The beginnings of a stream breaks free from its source and spills onto a dry landscape. With no
indentation in the ground, it meanders aimlessly. But the water keeps coming, and takes the
same path. Having gone over the same spot of ground enough times, it has now carved a
gentle channel. Now that there’s a channel, the water will easily keep flowing in the same
place, and since the water continues to flow in the same place, it digs into the ground ever
deeper. Soon the water is rushing through the path. Without definitive intervention, there is no
stopping it now.
Our brains work the same way, with our neurons. Neurons carve pathways in our brain. We
are apt to follow the same course of behavior, over and over and over. Habits, whether they are good or whether they are detrimental to us, become more and more ingrained. This is how
addiction works. This phenomenon of how our brain changes, is called neuroplasticity, the idea
that our brains are shapeable, changeable. Dr. Amen, a noted brain doctor, wrote a powerful
book entitled, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, lending credence to the idea that the brain
is changeable.
If it is changeable then we, as owners of our brain, are its architects. As architects we are
empowered when we know, going in, that pathways can be difficult to reverse. For “bad”
pathways, that’s the bad news. But reversing them is possible, and that’s the good news.
cindylcaruso.com 