"There's a great future in [neuroplasticity]. Think about it. Will you think about it?"*

"We commonly live with a self reduced to its bare minimum; most of our faculties lie dormant, relying on habit; and habit knows how to manage without them."
-Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

In this short sentence, Proust has described one of the most important differences between accidental brains and brains on purpose. When we are only relying on habit, we are reduced to our "bare minimum" — and we are not in charge of our own brain.

As we will often mention here, our brains are constantly changing, rewiring, making new connections between synapses. These changes are a result of the brain's neuroplasticity, its impressive ability to reorganize.

As these brain remodels take place, we have two choices. We can let them happen with our "self reduced to its bare minimum." Or we can awaken "our faculties," direct the changes, and turn neuroplasticity into self-directed neuroplasticity (a phrase coined by Jeff). When our brains are engaging in neuroplasticity without our knowledge, direction, or awareness, our brains are changing accidentally. When we are employing self-directed neuroplasticity, we are changing our brains on purpose. Accidental and on purpose are two very different ways of being in the world, and only one allows for autonomy and  maximum performance.

The people adept at sculpting and rewiring their brains on purpose are better at facilitating dispute resolution. They may have greater levels of resilience, spontaneity, creativity, concentration, observation, and other traits and skills instrumental in moving towards agreement. They can use their higher faculties and are not a slave to habit. They are on purpose.

In future posts we will be discussing

• methods for employing and increasing self-directed neuroplasticity (you can read about some methods in advance in our three articles linked to at Stephanie's page or Jeff's page)
• ways to increase the chances that your clients will use self-directed neuroplasticity and why you would want to
• another meaning of Brains on Purpose™ in addition to the one described above.

*Said by Walter Brooke in The Graduate (slightly modified) - watch the scene from The Graduate

Note (added 10:30 PM Mountain): Two books on neuroplasticity.

Scene from The Graduate

Comments

[FitBuff - Total Mind and Body Fitness]

Hey Stephanie!

Thanks for another great article. We've included it in our Eighth Edition of the Total Mind and Body Fitness Carnival.

If you can, please provide a link back to us as well, we'd really appreciate it:

- write a quick blog post telling your readers about you being featured and include a link to the carnival page listed above or...

- add FitBuff.com to your blog roll or...

- add a link to FitBuff.com anywhere else on your site

If you have any questions at all, just let us know. And feel free to submit more great articles to our next carnival by using the submission link below:

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_1766.html

[Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ]

Hello Stephanie:

This is a very powerful and exciting manifesto. I look forward to reading and learning more

[Dr. Karen Shue]

Although I'm glad to see the idea of "self-directed neuroplasticity" come up here, I'm disappointed that there is no mention of a whole field of neuroscience that looks at taking advantage of our ability to direct our plasticity through biofeedback. The field of neurofeedback, or brain-based biofeedback, both as an area of scientific research and as an applied area of practice has been using this concept for decades and helping people change their lives by its application.

Yet here, and in Norman Doidge's popular book, The Brain that Changes Itself (though that's not your fault ;-), there is no mention of the field as existing at all. From the perspective of a neurofeedback practitioner, it feels as if the neuroplasticity field is re-discovering the wheel in some ways and missing the contributions that could made by collaborating instead of working independently.

For more information about neurofeedback, people may be interested in the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research at http://www.isnr.org.

Thanks --

Karen