Thank you to my Lifespan Integration colleagues for telling me about the article, How the Brain Rewires Itself by Sharon Begley, in the January 19, 2007 issue of Time Magazine. A fascinating read, especially for those interested in neuroscience. What interested me most about this article was the information about nueroplasticy, meaning, the ability of the mind to change the brain.
As a holistic psychotherapist, I have been trained in a mind/body psychotherapy called Lifespan Integration, which helps people heal the effects of neglect and abuse without re-traumatizing. The reason Lifespan Integration works, believes it's developer Peggy Pace, is due to this same nueroplasticity, or the brain's ability to adapt and change.
The article traces the journey of scientists understanding about how the brain works. Until recently, writes Begley, the adult brain was considered to be hardwired and fixed in form and function. But research over the past few years tells a different story. We now know the brain has the ability to change its structure and function in response to experience.
The idea that the mind can actually change the brain could have an enormous impact on health and the healing process. Something we may otherwise have viewed as an insubstantial thought, writes Begley, could affect the very material of the brain itself, altering neuron connections in a way that can treat mental illness or increase ones capacity for empathy and compassion.
Yet all of this would be little surprise to the experienced mediator. The practice of single-point focus, and releasing the thoughts of the grasping mind, can actually change the way we think, feel, and experience the world. The possibility in all this? Emotions, moods, and more, may turn out to be trainable skills. This really does prove the idea, that anything is possible.
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