Training your Brain

There is always stuff floating around in my head, and occasionally, some unconscious thought comes out as words and then it strikes me that I have hit on something.

This happened to me the other day, when someone was relating how aggravated they got while driving.  I said, "The more you get aggravated, the more you pattern your brain to get aggravated.  You should really work on patterning a different response."

It suddenly occurred to me that the way you respond to stimuli gets patterned in your brain just like everything else does.

So every time you respond to a negative event with anger, you strengthen your anger synapses.  Every time you respond with aggravation, you strengthen your aggravation synapses.  Every time you respond with cynicism, you strengthen your cynicism synapses.

Holy Cow!

We can train our brains to instinctively seek a better response by practicing a better response.  We can make the strongest synapses in our brain connections to compassion, to laughter, to love.

It takes practice, and redirection.  But if after a brain injury the brain can be trained to use a different part of itself for the function lost to the brain injury, our brains can certainly be patterned to more positive responses.

I am going to actively try to strengthen the synapses in my brain that I want directing my thoughts, emotions and responses.

I am doing pretty good already with seeing the humor.  Earth is an amusing planet, and humans can be a very amusing species.   I'm lucky that I live with a couple of dogs, because dogs are one of the funniest creatures God made.

I need to find a better way to trigger appropriate responses to things that currently aggravate or anger me.  Until I find that better way, whenever I notice myself getting angry or aggravated, I am going to consciously redirect my response to a positive emotion.

I'm really excited to practice this.  I like the idea of training my brain to be more positive.   Remember, your thoughts lead your words and actions.  The more positive your thoughts, the more positive your behavior.  The more positive your behavior, the more positive your world becomes.

Just another reinforcement of the power of a self-directed life.  Live purposefully and positively and you will make the world a better place.