Neuroplasticity – the Secret of Training and Education

Today, after 20,000 steps and 200+ pictures taken, my friend decided that I was not teachable about taking pictures. She took beautiful photos for me and showed me many times how to capture the backgrounds for her. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t live up to her expectations. So I told her, “I will go take a class.” This is how my brain works – a hypothesis needs to be proved by further experiment. Also, I believe in neuroplasticity.

Our brains work in different ways. Some people want to worry less, some want to be more creative, and some want to be more courageous. Neurologist Sigmund Freud proposed that “neurons which tend to fire together at one time will fire together in the future.”  The general principle is that neurons associate themself.  Where attention goes, neural firing flows, neural connection grows, and neural rewiring happens. When we want to harness attention, we’re harnessing the power of neuroplasticity.

Therefore, we are more than just our genes and more than just our brains. We can actually use our minds with intention and skill to focus our attention on getting neurons to fire and strengthen their connections throughout our lifespan. That’s the secret of training and education!