One word holds the concept of the key to freedom.
Freedom from anything in your life which you do not want there.
Freedom from any negative behavior pattern which does not serve you.
That magic word is neuroplasticity.
The brain is a magical organ. It is responsible for our experience of life. It controls how we process our environment, as well as how we act in it. The problem with this important piece of equipment which we have been gifted, is not really a problem with the brain, it is a problem with us.
We do not know how it works.
We do not know how it controls every aspect of our lives.
We’ve been given an electronic device with no instruction manual. We just have to figure it out through trial and error. The problem is that most people don’t.
We are not to be blamed, however, surprisingly, how our brains shape our lives is not routinely included in educational curricula.
Unbeknownst to us, every single emotion, behavior pattern and life challenge is doomed to show up in our lives over and over again as our brains run on autopilot unless we change it.
Let me give you some insight on how your life works.
Think of your body as a computer.
A computer well, it computes stuff. It processes information and carries out actions; just as humans do.
You perceive your environment (or process information) and you act in response to your environment (carry out an action).
Your ears hear your parents, friends, neighbors, media outlets and your society at large complain about how hard it is to get a job. Your eyes see people suffering each day as they work mediocre jobs and struggle to make ends meet. You perceive your environment or process this information and you then carry out an action based on this information. You make a plan. You plan to go to school, you plan to enter a lucrative career where you will not have to suffer like everyone else.
Computers function through hardware and software. The hardware refers to the physical components of the computer such as the mouse and the screen, whereas the software refers to the intangible parts of the computer such as applications like Google Chrome, or Microsoft Office. The operating system coordinates between these two facets in the background ensuring that the computer functions as one well-oiled machine.
This is how we operate.
The brain is the operating system, your thoughts, and emotions your software and your physical body is your hardware.
Your brain holds your beliefs. Your beliefs about love, your beliefs about money, your beliefs about life, your beliefs about death, your beliefs about family, your beliefs about everything.
You do not readily control your beliefs. The subconscious aspect of your brain assimilates your beliefs based on things you have seen, heard and experienced. It draws conclusions on its own.
Your beliefs give rise to your thoughts and emotions.
Your thoughts and emotions give rise to your actions.
Your actions create your reality.
This is how every single aspect of your life works.
A classic example is the daughter of an emotionally/physically abusive parent. Your parents are your first contact with unconditional love. We, therefore, shape our beliefs surrounding love through our interactions with our parents. Ergo, our adult relationships are usually an attempt to duplicate the love we had in childhood. The daughter of an abusive parent usually ends up in a series of abusive relationships. They’ve grown to confuse abuse with love due to their experiences as children. They cling to abusive partners who they constantly have to please to prevent them from leaving because they do not know their inherent self-worth. These people usually long for stable, healthy relationships, but they are doomed to repeat the cycle due to those beliefs embedded deep in their subconscious mind from childhood. The beliefs run on autopilot to create their thoughts and actions and ultimately their experiences.
The good news is that due to neuroplasticity, we can be in control of our beliefs. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change. The effects of neuroplasticity not only have implications for behavior change, it is advantageous for stroke victims, victims of PTSD etc. No matter how deeply ingrained a belief or problem is in the brain, we have the capability to change provided we have the right amount of motivation and practice.
The key to change is to understand why we are the way we are. We must take a more keen approach to understanding how our lives unfold and why they unfold in the way they do. Once we start to realize the patterns, we can realize what beliefs shape these situations we constantly find ourselves in, and we must tirelessly ponder what beliefs we need to add to our operating systems to change how our computers function.