Mana
Gardening

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To this day, the brain remains a mystery. Nobody truly knows its capacity and limitations. However, one thing is sure to humanity: rewiring the brain may be possible due to its dynamism.

The brain is an ever-changing system in people’s bodies. It’s in charge of ensuring that people can adapt to a likewise ever-changing world.

The constant reminder that adults must be conscious and aware of their behaviors in front of children isn’t done out of illogical fears or pure paranoia. There’s a logic behind this belief, which concerns the brain’s malleability or dynamism. Like its surroundings, the brain is a highly dynamic machine with a constantly changing and adapting functioning.

Knowledge like this allows people to regain hope, especially individuals with mental illnesses who carry a negative perspective of life. Nothing is set in stone when it comes to the brain. How it functions and perceives things can change – the brain does change. It’s a breath of fresh air, knowing it doesn’t have a single, permanent configuration that immobilizes people into perceiving life through a strict lens perpetually. With a determined and constant habit, rewiring the brain is possible and can be achieved through neuroplasticity.

Rewiring the Brain Highlighted by Neuroplasticity

Scientists keen on studying the brain once established that it only remains susceptible to change and influence during childhood. Once people have crossed this period, rewiring the brain becomes closely impossible. It’s as if there’s a freezing period wherein the brain starts to react differently and slowly to training and instruction. However, such belief has been proven wrong, and new research data posits that the brain continues to be malleable throughout people’s lives.

This brain’s capacity to respond and welcome change is called neuroplasticity.

At its anatomical level, neuroplasticity is defined by the brain’s continuous growth of cells resulting in the reconnection of severed pathways. At people’s behavioral level, this process manifests through people’s ability to learn or unlearn skills even after time or disease or the changes in their personality and thought patterns throughout their lives.

People continue and can change because of the principles of neuroplasticity.

For instance, someone with depression might believe negative self-talk is their new normal. And it might seem like it given the pathway for this behavior will become more robust following the diagnosis. People may wake up and be greeted with negative statements daily, but this doesn’t make it permanent. Through neuroplasticity, neural pathways in charge of these statements can be severed or strengthened, thus changing people’s behavior as well.

It’s through constant adjustment of behavior that makes rewiring the brain possible. It’s not easy. It will take time, but the newer version of themselves people will welcome makes the process worth it.

How Do These Changes Happen?

It can be challenging to envision how the brain can make these changes and even harder to explain the process. Rewiring the brain happens at its structural, chemical, and functional levels, influencing people’s behaviors. The easiest way to describe these changes without all the technicalities can be boiled down to repetition.

Use It to Lose or Improve It

When people constantly practice a behavior, this sends signals to the brain, asking it to form a pathway specifically for this action. The more people practice, the more the brain exercises and strengthens this pathway. Rewiring the brain towards the other direction happens as efficiently as practicing the opposite behavior to make a new pathway for the brain to strengthen. This specialized or constant training helps the brain understand the changes to be made at its structural and functional level.

Salience

Like practice, emotions can also help strengthen or weaken this connection within the brain. This can be easy to remember. After all, when people enjoy or love what they’re doing, they will likely incorporate or remember these activities strengthening the pathway required in rewiring the brain. On the contrary, if they dislike the activity or thought, they are expected to avoid it, weakening the connection. This emotional compound of neuroplasticity is why there’s a necessity for people to associate behaviors with emotions to help increase one’s memory of the information.

Time and Condition Matters

Repetition and emotion play their parts in neuroplasticity, but they won’t have a significant contribution if the brain is suffering from an injury. Neuroplasticity can occur anytime, but a window to when it doesn’t will exist during a trauma. When this happens, the brain focuses on recovery instead of creating new pathways. The earlier people concentrate on healing, the faster this window closes before a new one opens to welcome the change process.

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Positive self-affirmations revolve around a fundamental principle. It posits that maintaining a positive self-view can translate into tremendous physical manifestation. But with a primarily mystical process, is there a scientific basis for people to believe in such? (Critcher and Dunning 2015)

Self-competence trumps difficulties.

As long as people trust themselves, anything is possible. Problems become mere obstacles which are easily overcome. However, this value can be tricky to achieve due to its distinctive nature. Not to mention, the self is often one’s biggest enemy.

Self-competence depends on and is measured by how people perceive their skills and abilities. The higher their trust and acceptance of themselves are, the higher their self-competence becomes. When people know and find assurance in their strengths and weaknesses, they begin to view themselves positively. They set realistic expectations for them to achieve and trust themselves to achieve such. With self-competence, people never waver despite mistakes and failures. Instead of taking these too personally and beating themselves up over them, people perceive them as stepping stones for future improvement.

Self-confidence is everything.

It helps people cope and bounce back whenever they crumble against the lemons life throws. With this amount of trust, people can better nurture their growth, not dwelling on failure.

How Can One Cultivate This Competence?

Someone praising themselves for being amazing seems bizarre and often narcissistic. But over time and with better means, one may believe such and live to their potential. Seeing is believing. But when it comes to psychology, saying can turn into believing.

This is the primary concept for positive self-affirmations or affirmative cognitive behavior therapy. In its basic definition, self-affirmation is a means of validating oneself. Regardless of the threats and problems people face, positive self-affirmations work when people believe and tell themselves to believe in their capabilities and skills.

How does this work?

According to research, the body has a psychological protection system. This is a combination of defensive mental strategies that work to protect the individual’s self-esteem. Self-affirmation is a contributor to this protection system. A perfect example of this manifests whenever people rationalize their mistakes. When people associate positive outcomes with their hard work but blame external factors for adverse consequences, they’re unconsciously protecting their self-worth.

While there may be some critical perspectives toward these defensive mechanisms, it’s a crucial process so people can maintain their well-being. The more they safeguard their worth, the fewer the chances of them questioning their capabilities.

“I’ve failed to achieve this not because I’m incapable but because of other factors.”

“This failure isn’t my fault. I have done my best. I am enough.”

What Exactly Are Positive Self-Affirmations?

These affirmations are simple statements to change or influence one’s perception of themselves. In simple words, they challenge an individual’s existing self-concept. They encourage people to think the opposite of what they or society might have made them believe about themselves, creating self-change.

Positive self-affirmations can act as inspiration or a simple reminder that one is worthy amid creeping doubt. They can also be statements geared toward one’s daily goals.

“I am confident in myself.”

Affirmations are designed to nurture within people an optimistic mindset to protect their sense of self. These statements are inherently crucial in the reduction of people’s negative thoughts. The chief basis of this theory’s effectiveness is the belief that the constant repetition of affirmations can shift people’s mindsets, leading to positive behavioral outcomes.

This is why positive self-affirmations occupy a powerful place within Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). As this therapy focuses on the connections between people’s thoughts and actions, self-affirmation effectively bridges these elements.

With self-affirmation, thoughts have the most influence over people’s behavior. What they think influences how they feel and how they do in behavior.

The Science Behind Daily Positive Self-Affirmations

Positive self-affirmations intervene in people’s doubt, restoring their self-competence (Critcher and Dunning 2015). Although merely statements, these allow individuals to recognize and acknowledge their self-worth and core values when self-doubt rises (Steele, 1988). Again, self-confidence and realizing that the self is enough to triumph over adversities can help actualize their potential.

Ultimately, the fear that they won’t amount to anything stops people from stepping into their potential. Before they even take a leap and try anything, their doubt blinds them from seeing what they’re capable of. Positive self-affirmations challenge these negative and typically unhelpful thoughts (Koole et al., 1999; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001; Logel & Cohen, 2012).

Believing that the simplicity of repeating words can do wonders for the human mind can be challenging. But this concept of positive self-affirmations is based on psychological theory. Like meditation improves one’s well-being, repeating affirmations’ effectively is based on close associations with the mind. It’s maximizing the mind-over-body principle. It’s the belief that when people feel good and think they’re good, then life will follow.