How to change your mind.
The question I have asked myself many times over the years is: Can we really change? Is healing possible? For me to answer that question, is to start with how the brain works. Your brain is not fixed in place. It is not a finished machine that stopped changing when you became an adult. It is alive, responsive, and constantly adjusting to what you repeat, practice, avoid, fear, learn, and heal from. We can call this a fact. We even have a really cool name for it.
That ability is called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity answers a powerful question: Is it possible to rewire the brain? The short answer is yes. The more honest answer is yes, but not like flipping a switch or installing new software overnight. Brain change is gradual. It happens through repeated signals, new experiences, emotional safety, rest, movement, learning, and time.
This matters deeply in any healing process. Whether someone is recovering from chronic stress, anxiety patterns, injury, addiction, pain loops, emotional trauma, or simply trying to build healthier habits, neuroplasticity gives us a scientific reason for hope. The brain can change. The nervous system can learn. Old pathways can weaken, and new ones can grow stronger.
What neuroplasticity really means
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s lifelong ability to change, adapt, and reorganize itself in response to experience.
A helpful way to picture this is a path through a forest.
The first time you walk through thick grass and trees, the path is hard to see. You have to move slowly. You may trip or turn back. If you walk that same route again and again, the grass flattens. The path becomes clearer. Soon, it is easy to follow without much thought.
The brain works in a similar way.
How the brain rewires itself
The phrase “rewiring the brain” is useful, but it can also be misleading. The brain is not a circuit board with one broken wire that needs replacing. It is a living system made of billions of nerve cells, called neurons, that communicate through connections called synapses.
When neurons communicate often, their connection can become stronger. This idea is often summarized as:
Neurons that fire together, wire together.
I did not came up with that frase, but I wish I did.
That means repeated experiences shape the brain. If you practice a skill every day, the brain becomes better at sending the signals needed for that skill. If you repeatedly react to stress with panic, the panic pathway can become quicker and stronger. If you repeatedly pause, breathe, and respond with more calm, that calming pathway can become more available over time.
Another useful phrase is:
Use it or lose it.
The brain is efficient. It does not keep every possible pathway equally strong. Connections that are used often tend to strengthen. Connections that are rarely used may weaken or be pruned away. This is not a flaw. It is how the brain saves energy and adapts to the life being lived. I know we like to make things very personal and take things seriously, but the way your brain actually works is not you attacking you. It is designed to in some cases survive!
This is why repetition matters so much. One meditation session, one therapy appointment, one workout, or one new thought can help. But lasting change usually comes from repeated practice. The brain needs enough evidence to believe, “This is the route we use now.” Because it is not personal! You are just working on old programs and beliefs.
So when we talk about changing and healing we have to take all this information with us in the jugdement and decisionmaking process.
The way I have been working on this is via the identity construction.
To have an understanding WHY I am the way I am, and from that place start to rewrite.
I believe we left right about here.
Looking at the last version of the identity construction we can see that it all seems to be cause and effect. And it also seems to be endless, but we can revisit that another time. Let us stay on point, the rewriting. When you have an understanding of your identity construction you can see where your beliefsystem kicked in, and also what shaped it.
To be clear, we have worked on understanding this in class for a long period of time, this right here, right now is to open up to a different perspective to get to know yourself better. If you want to actually dig deep, send me a message and we will get into it.
Out of the self, came the core, came the belief. And it seems to be that there is where the difficulty for many of us lie. To change the beliefsystem we need not only the practice and use of our amazing neuroplasticity skill, but also to understand what happend. I have seen many people try to bypass this, and just with pure mindset and discipline try to rewrite. Or dive into plant medicine, or one workshop after another. It might work for the short term, but long term you need all of the parts of you. Your past, your present and your future.
So let us zoom in.
Let's say, just for research and expansion purposes, this is what happened.
Out of your idenitity construction and then zooming in on your belief system there is a conviction that is telling you something like this.
You fucked up, you are wrong.
Then how do you rewrite? How do you, while approaching yourself in a holistic way change your mind?
When you repeat a thought, behavior, emotional reaction, or physical movement, the brain starts making that route easier to access. This is useful when learning to play piano, drive a car, speak a new language, or practice a calming breath. It can also become a problem when the repeated route is fear, self-criticism, avoidance, pain anticipation, or stress.
That is why healing often feels hard at first. You are not only “thinking differently.” You are asking your brain and nervous system to stop using an old familiar path and begin building a new one.
This is one reason healing requires patience. The brain may understand a new idea quickly, but the body and nervous system may need more time to learn it.
Neuroplasticity can sound abstract until we look at daily life. Most people have already experienced it many times.
Think about learning to drive.
At first, everything takes effort. You check the mirrors, press the brake, watch the road, read signs, manage speed, and think about every move. It can feel overwhelming. After enough repetition, driving a familiar route becomes almost automatic. The brain has built a reliable pathway.
The same thing happens with:
Typing without looking at the keyboard
Remembering the route to a friend’s house
Learning a song by heart
Becoming comfortable with a new exercise
Getting used to a morning routine
Practicing a language until words come faster
These are positive examples. The brain uses repetition to make life easier.
But neuroplasticity also explains why painful patterns can become deeply ingrained.
Anxious thinking can become automatic if the brain repeatedly scans for danger. Chronic stress can train the nervous system to stay on high alert. Avoidance can make fear stronger because the brain learns, “I survived because I escaped.” Chronic pain can sometimes involve nervous system sensitivity, where the brain and body keep sending danger signals even after tissues have healed.
This does not mean symptoms are imaginary. It means the nervous system has learned a pattern, and learned patterns can sometimes be retrained with the right support. Otherwise we mind end up in a loop.
Why healing can feel uncomfortable at first
Changing the brain often feels strange before it feels natural.
Old patterns are familiar. Even when they are painful, the brain knows them. New patterns can feel unsafe, awkward, or false at first. Someone practicing self-compassion after years of self-criticism may not believe the words they are saying. Someone learning to relax after chronic stress may feel restless when things are quiet. Someone recovering from addiction may feel pulled back toward old cues and routines because the brain has linked them with relief.
This is why repetition, environment, and support matter.
The brain does not change just because we want it to. It changes when we give it repeated experiences that teach something new. Those experiences need to be strong enough, safe enough, and consistent enough to compete with the old pathway.
For example, telling yourself “I am calm” during a panic response may not be enough. But a full practice might include:
Slowing the breath
Naming what is happening
Feeling the feet on the floor
Relaxing the jaw and shoulders
Using a familiar grounding phrase
Staying present until the body learns the wave can pass
Over time, the brain starts to recognize a new pattern: activation does not always mean danger, and discomfort does not always require escape.
That is real rewiring.
Neuroplasticity is natural, but it is not random. Certain habits and practices can support the brain’s ability to change. Repetition tells the brain, “This matters.”
Get structured support when needed
Some forms of rewiring need guidance. This is especially true for trauma, addiction, stroke recovery, chronic pain, severe anxiety, depression, or neurological injury.
Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma-informed therapy, physical rehabilitation, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and medically supported treatment can help shape change safely. These approaches often work because they combine insight with repeated practice.
Structured support also helps when the brain is stuck in loops that are hard to interrupt alone. A trained professional can help identify patterns, pace the work, and reduce the risk of overwhelm.
A practical way to begin rewiring
Start small. Choose one pathway you want to strengthen.
For example, instead of trying to “be less anxious,” choose a specific practice:
“When I feel anxiety rising, I will place one hand on my chest, slow my breathing, name three things I see, and remind myself that this is a body alarm, not proof of danger.”
Then repeat it. Not once. Not only when things are terrible. Practice when anxiety is mild. Practice when life is calm. Practice enough that the brain starts recognizing the route.
A simple framework can help:
Notice the old pathway
Name the thought, reaction, or habit without shame.
Pause long enough to interrupt it
Even a few seconds can create space.
Choose the new response
Make it specific and realistic.
Repeat it often
The brain needs repetition to build trust.
Support the body
Sleep, movement, food, connection, and rest all affect the nervous system.
This is the rewriting process in real life. Not forced positivity. Not pretending pain never happened. Not trying to control every thought. It is the steady practice of giving the brain and body a new experience, again and again.
The brain becomes shaped by what it repeatedly does. So the question becomes simple and powerful: what do you want your brain to practice next?
Like always I still believe in this: Heal yourself, heal the collective. When you master this skill, and your friends, family, kids, your entire world.... imagine what kind of world we can create, take a look around kids, the future is happening. Let's go.
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