Neuroplasticity

by Adrian Winship

  The process of myelination is a natural one, and it mostly occurs during childhood. Children absorb information at an incredible rate, but as we grow up into adults we can still continue to produce myelin in our axons. However, the process occurs at a significantly slower rate, and you need to put more effort for it to continue occurring. The good news is that the more you practice, the more you promote myelination in your brain. In the same way, the more you practice, the more an action becomes a habit!

  Why Is Starting New Habits Difficult?

  Think about the bad habits you have right now, those that you want to change. Now think about how to change them by starting new, better habits. This seems very challenging, right? But it's only "difficult" to start new habits when:

  You don't comprehend the structure of habits, and how to use this structure for your own benefit.

  You set yourself up to fail because you try to do too much right away.

  So how do you start a new habit? Let's break it down:

  ● Structure of habits

  Basically, all habits contain these basic components:

  Trigger or cue: This is what causes you to perform an action, and it can come from your external or internal environment.

  Action: This is what you do to either drop or adopt a habit.

  Reward: This is what your brain receives after you perform an activity you desire.

  Most of the time, people fail at starting new habits because they don't understand their structure. In particular, they miss out on the last step, which is important so they can keep on taking action.

  Why do you keep doing those bad habits, even when you know that they're bad for you? Most of the time, this is because bad habits are easy to do, and they are rewarding even though they are detrimental to your long-term well-being and health. On the other hand, good habits such as focused work, healthy eating, exercise and more require a lot of work, and you often don't get to experience the rewards until after you've practiced them for some time.

  So when it comes to starting new habits that will be beneficial for you in the long run, you may need to help things along if you want these habits to stick. Let's have a practical example. Imagine you want to make exercise a part of your daily habits. You can make this more appealing by:

  Eating dark chocolate after each of your workout sessions.

  Rewarding yourself with a few minutes of a pleasurable activity (for instance, playing video games) after an intense workout session.

  Giving yourself a pep talk every time you're able to complete a whole workout session without taking a break.

  As long as you're creative enough, you'll be able to come up with different ways to motivate yourself to keep on practicing the habit you want to start. This is a lot easier and better for your mental health than trying to force yourself to adopt a new habit and getting frustrated if it doesn't happen.

  ● Setting expectations and goals that aren't realistic

  Speaking of forcing yourself to do things, setting unrealistic expectations and goals is a big no-no. Doing this would be the same as setting yourself up for failure, which in turn causes a lot of negative feelings. If you want to start a new habit, be as realistic as possible. You should know your own skills and abilities. Use this information to think of expectations and goals to set for yourself that make it easier for you to start and maintain the new habit you'd like to form.

  ● Other tips to help you start new habits more easily

  Starting new habits doesn't have to be difficult. As long as you keep the structure of habits in mind and don't push yourself too much and too fast, you're more likely to succeed. Here are more tips to help you out:

  Start out small, especially if it's your first time in a long time to start a new habit.

  Make changes to your environment if you think that it's hindering your success.

  If you plan to start a complex habit, break it down and work on it bit by bit.

  Keep practicing the habit no matter how tempted you are to "take a break."

  Be patient with yourself and work at your own pace.

  When it comes to starting new habits, you must also consider what motivates you. There are two types of motivation, namely intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when you have an external reason for doing something. Conversely, intrinsic motivation is when you have your own internal reasons that drive your actions. With these definitions, which one do you think is more effective for you to start new habits?

  If you answered "intrinsic motivation," then you're right. If you want to start a new habit because you're intrinsically motivated to do so, then the likelihood that you will keep practicing this action until it becomes a habit is high. Since you want this to become your habit, you'll keep pushing yourself until it happens. But if you're only extrinsically motivated, as soon as the external motivation is removed, your will to perform the action will go right along with it. Then you'll start thinking of excuses not to do the action, and in the end it won’t become a habit.

  Strategies for Forming New Habits and Making Them Stick

  Psychologists describe habits as actions that you do routinely without having to think about them. This happens because of the meticulous ability of the brain to engage in synaptic automation. With enough practice and repetition, the brain hard wires itself to perform these actions so you don't have to consciously think about them while you do them.

  Our brain is an extremely complex and powerful structure that has the ability to change depending on our behaviors, thoughts and experiences. We all have habits that are deeply rooted in our brains. Unfortunately, not all of those habits are good ones. We all have bad habits that we wish we could get rid of. But the best way to do this is by replacing them with new habits.

  For a lot of people, changing bad habits is very difficult. But when you apply neuroplasticity to the task, you may find it to be a lot easier. According to neuroscientists, the best way for you to start changing your habits is by identifying your triggers. From there, you can start rewiring your brain by overriding your existing neural pathways. To do this, you must mindfully and consciously replace your bad habit with a good one. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

  Of course, the actual process takes considerable time and effort. But as long as you remember that your brain has the potential to change, it becomes easier for you to accept the fact that you can initiate this change, making you intrinsically motivated to do so. Now, let's take a look at some strategies for forming new habits and making them stick:

  Identify the habit you want to break and replace with something better.

  Establish your purpose and value of starting the new habit.

  Understand the structure of habits (which we have already discussed) and how to change your brain (neuroplasticity).

  Set goals for yourself, and be mindful of them at all times.

  Focus on the new habit that you want to form.

  Take small steps towards your goal to build your confidence and strengthen your motivation.

  Stay positive and keep encouraging yourself, especially when you experience small victories.

  If you think it will help, find someone who can start the same new habit with you.

  Practice, repeat and then practice some more.

  Anticipate the early warning signs of your triggers so you know how to deal with them when they occur.

  Changing Current Habits

  As you can see, you can teach old dogs new tricks. Just because you have bad habits doesn't mean that you must keep doing them for the rest of your life. Once you realize that these bad habits are causing bad things to happen in your life, it's time for you to make a conscious decision to change them.

  You must be willing to change these habits of yours and replace them with better ones. Of course, you don't have to change all of your bad habits at the same time. This is another way for you to set yourself up to fail. If you think it will help, write down all of the bad habits you have, then try to think
of good habits to replace them. Then you can start changing your current habits one at a time.

  We've already gone through the fundamental structure of habits. Now let's learn more about the habit loop to help concretize your understanding of how you can learn new habits to replace the old ones. Also, understanding the habit loop can help you learn how to break your bad habits by maintaining your rewards but changing your actions. Here are some steps for you:

  Identify your routine. For instance, perhaps you want to try and be a less negative person. Negativity is a powerful force that can exacerbate the effects of conditions such as depression, procrastination and anxiety. Therefore, if you want to improve your life, you should break this habit.

  Think about your rewards. When it comes to rewards, you must think of those that make you feel just as good or even better than the rewards your current habits give you. Working with the same example, being negative gives you an excuse not to try hard. Since you feel like you will always end up in failure, you avoid doing certain things so you don't have to feel like you're a failure. So what kind of reward can you replace this with? Rather than avoiding failure, you can strive for success. When you experience success, you will feel a LOT better about yourself. Even if you do fail, think of this as a learning opportunity for when you try again.

  Then it's time to think about what triggers your bad habit. In this case, what triggers your negativity? Is it a bad experience? Is it your own thoughts? If you're able to identify your trigger, you can be more aware of it.

  Now comes the hard part: changing your routine. One of the easiest ways to do this is by utilizing "if-then" phrases. Such statements provide you with clear intentions that help disrupt your existing routine. For instance, if you become aware of your negative thoughts, you can instead tell yourself, “If I continue thinking that I can't do this task, then I won't even try to do it.” That way, you become more conscious, and you can choose to make a change in your routine.

  Finally, you should keep practicing your new habit over and over again until it replaces the old habit that you wanted to get rid of. When you follow this process, you'll discover how easy it is to break your bad habits.

  Simple as the habit loop is, a lot of people aren't able to follow it. They end up getting stuck in one aspect of the loop or another, and when this happens, they get discouraged and then give up. Although giving up is the easier choice, you must keep in mind that you want to make a change in your life, which is why you're reading this book in the first place! To give you more inspiration, let's take a look at some examples of how you can use the habit loop to break your bad habits:

  ● Too much snacking

  A lot of people want to lose weight, but snacks are just so hard to resist! To break this habit, first think about your snacking routine. Do you reach for snacks at a certain time of the day? Do you start looking for snacks when you're bored?

  Think about how good you feel after you eat those tempting and tasty snacks. This, of course, is your reward. Now think of something that is equally rewarding. Perhaps you can do something else that you love and that can distract you from your snacking. Maybe you enjoy reading. Instead of reaching for those snacks, reach for a book instead.

  Now think about what triggers your snack attacks. Most of the time, we don't really feel hungry when we crave snacks. Anticipate your triggers and prepare for them. The more conscious you are about how you want to lessen your snacking, the easier it is to break this routine and change it into something more productive.

  ● Distracting yourself from work

  This is another habit that has become very common, especially with the emergence of blogs and social media platforms. When we get bored at work, we end up browsing through such sites until we realize that the workday is coming to a close and we have so much work left! To break this habit, think about your work routine and why you need to distract yourself from it.

  Of course, it's more enjoyable to read blogs and look at your newsfeed than to actually do your work, right? So how can you make your work more rewarding? Why not flip the situation? Why don't you make these distractions your reward after you've done a task? You can break your tasks down and reward yourself after each of those tasks.

  Then think about the things that trigger you. In this situation, boredom may be your main trigger. So you shouldn't allow yourself to get bored. Make sure you're always busy with your tasks so you don't end up loading those blogs and other websites that end up wasting your time. That way, you can become a more productive worker.

  ● Staying up late

  This habit is particularly detrimental to your health and well-being, so if you're guilty of it, you may want to change this habit as soon as possible. Again, start off by thinking about your bedtime routine. Even though you don't actually have to stay up late, why do you end up doing it? Are you really busy, or do you choose to stay up late because you're doing things that aren't really important?

  Those things you do that prevent you from sleeping early may feel rewarding to you in the moment, but in the long run your lack of sleep is causing adverse effects to your health. Sleep can actually be extremely rewarding. If you sleep at the right time and wake up at the right time, you'll start feeling more relaxed and energized each day. This can be your reward if you so choose.

  With that in mind, it's time to start building a different bedtime routine, one that will allow you to go to bed earlier. Get rid of the things that make you stay up late. Turn of your television, smartphone and other gadgets that may be the cause of your late nights. Replace them with meditation and other relaxing activities that will help you relax and drift off at a more reasonable hour.

  These are just a few examples of how you can use the habit loop to break your bad habits and change them to better ones. Now try to think of one or two bad habits you would like to change right now, along with some steps to do so. Here are a few lines for you to write down your own plans:

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  Habit Formation and Neuroplasticity

  How you live your life will determine what your brain will look like. Whenever you form a new habit, this habit will represent itself in your brain. Essentially, this is neuroplasticity in action, and it plays an important role in the formation of habits.

  When you do something regularly, whether it's something bad or good, your brain will create neural connections. This means that when you either break a habit or create a new one, neuroplasticity comes into play. When a new habit is formed, the brain releases a chemical known as dopamine that makes you feel happy and good. This chemical is important for the creation of neural connections, as well as strengthening the existing neural connections that reinforce the habit you have formed. This is why changing a habit also means changing your brain.

  Although it's not that easy to break bad habits, it is not impossible. The process of breaking, changing and forming habits causes a change in the brain's structure. This creates alternate pathways in the brain. But you must put a lot of intentional thought and effort into these habits in order for your brain to make the required changes.

  PART 5: ELIMINATING DEPRESSION

  “Because of the power of neuroplasticity, you can, in fact, reframe your world and rewire your brain so that you are more objective. You have the power to see things as they are so that you can respond thoughtfully, deliberately, and effectively to everything you experience.”

  - Elizabeth Thornton

  Chapter 12: Brains Suffering From Depression

  Depression is a mood disorder that has an effect on how a person behaves, thinks and feels. This condition causes the person to feel hopeless or sad, and these episodes can last anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of years. It's important to note tha
t depression isn't the same as feeling sad, upset or disappointed at some point during the day. It's an actual disorder that needs appropriate treatment.

  Depression can vary in severity depending on the experiences of the person, his environment and other factors. The most common symptoms of depression include:

  Feelings of hopelessness and sadness that don't go away

  A lack of interest in doing things, even the things that you used to enjoy

  An increase or decrease in your appetite, along with extreme weight loss or weight gain

  Sleeping too little or too much

  Fatigue and restlessness

  Inappropriate or excessive feelings of worthlessness or guilt

  Difficulty thinking, concentrating and making decisions

  Multiple and frequent thoughts of suicide or death

  Suicide attempts

  Although researchers don't know exactly what causes depression, there are some factors that may play a role in the development of the condition including stress, genetics, hormonal imbalances, and biochemical reactions.

  As with PTSD and trauma, the areas affected by the brain are the amygdala, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. Most experts believe that high levels of cortisol play the most significant role in the chemical and physical changes that occur in the brains of those who suffer from depression. Other studies have also shown that the thalamus and frontal cortex of the brain may be affected by this condition.

  Normal Brain vs. Depressed Brain

  Depression is a real condition that shouldn't be easily dismissed. Unfortunately, some people don't understand how this condition differs from just having a bad day or a bad mood. Although the causes of this condition aren't definitively established, studies have shown that the brains of those who are depressed differ from normal brains. In particular, a study conducted in London's University College shed new light on these differences (Lawson, et. al., Disrupted habenula function in major depression, 2017).