Rewiring the brain

The brain rewires itself in relation to environmental experience and things it must attend to.  The brain adds neuro-linkages to those areas.  The areas expand and develop in relationship to how often they are used.  This is extremely important and valuable information in relation to things like learning new tasks, recovering ability following injury or accident, or dealing with psychological conditions like depression and anxiety. 

People develop habits.  Those habits become wired through neural networks in the brain.  As the habits are practiced, the wiring is strengthened.  Other nearby areas of wiring don't get as much practice and eventually fall into disuse and are taken over by areas that are used.  If we want to change habits it's important to practice and pay attention to the new habits that are developing.

If I want to learn a new software program and I practice it, eventually it will become easier to use.  My brain will develop wiring attached to finger motions, eye movements, sounds in the environment, and will allow me to both smooth out the movements and make them effortless.  If I want to become less depressed or anxious I can apply the same strategy to change the focus of my thinking, relabel my thoughts, and rewire the previously laid down wiring and learn new ways to mange what is happening.  If I want to improve a skill, like memory, music, math, or general knowledge, then I have to practice it daily for a period of about an hour or so.  After somewhere between 5 weeks and 6 months I should be able to see substantial improvement in that area.  That means that I'm likely to need to track what I'm doing to be able to notice the changes.  Getting baseline data and noticing incremental improvement will help me to stay with the process and keep on task.  If I'm trying to change to something new from something I used to be able to do, I'm going to have to practice and also avoid doing all the old behaviors. The more I practice, the easier and smoother the transition.

Part of my current work involves setting up sequences, tracking systems, and reinforcement systems for people who want to learn new behaviors, rewire after something has happened, or change to something different.

Feel free to contact me for more information.
DonohueMA@aol.com