I see the Lightning Process at the cutting edge of self- directed neural-plastic change
Neuroplasticity has been described as the greatest medical discovery in the last 400 years. Its implications are so far reaching it affects every field of human health and well-being.
The Brain – A new understanding
“We are what we repeatedly Do” (Aristotle) “Choose Wisely” (Ian Cleary)
Neuroplastivity refers to the brain’s ability to change – to adapt and modify through activity or experience, which also includes mental activity – thought. Through repetition, the brain lays down neural connections becoming more efficient. Eventually whatever is repeated becomes so efficient that it will run automatically without our awareness. Like driving a car. At first we need to focus and think about all the many things required. In time though, the brain automates. In time you get so good, you are not consciously driving the car at all. This can clearly be useful but if what we are repeating isn’t right, we get stuck in bad driving habits. The great news is that the brain always retains the capacity to change. If you are stuck there is always options.
It appears that prolonged experience can automate everything from thoughts to how the brain directs the body to respond to a stimulus.
The implications that the brain changes are clear when you think that the brain interacts with every cell and process in the human body. If we can change our brain we can change our lives.
Neuroplasticity opens up new treatment options
This new understanding is a game changer for many chronic illnesses, and highlights the importance of a retraining approach to well being.
For example it wasn’t that long ago that there was very little options for people with a stroke. You just learnt to manage the condition the best you can utilizing whatever function you were left with. Now recovery based on Neuroplastic rehabilitation has changed the prognosis. We train people to walk and talk again using a different part of their brain!
Professor Taub, one of the worlds leading authorities on this Neuroplastic Rehabilitation approach to strokes, has said, that recovery has more to do with how focused and committed a person is, rather than the severity or length of time they have been sick.
This is a concept that I see daily in my work.
With repetition the brain rewires for efficiency and automation. We become better and faster however repetition can also create a rigid state. We can become stuck. Stuck in our thinking, our behaviours and we now know we can become stuck in our physiological responses and functioning. See pages on Pain, PNI and PER.
But we are never truly stuck. We are never victims of either our past or our neurology.
The Lightning Process shows people how to effect ‘self-directed Neuroplastic change. From stuckness to well-being. With knowledge on what to do and what to avoid, coupled with a determination to do the work, people can begin the process of making massive change in their neurology, their body and their lives.