The Fine Art of Changing the Brain - Dr. Jill Ammon-Wexler

The fastest way to change your brain is through learning something new.
Modern neuroscience has clearly proven that the true essence of
learning actually IS a physical change in the brain.

However creating changes in the brain through a learning experience is
not a science. For although science can certainly tell us what learning
is, and what influences it -- effectively applying this knowledge
remains a fine art!

THE EMOTIONAL ASPECT
On a strictly biological basis -- it now appears that the thinking
(cognitive) abilities of the human brain developed over time, building onto
older areas of the brain dedicated to emotion and feelings.

This brings your second brain (the massive "brain" located in your gut)
into the picture. Both brains feed emotional "input" into your thinking
process.

The result is that our mental functions are strongly influenced by our
emotions. In fact, emotion and thought are actually physically
entangled.

This is why you may tend to easily recall events that are charged with
intense emotion.

PASSION ENTERS THE PICTURE
The best way to change your brain is to learn something new -- whether
knowledge or an action. But to be most effective, that learning must
evoke emotion.

Exterior sources of emotional motivation can sometimes help. But the
most powerful brain changes are made when your learning is fueled by your
own internal emotional desire, or passion.

Such an intense desire is most easily generated when you make an effort
to learn something you have a natural passion for. The act of learning
(changing your brain) then becomes rewarding in and of itself!

This is why it is so very important to identify your passions --then
build your life goals around them!

BUILDING NEURAL CONNECTIONS
An important thing to remember about brain expansion (learning), is
that you are building upon your past beliefs, experiences and knowledge.

New information enters your brain through existing networks of neurons
(brain cells). Your existing networks of prior knowledge actually form
the foundation upon which your new knowledge is built.

And so ... you create brain changes (learn) by attaching the new to the
old.

As you learn new things, your neurons make new connections. And as this
occurs, existing neural networks (interconnected neurons) are either
strengthened or weakened. But you are always building upon what has gone
before.

REMODELING NEURAL NETWORKS
Sometimes old neural networks are so powerful they can become a barrier
to new knowledge. This can result in carrying around childhood beliefs
for a lifetime -- even when you logically know they're no longer true
for you today.

Such beliefs obviously have strong neural networks that can't just be
dismissed. And they will not just go away on their own. But if you do
have such undesired childhood-based beliefs, there is a way to correct
them.

You will have to build something new onto those networks.

The better you understand your prior experiences, the more insight
you'll have into how to remodel these limiting "barrier" networks. The art
is to identify the aspects of those networks that serve you -- then
begin attach new learning onto those networks.

USING THE SNAP METHOD
I developed the S.N.A.P. (Substitute Neural Association Programming)
self-discovery approach years ago based upon my insight that much of what
we consider "wrong" is really just "incomplete."

Let's review the process: Modern neuroscience has shown us that two key
things are involved in changing neural networks:

The first is simply practice. Neurons that fire often tend to form both
more, and stronger, connections. But this is far more subtle than mere
repetitive practice, because neurons often stop firing if a stimulus
turns out to be routine.

Such "habituation" is what occurs when we stop hearing the cars that go
by our house during peak traffic hours. So mere repetition alone will
not build neural change.

The second thing that helps neural networks gain strength is emotion.
Recent experiments show that rapid brain changes are created by simply
by triggering neurons to dump our natural "emotion chemicals" on the
neurons involved in a new learning experience.

Your brain delivers these natural chemicals (adrenaline, serotonin, and
dopamine) to specific parts of your brain -- and frequent exposure to
these chemicals leads to rapid change in your neural networks.

The essence of the S.N.A.P. method of brain change can be summarized as
follows:

Start by building an active awareness of what you wish to change.

Focus on adding new insights onto old neural networks to make them more
complete, based upon your current reality.

Repeat this focus often (practice).

Be sure to interject positive emotion during your practice to speed the
reprogramming process.