Neuroplasticity
To begin with
Your body is physically changing every day and every minute of your life, as a reaction to the thoughts that run through your mind.
Research has shown that by just thinking about something can cause your brain to release neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) that allow your brain to communicate with parts of itself as well as with your nervous system. Neurotransmitters control virtually all of your body’s functions, from hormones to digestion and even your feelings like happiness, sadness or stress.
Research has shown that your thoughts, on their own, have the potential to enhance various aspects of your life, including vision, fitness, and strength, among others. This phenomenon is being called the placebo effect. The placebo effect implies that people may sometimes religiously believe in something, to such an extent that their belief becomes reality to them. There have been studies conducted where people have been given a sugar pill, telling them that it was an anti-depressant.
Due to the immense power of human thinking, the study group’s depression showed significant improvement when they placed their trust and belief in the sugar pill, which was perceived as an anti-depressant. In fact, their progress was comparable to that of the control group who received the actual anti-depressant medication.
Expectations and learned associations have shown that the brain changes chemically and that even people’s chemistry and way of thinking can change, such as feeling less tired, experiencing a lower immune response, increased hormone levels and decreased anxiety – all due to their way of thinking.
In an article: The Intention Experiment: using your thoughts to change your life and the world, Lynne McTaggart refers to an influential research study, exploring the nature of consciousness over a period exceeding three decades, has demonstrated that thoughts can influence anything, ranging from fundamental machinery to complex living organisms. This evidence suggests that human thoughts and intentions are an actual physical something with astonishing power to change our world. Every thought we have is tangible energy with the power to transform. A thought is not only a thing – but a thought is also a thing that influences other things.
Your thoughts sculpt your brain
Every thought in your mind, causes neurochemical changes – some temporary and some more lasting. For instance, when people consciously practice gratitude, they can experience a surge of rewarding neurotransmitters like dopamine. They will also experience a general altering and illumination of their mind, probably correlated with some of your brain’s neurochemical norepinephrine. This chemical substance in your brain, also known as noradrenaline, causes your body and brain to move into action.
A study was done where deeply in love college students were shown pictures of their loved ones. Whilst looking at these pictures their brain showed more activity in their caudate nucleus. The caudate nucleus is that reward centre in the brain, which is responsible for giving people that in-love swoon feeling. When they stopped looking at the pictures, their rewards center became passive again.
Every thought that flows through your mind, also sculpts your brain in permanent ways. Think of your brain as a movement of information right through your nervous system. Electrical signals are constantly running back and forth in your brain. However, this process is mostly happening just below your conscious awareness. Thus, in your subconscious. A thought that travels through your brain, will cause your neurons to fire information in distinctive ways in such a way that the structure of your brain physically changes.
Busy regions of the brain start making new connections with each other as well as with existing synapses (the connections between neurons). There neurons become stronger and during this increasing sensitivity, new receptors are being formed and created.
One example of this is the well-known London cab driver studies, which showed that the longer time they had been driving a taxi, the larger their hippocampus grew. The hippocampus is that part of your brain involved in the forming of your visual-spatial memory.
Their brain literally expanded to accommodate the cognitive demands of navigating London’s tangle of streets. This research also highlighted the countless benefits of meditation, namely that it changes the gray matter in your brain to enhance the connectivity of different areas within your brain.
Your thoughts program your cells
A thought is an electrochemical event taking place in your nerve cells producing a cascade of physiological changes. The previously mentioned article also explains how your thoughts program your cells as follows:
There are thousands upon thousands of receptors on each cell in our body. Each receptor is specific to one peptide, or protein. When we have feelings of anger, sadness, guilt, excitement, happiness or nervousness – each separate emotion releases its own flurry of neuropeptides. Those peptides surge through the body and connect with those receptors which change the structure of each cell as a whole. Where this gets interesting is when the cells actually divide. If a cell has been exposed to a certain peptide more than others, the new cell that is produced through its division will have more of the receptor that matches with that specific peptide. Likewise, that cell will have fewer receptors for peptides than its sister or mother cell. Actually, creating a new cell. So, if you have been bombarding your cells with peptides from negative thoughts, you are literally programming your cells to receive more of the same negative peptides in the future. What’s even worse is that you’re lessening the number of receptors of positive peptides on the cells, making yourself more inclined towards negativity.
Every cell in your body is getting replaced approximately every two months. So, the good news is that you can reprogram your pessimistic cells to be more optimistic by adopting positive thinking practices, like mindfulness and gratitude, for permanent results. You can read more about mindfulness in my article. In short, it boils down to the fact that what you feed your mind, you will automatically attract more to yourself. The more you, as an example, focus on gratitude in the smallest form, the more things you will see and get to be grateful for.
Your thoughts activate your genes
You are literally talking to your genes with every thought coming into your mind. The fast-growing science of epigenetics is proving that you are a product of the things that happened to you during your life, which is changing the way your genes operate. Genes are actually switched on or off depending on your life-experiences, and your genes and lifestyle form a feedback loop. Your life doesn’t alter the genes you were born with. The only thing that changes, is your genetic activity, meaning the hundreds of proteins, enzymes and other chemicals that regulate your cells.
It is speculated that only about five percent of our cell mutations are a direct result of our genes. This means that about 95 percent of our genetics are determined by our experiences and thoughts during our life.
Many of these are beyond your control, such as trauma during our childhood. However, the most of these issues are entirely within your control, such as our diet, exercise, stress management and emotional states. These factors can be directly linked to our thinking processes.
Your biology does not determine your destiny at all. You are also not being controlled by your genetic makeup. Instead, your genetic activity is largely determined by your thoughts, attitudes and perceptions. Epigenetics is proving that your perceptions and thoughts control your biology, which places you in the driver’s seat of your body and life. By changing your thoughts, you can influence and shape your own genetics.
You always have the choice in determining the specific input your genes receive through your thoughts. The more positive the input, the more positive the outcome from your genes. Epigenetics also means that your lifestyle choices can be directly traced back to your genetic level and is proving the mind-body connection irrefutable. Research into epigenetics is also emphasising the importance of positive mental self-care, since it is directly impacting your physical health.
Meditation and mindfulness connect you directly with the very source of your mind-body system. Subsequently giving your thoughts direct access to beneficial genetic activity which also affects the quality of your cell functioning, via the genetic activity inside the cells. It all boils down to the fact that your thoughts can heal your body.
Let your thoughts work for you
You have much more power than you ever realised. This power inside of you can have an effect on your physical and mental realities. Your thoughts are also determined by your body – right down to your genetics. The more you change your habits, the more beneficial responses you’ll get from your body. You can’t control what has happened in the past. Those past events already shaped your brain, which, as a consequence, shaped your cells. But you can change your genetics, going forward.
When you change your perspective, you can change your behaviour, which in turn can bring about changes in your brain, cells, and genes. You have the power to shape the outcome of your life, whether it be positive or negative, within the realm of your own thoughts.