The Power of Neuroplasticity
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Reviews for The Power of Neuroplasticity
32 ratings7 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be an excellent and practical guide to changing one's mindset and achieving extraordinary things. The book is spiritually refreshing and offers valuable insights on neuroplasticity. It is highly recommended for those who feel stuck and want to start afresh. However, some readers find that the book repeats the same ideas excessively, making it unnecessary to read beyond the first chapter. Overall, the book is considered amazing and has already had a positive impact on many readers' lives.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5How many ways can you say the same idea repeatedly? This book sets a record. No need to read past chapter 1.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Easy to understand. The world is your oyster, when you programme it to be. I will implement this learning, live a more fulfilling life. Thank you
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5AMAZING BOOK I LEARNT SOO MUCH FROM IT, I HAVE ALREADY STARTED IMPLEMENTING IT
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Espectacular... me encanto el enfoque dado a este agente desencadenador "hablarse uno mismo". Te impulsa a lograr cosas extraordinarias, para mí esto es esencial.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simply excellent! Spiritually, I feel totally refreshed after reading it! A must for anyone who feels stuck and would like to start afresh. No matter how bad things are, by changing our programing, we can change everything. Be patient and persist! Hold on to hope and keep focusing on replacing ineffective programming with effective ones! There is no limit to what we can achieve!
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Having read Self-Talk Solution & What to say when you talk to yourself I must share that The Power of Neuroplasticity increases the value of Shad's prior works! What a gem. What a jewel. His writing style will make you feel as though he is sharing his wisdom with you alone. Having met Shad in a quaint business meeting several years ago, he had the same ability in person. Let Shad share his wisdom with you. You'll be glad you did!:~)
4 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent book. Theoretical and also quite practical. I recomend it !!!!!!!
Fernandio Linares MD.1 person found this helpful
Book preview
The Power of Neuroplasticity - Shad Helmstetter Ph.D.
Bring
Chapter 1
Neuroplasticity — Big Word, Beautiful Meaning
You are creating, at this moment, the person you are going to become tomorrow.
This is a book about giving people freedom, and giving people hope.
For many years, we believed that the human brain stopped growing or changing when we were young — and everything we were taught about our behavior was based on that belief. We now know differently.
The breakthrough of the discovery of neuroplasticity is that the brain is designed to change throughout our lifetime. Your brain is changing at this moment. Right now, no matter where you are in your life or what age you are, while you're reading this, your brain is literally rewiring itself.
From the latest research and from the use of new technology that allows us for the first time to look deeply into the human brain while it's working, we have begun to learn more about how the brain is wired and how it works. And most importantly, we have learned the role that our thoughts play in the wiring of the brain and the creation of our success as individuals.
Keeping it Simple and Making it Work
In the following pages, you'll find information and ideas that will help you reintroduce yourself to your own mind in some amazing ways. Although this book includes information that originated from research in the field of neuroscience, this isn't a textbook with scientific jargon that requires a background in neuroscience to understand it. I've done my best to bring a great deal of information together, sort it all out, condense it, and put it in words anyone can understand.
You'll find the tone of this book to be positive and uplifting. In writing it, I've applied the same principles we'll be talking about throughout the book — principles such as intention, focus, and repetition.
You'll also notice there's a deliberate balance between information and action steps you can put into practice right away. The suggestions and ideas I recommend to you are practical and down to earth, and you should be able to use and apply them even before you finish reading.
Whether you find just one new gem of an idea here, or a dozen new thoughts or ideas that apply to you, rest assured that by the time you read the final chapter, you will understand what your own mind and brain can do for you, and what you can do to make those positive changes happen.
As you read, I encourage you to open your mind, let the new ideas flow in easily and let them sink in. Read the book with your determined intention to gain every ounce of new knowledge and awareness you can possibly glean from the ideas presented here.
There's a reason to do this. We have learned that your conscious intention to do something increases your brain's ability to wire in new ideas! It is my hope that with your conscious intention to learn the ideas expressed here, they will make a positive and valuable contribution to how you think, the actions you take, and the results you achieve.
Helping Your Brain's Neuroplasticity Work for You
The discovery of neuroplasticity did not begin with what it can do for the mind. The initial discovery started by helping stroke victims regain the use of muscles they once thought useless, and teaching people with learning and physical disabilities how to literally rewire and retrain their brain functions.
But it is what lies beyond the world of medical research, moving into the world of mind research, which promises to affect the lives of even more of us in truly incredible ways. It is how we can personally use the discovery of neuroplasticity in our everyday lives — and learn to rewire our brains for ourselves — that is making a critical difference for countless individuals.
It was research in the field of neuroscience that first alerted researchers in other fields such as medicine, education, training, and counseling to the properties of what the brain's neuroplasticity offers us. In this book, we will focus on the aspects of neuroplasticity that deal with improving brain potential and function, such as:
Personal growth
Reaching your goals
Mindfulness
Intention
The importance of belief
Creating a positive attitude
Changing your self-talk
Overcoming negativity
Mental sharpness and clarity
Meditation
Increasing your level of happiness
Improving your brain's acuity
Staying younger, longer
Not only have we learned what the most essential tools of brain enhancement and personal growth really are, we have also finally learned how positive, personal change actually takes place in the brain, and how to use that amazing neurological process to make our lives better.
What we've learned is about to change everything.
What goes on in your mind and in your life — changes your brain, physically. When you think or do something repeatedly, your brain actually changes its physical structure. Your environment, your experiences, your emotions, your attitudes, your self-talk, all of your perceptions — your brain is imprinting itself with every message it gets. And this discovery means that because your brain is constantly rewiring and changing itself, you are creating now, the person you're going to become tomorrow. That is the remarkable power of neuroplasticity at work.
What is the Future You Will Write Today?
Your brain's neuroplasticity works both in grand ways and in small ways. Some people who put this power to work in their own lives will change things like an attitude that's negative, a career that isn't working, finances that don't add up, or a relationship that isn't going as well as it should.
Many readers will use this book to enhance or change their career path, turn the dream of a new home into a reality, or reach high-level goals like traveling the world, creating a legacy of long-term wealth, or helping the less fortunate.
Still others will read this book to learn to use the increased power of their brain to become sharper, have a better memory, get smarter and more in control, and stay younger longer.
We all have our dreams and our goals. Wherever you are in your life right now, and whatever positive goal you have in front of you, you get to direct it. You get to literally wire your brain to take you there.
With the discovery of neuroplasticity in the human brain, our old notion that our lives are set, that we are destined by our genes and our past to follow the path that fortune gave us, has been thrown out the window.
With what we have learned, your past isn't what counts. Because your brain is constantly rewiring itself with the repeated new messages it receives, how you decide to wire your brain next is what counts.
One of my favorite Bible passages is Romans 12:2, which says, … be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
That's a powerful exhortation, and I couldn't agree with it more. As we will see, your brain's ability to be transformed, literally happens in very practical and life-changing ways — as a result of the renewing of your mind.
It's not where you've been, it's where you choose to go next, that counts. It's not who you've been; it's who you decide to become — and that changes everything.
A Personal Story about Rewiring the Brain
When I decided some years ago to write my first book, What to Say When You Talk to Your Self,
about how our self-talk changes our lives, the people I knew at that time could be divided into two groups: those who thought I would write the book, and those who doubted it, or thought it was a foolish or impossible idea. The ones who spoke against the idea of writing the book thought it would fail. Those who thought I would do it decided to believe in my goal, and waited to see what would happen.
I made the choice to try something new — a way to rewire my brain with the belief that I could do it — and not accept any mental wiring that said that I could not. What I decided to do was to leave any disbeliefs or doubters behind, and approach the goal in a different way.
On Thursday, October 3rd, 1985, I got on an airplane and flew from Phoenix, Arizona to Corpus Christi, Texas. There, I rented a car and drove to a ferry that took me to the small gulf-side town of Port Aransas on Mustang Island off the coast of Texas, where I rented a condo unit overlooking the Gulf. While I was there, in complete isolation, I wrote my book.
But I didn't just go to the island and immediately start writing. For 2 weeks after I arrived, before I wrote a single word of the book, I did nothing but walk on the beach by myself, look at the waves, watch the seagulls, and talk to myself about the book I was going to write.
Instead of listening to the doubts of others or any doubts from my past, I decided to bring a goal to life. The goal was that the book I had come there to write would still be on the shelves of bookstores, not a year or two later, but 20 years later. A tall order! At the time, most self-help books would be popular for a year or so, and then usually fade out of sight. My goal meant the book I was going to write would go 20 years better than that.
After walking on the beach, watching the waves, talking to myself and using a lot of positive self-talk for 2 long weeks, I went back to the condo unit I had rented, sat down at my computer, looked out over the water, and began to write. The first words I wrote were:
You are everything that is. Your thoughts, your life, your dreams come true. You are everything you choose to be. You are as unlimited as the endless universe.
For the next 3 months, along with continuing to walk on the beach each day, talking to myself, and listening to self-talk, I wrote every day. My schedule was: write, go to bed, sleep, get up, write, go to bed, sleep, get up, and keep writing.
I don't remember a day during that intense writing time that I looked back at the doubts or the doubters. I just focused forward, kept talking to myself in the most positive possible way, and kept writing.
Because of my long walks on the beach each day for 2 weeks before I began to write, instead of being guided by doubt, I was guided by my goal — to write a book that would help people get better, all over the world, and to deliver a message that would be just as relevant 20 years later, as it was when it was written. (My reasoning was that if I was determined to write a lasting book, each sentence and paragraph I wrote would be written more clearly and more meaningfully.)
Three months after I had arrived on the island, I packed up my computer, paid my rent, took the ferry back to the mainland, turned in my rental car at the airport, and flew home with my completed manuscript in hand. A few months later, my book had been edited, and the final draft went to press. Not long after that, the book was in full release nationwide, and I was appearing on television programs like Oprah Winfrey and CNN.
The book did what it was supposed to do. I reached my 20-year goal a few years ago, and that book remains on the self-help best-seller lists nearly 30 years after it was published. In fact, I recently worked on What to Say When You Talk to Your Self
again, when I wrote a complete update of the book for its publication in the new e-book editions.
During the writing of the book you're reading now, I received a box of books in the mail. They were from a publisher in India, who sent me newly published editions of What to Say When You Talk to Your Self,
printed in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi. The book some people thought I would never write is now published in over 65 countries.
I'm not applauding myself for the life that book has lived. I did nothing more than set a goal and choose to see it through. I simply refused to listen to the impossibilities of my past and the doubts of others, and chose instead to do something others told me could not be done.
The Steps That Made it Work
The important point to this story is this: day after day, walking on that beach, looking at the sky and the seagulls and the sandpipers and the waves along the shore, I was thinking with clarity, focus, and intention about what I must do and the steps I must take to make my dream become a reality. By so doing, I literally wired my brain to help me accomplish my goal. The steps that made it work were the steps I was taking in the sand.
When I was walking on the beach and talking to myself each day, I was rewiring my brain.
Chapter 2
The Holy Grail of Personal Growth
The secret to the true source of personal growth has been sought through the ages, and this quest has continued to the present day. Mystics, spiritual leaders, philosophers, and today's motivational trainers have all searched for the true path to personal success. What is the secret to each man or woman's destiny? Why do some people fail, while others succeed? With the answers to those questions, the future of mankind is much brighter and more hopeful than it was just a few years ago.
Many people have looked for the answer in the field of self-improvement. For more than 50 years, a generation of self-help authors taught us what they were discovering about how each of us could improve our lives. And they told us we would find the best in our lives when we learned and practiced the rules
of personal growth they had discovered.
The rules they gave us were not difficult to understand. And, not surprisingly, most of the popular self-help authors, in one way or another, identified many of the same rules. If you read the greatest self-help books of the past decades, you'll recognize the rules they taught us: set goals; think positive; learn to be organized; manage your time; remember that you create what you believe in most; focus on what you want to achieve; work hard, and never give up.
(In these pages, we'll meet some of these ideas again, but we'll be looking at them in a new, updated and more scientific light. As we've now discovered, the key to each of them working is neuroplasticity.)
Success is in the Brain
When I wrote the book What to Say When You Talk to Your Self,
I had studied self-help concepts that were working in many lives. Because the ideas were working, and were literally changing lives, it became clear to me that these concepts must have their basis in the physical, neural anatomy of the brain itself.
The science behind the development of personal growth was not yet fully understood, of course. However, it was undeniable that personal improvement methods like changing one's attitude, thinking positively, and setting goals, were working.
I wanted to know why they were working. I believed that the rules of personal growth, while sound, should be taken to the next step into how the brain itself works — physically, chemically, electrically — neurologically. Lasting success had to be a product of the mind, but also a product of how the brain is wired.
What to Say When You Talk to Your Self
presented my findings that personal growth in any repeatable form is never an accident; that success is the result of mental programs that begin at birth, and often stay with us throughout our lives. The book identified the importance of self-talk as a practical way to change those programs, based on the premise that your brain is changed by the thoughts you think.
Interestingly, during the time that many thousands of people were applying the principles of personal growth and clearly improving their lives as a result, self-help
also had its doubters. These were well-intentioned critics who questioned the promises of positive attitude and other forms of self-help, saying that things like positive thinking were nothing more than wishful thinking, and that there was nothing scientific about them. As surprising as it seems now, some of that skepticism came from the field of neuroscience.
While Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, and Dr. Maxwell Maltz, three of the most popular proponents of personal growth of the 20th century, were saying that your attitude and your thinking could change your life from the inside out, neuroscientists were still saying that positive thinking was like any other kind of thinking, and that it could not actually change the human brain. Those neuroscientists were defending the long-held scientific paradigm that the brain stops growing or changing early in life, and as a result, you could not actually change
your brain no matter what you thought.
It was clear that many neuroscientists were continuing to defend a picture of the brain that was out of line with what we were observing in our studies of human behavior.
My own study and findings disagreed with views that I believed to be outdated. I recognized that many people, whether they were very young or were in their 80s or older, were making dramatic and often permanent changes in their lives, and they were clearly making those changes by changing the way they thought.
So I continued to research and write several more books on the subject, and continued to present my position that the human brain could be rewired and changed by what we thought — the input we gave it.
Meanwhile, schools and universities continued to teach that the brain is set, and stops growing and changing, before we reach adulthood. According to the textbooks from that time, each of us had to live with the brain we ended up with for the rest of our lives. We were taught that our genes determine who we are and who we become, and that the brain cannot grow or change. We were told that with aging, the brain inevitably loses its vitality and suppleness, and in time, even its memories.
And that was that! For years, that's what we were told, that's what all textbooks taught, and that's what most people believed.
Fortunately for us today, what our textbooks were teaching us then, was wrong.
A New Picture of Who We Are
Finally, after many years of thinking the old way about the brain, within the space of a few short years, a new era of computer-imagining technology stepped in. New experiments could be conducted that proved the right kind of self-help thinking had been on the right track all along. With the new technology, scientists were able to see a very different picture of the human brain. And neuroscience began to change its mind.
For the first time, with new research technology such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), and other new tools for brain imaging and mapping, neuroscientists were able to see inside
the brain, while it was working. And what they saw, literally changed their overall picture of the way the brain actually works.
For the first time, scientists saw that the human brain, instead of being set and static, continually reprogrammed and restructured itself. They saw that the brain grew and changed, moment by moment, input by input, and thought by thought. The brain was plastic, malleable, and it was not only growing new neurons, it was rewiring itself! And this amazing plasticity wasn't only happening in the brains of the young; it was happening throughout the entire lifetime of each individual!
With the discovery that the brain is continually rewiring itself based on new input it receives, we had finally found the scientific holy grail
of personal growth. It is that the brain itself is plastic, and able to change, and that plasticity creates a neural activity feedback loop. That is, the brain sets up a continuing, self-perpetuating cycle of success or failure that