Forging New Trails in our Mind
Neuroplasticity in Action
When I open the back door, Teddy goes barreling out into the garden. Behind all the bushes he has his own back trails that he does a routine check to make sure that no squirrels or birds are in his space.
Before Teddy came around during the first year of the pandemic, we didn’t really know about those mini-trails in our backyard. He found them, and whatever plants were growing on its path probably don’t grow there now as he tramps down on it many times a day.
Similarly, we have trails in our minds, which are created by neurons. Innovation in brain imagery helped scientists learn about neuroplasticity, which confirmed what many people knew before - that our behaviours and our outlook on life can be modified over time and are not fixed.
This brings me to a topic that I am quite familiar with as someone who has an overactive mind: Our Least Creative Work (LCW). That refers to the thoughts and moods which have us grumbling about the past, regretting various decisions, or just being upset with others.
Just as doing our Most Creative Work (MCW) forges new pathways in the brain and rewrites our identity and cosmic DNA, doing our Least Creative Work maintains congested roadways that have us doing the same things over and over again.
Doing our Most Creative Work can be uncomfortable because we are playing with new ideas and operating in new spaces. And these new spaces are a metaphor for the world we exist in - constantly changing and evolving every second of the day.
Our planet is floating in vast deep space, but our more undesirable habits can force us into thinking that we are hamsters on a wheel and simply stuck with whatever scraps we were given.
So how do we create new pathways that line up with the identity we are working to build? We take action in small steps as documented in the popular book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
For the guitarist who is overwhelmed by a piece of music, they simply have to sit in the chair and put the guitar on their lap, and play one note. Making this habit of playing one note is a great way to forge a pathway for getting started.
The pathway can later get expanded to after playing one note they will do a warmup. And after they have the habit of warming up, they can now spend a few minutes reviewing some music and maybe adding one or two bars onto it.
We notice that even after the habits for doing our Most Creative Work are created, it doesn’t take much for them to get stalled or have us back to square one. We’ve all been there with diets and workouts.
Life throws us curveballs every week and month, so the hard part isn’t creating the trail in our minds, but more maintaining their overall appearance when life gets chaotic.
In those times, just ten minutes of attention to our Most Creative Work is enough to maintain the trail.
What do you do when you fall off course? How do you get back on it again?
Thank you for reading this week’s edition.
I had a great time presenting the Confident (Enough) on Camera Workshop this week. If you would like to access the replay which runs close to one hour, you can purchase that below for $34 CAD ($25 USD).
See you next week…
Elliott
That’s funny on my bike ride today I said I must start to compile these into a book soon. We are on the same page 😄
Glad you are inspired, without a reader these posts wouldn’t carry much weight.
You should write a book. Thanks for the constant inspiration!