Ever wondered why kids are so good at picking up new skills? The answer lies in neuroplasticity. Learn how to think like a kid again with three brain enhancing habits
How to Change your Brain, According to Neuroscience
“Plasticity in the adult brain can be as robust as it is in childhood. As fast and as dramatic.”
– Andrew Huberman
Have you wondered if there was a formula that could magically change your brain? A step by step system to help you learn any skill, be more productive and kick your bad habits? Well, there is one. And you have neuroscientist Andrew Huberman to thank (as well as every scientific study, every book, and every scientist that came before him). If you haven’t heard of him yet, Andrew Huberman is an ex skate punk, current podcasting-rockstar who brings science to the masses. He offers educational facts in a time of internet-induced confusion, helping every man, woman and child breathe better, sleep better and brain better.
In an episode of The Rich Roll Podcast in 2020, he outlines how to change your brain by adjusting your habits, which, though simple, is not easy. And, as you’ll discover in this article, a little bit of discomfort goes a long way when you’re trying to biohack your brain. As the old adage goes, nothing good comes easy.
The magic formula is as follows: focus, reset and sleep.
Getting familiar with neuroplasticity
Before we get into that, we’ll need to cover the concept of neuroplasticity. Put simply, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change, adapt and form new neural connections. Throughout your life, your brain is responding to different environments, experiences, and behaviors. This is important because it allows you to develop new skills, create new memories, and adapt to new situations.
Your brain changes (primarily) in three ways:
Structurally
Structural neuroplasticity happens when the brain’s physical structure alters as a response to new experiences. During this process you might grow new brain cells or strengthen the connection between these cells. This affects your long term memory and long term motor skills.
Chemically
Chemical neuroplasticity refers to the changes in the levels of your neurotransmitters, which affects your short term memory and short term motor skills. These changes happen early on when you’re learning something new.
Functionally
Functional neuroplasticity refers to changes in the brain’s overall network. This affects how you are able to process information, such as your ability to learn a new skill. The more these networks are used, the easier it becomes to activate them.
You may have wondered why children are so good at picking up new skills (like languages) with such swiftness and ease. This is due to the plasticity, or adaptability, of their young, developing brains.
Healthy vs. unhealthy habits for plasticity
There are numerous ways to create that childlike curiosity and receptiveness within yourself, and to encourage your own neuroplasticity.
Certain habits will curb plasticity, making it more difficult to concentrate, be open to new experiences, and function effectively in daily life. These negative habits include being sedentary for too long, making poor dietary choices, not managing stress effectively, inadequate or poor sleep and abusing substances like drugs and alcohol.
Positive lifestyle choices, on the other hand, can promote neuroplasticity and improve overall brain health. These include engaging in regular exercise, challenging your brain by learning a new skill, committing to a daily mindfulness or meditation practice, and ensuring you get enough good quality sleep.
Here is exactly how to develop healthier habits that rewire your brain.
Step one: Deep focus
Initially, when you’re attempting to conquer a new skill or tackle a particularly challenging task, it feels frustrating and uncomfortable. This is actually a good thing. It’s an indicator that you’re setting the groundwork for new pathways in your brain to develop.
Why does learning something new feel uncomfortable?
Your adult brain doesn’t want to change. It likes its circuits the way they are. And often, the neural map of your mind has been set since childhood. So traversing the unfamiliar territory of a new habit or skill feels difficult, unintuitive, and agitating.
When you bring as much focused attention as you can to an activity, and you add a sense of urgency (like a deadline) it creates the perfect trigger for plasticity to occur.
If you’re struggling to concentrate, try narrowing your focus to an object like your screen, or a piece of paper. By doing this, you’ll dilate your pupils and start generating adrenaline so you can take action towards your goal or task. (Jumping into an ice bath and doing some Wim Hof breathing might also do the trick.)
This is also how you can “bend time”, or at least alter your perception of it, so it feels like you have more time to get whatever it is you’re working on done.
Once you’re able to focus, norepinephrine is released in your brainstem to create a feeling of alertness. Then, your focused state lights up your frontal cortex as your brain tries to decipher three important things:
1. What is going on?
2. How long is this going to take?
3. What will the outcome be?
This brings us to what may feel like a roadblock in moving towards your new habit, skill or pattern you’re trying to change or achieve. You might feel like giving up.
Why is it so easy to quit?
Every time we put effort into something we haven’t done before, a small amount of noradrenaline is released. This chemical starts to shut down our conscious, cognitive control over our motor skills, and we feel like we can’t keep going, so we quit. The chemical that counters this response is dopamine, which resets and lowers the levels of noradrenaline in our system. Dopamine signals a reward response that makes us feel like we can keep going. This is crucial to imitating more neuroplasticity in the brain. By forging forward with something you’ve never done before, you begin to modify the pathways in your brain.
Imagine trying to run long distances for the first time, or sitting down for many hours to complete a big project you’ve never done before – at some point you’ll begin to feel like you’re hitting a wall. The moment you start to feel some inner resistance, you can give yourself permission to keep going by telling yourself you’re doing well. Think of this as setting small goals in your mind. This could look like making the fifth nearest tree your next marker if you’re running, or seeing paragraph three as your next goal post. Creating these micro goals within your bigger goal ensures you’ll be creating enough mental energy to complete your task, and it makes the reward internal. Meaning you’re not relying on an external reward system, like a real or hypothetical gold star.
It’s important to see this discomfort as a sign that you are changing your brain, and to use it as a way to propel you forward. Move towards this discomfort. Eventually you will notice when you start to feel like quitting, and you’ll know that you can push through it. When you do, it will become more likely that you’ll move towards this healthier habit more easily in the future.
Don’t try to reason with your thoughts, don’t tell yourself to stop feeling what you’re feeling, just take the next step towards your new habit or goal. By changing your behavior, you will then be able to positively affect your perception of events, which will then cascade into better thoughts, an improved mood, and enhanced brain health.
Step two: Reset
Once you’ve gotten your autonomic system aroused, a technical way of saying a little stressed (which is important for focus), you’ll need to start calming your system down to prepare for sleep. This is actually how you’ll get your new neural pathways to set – through deep rest. Where deep focus builds energy, de-focusing helps you save energy, and can even help you make up for “lost sleep”.
Now that you know how to switch on your mind, you’ll need to know how to switch it off. One quick way to hack your own biology is to engage your panoramic vision. By looking out towards the horizon (not at an object nearby which will stimulate your mind) you can start to move into a more relaxed state.
One of the best ways to quiet the monkey mind is through breathwork or meditation. Through guided meditations and breathwork exercises, you soothe the autonomic nervous system and promote the body’s relaxation response. This decreases your heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and slows down breathing. By bringing attention to your breathing, and by taking deep, steady breaths, you’ll be able to shift focus from performing and completing tasks to decompression and restoration. By paying attention to your breathing, and taking deep, steady breaths, you can shift your focus from completing tasks to relaxation and restoration. Techniques such as hypnosis and yoga nidra can also help achieve this effect.
Step three: Sleep
Sleep is crucial for neuroplasticity because it allows your brain to process information from the day. During sleep, your mind repairs itself, organizes new information, strengthening new memories and neural connections.
Studies have shown that people suffering from poor sleep struggle to retain information and learn new skills. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to a decrease of neuroplasticity in the hippocampus – an area of the brain vital for learning and memory.
Sleep is the last link in the chain that ensures lifelong neuroplasticity.
Change your brain with The Pantheon Method
The Pantheon Method, a powerful breathing and meditation technique, is a great way to enhance neuroplasticity and positively alter your brain. The method is a combination of rapid and rhythmic breathing, meditation on the energy centers in the body, and binaural sounds. The Pantheon Method can help you clear energetic blockages and encourage creative states, rewiring your brain for better emotional and physical well-being. Join our online community to start rewiring your brain for the better.
