Giving Thanks and Self-Directed Neuroplasticity

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My neurology unit this year is timed perfectly with thanksgiving so I am able to connect the two nicely in my class.  I thought as a thanksgiving gesture to all of you I would share my thoughts on the subject.

Now many people have experienced in their lives the power of positive thinking, but it is incredible to know that this idea is actually supported by tons of fascinating research that has been conducted, especially over the past 20 years. 

We all experience moments of joy and sorrow, happiness and upset, anger and forgiveness.  These feelings and emotions are determined by a combination of the external world we experience and the way our brain processes those experiences.  Our brain is hard wired through hundreds of trillions of connections that connect the 100 billion neurons in our brains.  What is incredibly inspiring is that each time we perform and action or have a thought we are changing how our brains are physically wired.  This has huge implications for anyone who wants to live healthier happier lives.

Imagine the study of piano players who were asked to do an exercise with their left little pinky.  After six weeks or so of this practice, the part of their brain responsible for fine motor skills involved with the left little pinky had physically grown bigger and stronger.  Even more incredible was the fact that piano players asked to simply visualize doing the exercises also had physical growth in the same parts of the brain, showing that we can use our minds to change our brains, which in turn will change our minds.

We all have experience with practicing skills like playing the piano and so it is no surprise that practicing them would wire our brains to have that ability.  In fact many skills that take extreme concentration when we first learn them (like playing a chord on a guitar or riding a bike) can become second nature once our brains are wired to have that skill.

It is less obvious to many people that we can use our minds to change the physical nature of our brains to make our minds happier and that when we are happier, according to scientific research, we are healthier, more productive, and even smarter.  Well just as each skill we choose to practice changes our brain in a way that makes us better at that skill, each thought we have, changes our brain as well.  Negative thoughts and emotions wire our brain in such a way that we are less happy in general and positive thoughts and emotions do the opposite.  Now this isn’t to say we should not have negative thoughts, we all do, and under many circumstances they are the natural thoughts to have.  But just like practicing a skill, we can use our mind to purposefully rest our minds on good things on a regular basis, which will, over time, wire our brains in a way that our mind’s natural resting state will be happier than it was before. 

Having an experience that makes you happy is good, for example today I noticed the leaves falling from a maple tree while walking back to work from the bank.  Just noticing them fall in their whimsical, chaotic, yet graceful patterns made me smile.  Then I decided to do as I have asked kids to do many times when I was a naturalist – try and catch one as it falls.  I managed to do it and this brought an even bigger smile to my face.  Now that experience certainly had an effect on my brain.  But the more attention and focus you rest on an even or a thought, the stronger the connection for that thought becomes in your brain.  So when something like that happens – or even something smaller, lets say a stranger smiles at you, or you notice how cute your child is while they are reading a book – you want to allow your attention to sit with that thought for a while, say 30 seconds.  You can elaborate on the details.  What did the leaves look like?  Why do you think the stranger was smiling?  What was your child reading?  The goal is to focus your mind on that positive experience long enough for a strong connection to be created in your long-term memory.

Now even if that moment is forgotten from your consciousness– the positive wiring is still present in your brain.  And over time, you can collect more and more of this positive wiring.  This brings us back to the negative thoughts.   If something bad happens – you drop your favorite mug and it breaks, or even something traumatic like losing a loved one.  The goal is to be aware of the negative feelings and emotions those situations create.  You need to acknowledge the loss you feel.  But then if you can also think of something good about that situation – maybe think of the person who gave you the mug, or think of a good thing about the person you lost.  If you think of a positive thought at the same time you are mindful of the negative thought, then those two thoughts get wired together in your mind.  Eventually when these traumatic memories are moved out of your everyday thinking and into your subconscious they will be stored as much more neutral memories as far as your brain wiring goes because they will be made up of both positive and negative memories, rather than just the negative memories.  In effect you are wrapping the hurt in a blanket of healing that will work itself out on a subconscious level.

This brings us to Thanksgiving!  Neurologists have shown that there are a number of ways to make your brain happy.  The physiology of what is happening is often quite simple – things that make us happy fire a system of chemical reactions in our brain that are a reward system, encouraging us to do again whatever it was that made us happy again.  There are things that fire this reward system like exercise, drugs, human touch, seeing others happy, giving, and being thankful are some of them.  Now obviously drugs are not a healthy way to achieve happiness but the rest are.  Being grateful for what you have, it turns out, is one of the best ways to wire your brain for happiness.  There are many ways to incorporate this into your life.  One great way is by starting a gratitude journal in which each day you write three things you are thankful for.  Or you can just get in the habit of resting your mind on a daily basis upon things that make you thankful.  Or when you experience something like the leaves falling form the trees, be mindful of the fact that it made you smile and acknowledge you are thankful you were outside at that moment to witness it, or that you are thankful you life in a place where the trees drop their leaves in the fall, or whatever.  Going out of your way to express thanks to another person is hugely rewarding.  Not only will you make them happy, but also by making someone else happy you have a hit a homerun when it comes to wiring your own brain for happiness.  And of course we can use times like Thanksgiving to remind us to be thankful but in the end, to change your brain, what you want to do is create a habit of being thankful on a daily basis.  One cool thing about the brain is that it does not differentiate much when it comes to the quality of your thought.  Being grateful for your daily cup of coffee is going to do much of the same thing as being grateful for the love letter your spouse left you that morning.  The point is to simply be grateful and to sit with that gratefulness for 30 seconds or so, so it can become hardwired into your brain.    

And this is why Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holidays (maybe after Halloween) because it makes me happy.  More specifically it makes me happy because I get eat yummy food with my family and friends and unlike so many other holidays it does not involve buying presents for people and my kids aren’t expecting some imaginary creature to bring them stuff either.  No Easter Bunny, no leprechauns, just get some root vegetables, kill a turkey, and have a feast.  Thanks to all the turkeys and root vegetables who give their life for this holiday, by the way.

If you are interested in this type of stuff I highly recommend checking out UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center.  Get on their email list for newsletters that touch on all sorts of ways to improve your life, all based on the latest neuro-science.