a deliberate way, focusing on what you believe and why, visualizing your future, and reacting to situations based on the desired outcome.
How your brain functions physically and functionally are behind everything you do consciously or subconsciously, that’s why it’s a really important biohack to consider.
So if you react, behave or associate things in a way you don’t want to, you need to rewire your brain, this is known as Neuroplasticity in science.
The good news is that we rewire our brains naturally all the time, so by deciding what you want and taking some simple actions, you can rewire things to control how you think, act, the relationships you have with people and things, and how you behave, giving you the ability to improve anything and everything.
Emotions are one of the ever-present pillars of human life. Everyone has them, some have better control over them than others, and this can be down to many factors.
Sadness, overthinking and a lack of positivity or self-motivation often lead to unhappiness and a lack of general wellbeing.
Perception is key because the way we see something causes physical and chemical changes in our mind and body.
For example, one person can hear a song and feel happy, another person may feel sad and both emotions have a very different physical and chemical reaction in the body.
There are ways to ‘rewire’ your brain in order to think more factually and positively so that sadness, stress, anxiety, and motivation are no longer issues, but equally, getting over-excited isn’t holding you back either.
Changing the way you think and altering the way you approach situations are some of the ways which can help to ‘rewire’ your brain in order to become a better you.
Table of Contents
How your brain works
Before covering the ‘how’ we need to cover and detail just how your brain works and why ‘rewiring’ can have a great impact on your life.
Thinking – whether positively or negatively – begins a chemical reaction in the brain which is similar to plugging in a string of lights. Once you start to think about something these lights turn on for this specific thought and topic.
Constant and consistent thinking of the same thing leads to these lights turning on faster and brighter.
Similar to driving – at 16 or 17, depending on where you live, your lights are less bright than when you are 40 with years of experience and thought when driving.
With trillions of brain cells, there is an innumerable amount of strings of lights that are related to all different aspects of life because we require so many elements of our body and mind to work in harmony to do even simple things like walking or smiling, let alone complex tasks like driving.
Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb in 1949 discovered that “neurons that fire together wire together”. Wiring, strengthening and activating as many brain pathways as possible is the key considering they work synergistically.
Look to consistently and repeatedly follow the suggested beliefs, feelings, visions and actions in the section below to experience a long-lasting difference in your brain and your wellbeing.
Simply… Choosing to think about something differently, learning a new task or choosing a different emotional reaction leads to new pathways. Repeating any of these actions makes your brain use these new pathways, to a point where it becomes second nature.
With these new pathways, the old ones become less used and therefore weaker – this process of forming new pathways and connections, and weakening old ones, is called neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to change itself).
How to ‘rewire’ your brain
Rightly or wrongly, the way we are is based on our perceptions, not the reality, and this is the key. Change how to perceive things and this will change how you react to them. And how you intentionally act will rewire your brain.
Willpower is helpful and is helpful, but it’s hard work, as is the ability to do something even though initial you don’t want to, but once you’ve rewired the brain to suit the outcome you desire, it becomes automatic and natural.
Think positive
Humans run on emotions, they influence our intentions and every decision.
Thinking positively and understanding why you want to do something is crucial to commit to, achieve and ensure the ‘rewiring’ of your brain leads to long term change.
Consider what emotions will help you to achieve your goal.
Why do you want to achieve these goals?
And don’t shy away from these feelings – feel them, spend time with them and learn to understand them
Facts not fiction
We’re all guilty of making assumptions, many for our own good and safety, but more often than is healthy, we assume something that’s just not factually correct. That’s’ why we get scared of situations that are perfectly safe like in almost all cases, for some people flying or having a fear of certain animals for others.
If we just stop for a moment and consider the likelihood of something bad happening we are controlling our thoughts, quieting our mind and rewiring our brains.
Believe
Without belief what is the point in trying?
Why bother if you don’t think you can achieve your goals anyway. Belief is the driving force behind some of the most successful athletes and sports teams in the world. Confidence, comfort within yourself and commitment are all key to believing in your goals and your ability to achieve them.
Inflection – become comfortable with yourself and what you can and can’t do. This will breed confidence.
Commit – look to your goals and understand why you want to achieve them and where they can take you. This leads onto the next heading…
Visualize
Seeing is believing. People often believe in something so much that they think that they see something that others may not have done.
To accept that something is possible or can happen you need to see it.
Associating images with your goals or visualizing your actions and goals can help to reinforce and encourage belief and commitment.
Just picture the end result of your goals, picture the process of achieving your goals – belief and motivation will follow
Take action
Actions speak louder than words. Don’t just say what you’re going to do, take action that matches your ambitions. And taking actions is physical as well as mental.
Physiology impacts the brain and the brain impacts physiology, and this is key because if you physically do something that counteracts your brain you can break a connection and build a new one. For example, try and feel sad while smiling or laughing.
Or if you’re not feeling motivated sit up straight and focus on good posture and see what happens.
It won’t work to think one way and act another. Everything mentally and physically has to be aligned in order to make the biggest strides forward in achieving your goals.
Take time to think about what actions will help to achieve your goals and action them ASAP – belief, commitment, and confidence will all follow
Groundhog Day
Use it or lose it. It’s difficult to change as pathways have already been formed and followed constantly through your life – reinforcing and strengthening them.
Repeating new actions and subtly changing them, or as I describe it, Groundhog daying it, where you change things as they happen to get the outcome you want over time, just as Bill Murray did in the film Groundhog Day, is powerful.
Consistent changes in the way thinking and beliefs are the best way to weaken these pathways and strengthen the newly formed pathways which will help you to achieve your desired goals.
In simple terms, the trick is simply: Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
In fact, if you follow a program like the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) daily proactive activities and thoughts are key to success.
Conditions Rewiring the brain can help
There are many medical conditions that rewiring the brain can help with, here are a selection of them:
- Adrenal Fatigue
- Allergies
- Anxiety, Stress and Panic Attacks
- Arrhythmia
- Asthma
- Bacterial overgrowth
- Body temperature regulation issues (hot or cold)
- Central Sensitization
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrom
- Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) CIRS or Mold Illness
- Cognitive Function – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), focus, memory, brain fog
- Depression
- Dysautonomia
- Eating disorders
- Electric Hypersensitivity Syndrome
- Environmental Illness (EI)
- Fibromyalgia
- Food and Drink Sensitivities
- Headaches
- Heart Palpitations
- Heavy Metal Toxicity
- Insomnia and sleep issues
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Constipation / Diarrhea
- Leaky Gut Syndrome
- Lyme Disease
- Mast Cell Activation (MCAS)
- Mold Illness
- Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
- Myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Pain (including chronic pain)
- Poor circulation
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)
- Sensitivity to smell, taste. light, sound, touch
- Sex drive
- Skin Conditions – eczema, rash, hives
- Tinnitus
- Thyroid Disorders
- Vulvodynia
- Weight Loss
Conclusion
Rewiring your neural pathways to achieve your goals takes time, patience and commitment. It’s a difficult task which, in the long run, is worth it.
Many try and many fail. The key is to follow the guide above when rewiring your brain. Following these guidelines will lead to belief, confidence, and commitment in your ability to achieve whatever you want.