Change your Beliefs with Neuroplasticity
The science of neuroplasticity is relatively young. It’s principles are beyond the scope of this post but are well-articulated by Norman Doidge.[i] Belief-Change using neuroplasticity works particularly well for self-opinions. This is the most problem area of beliefs, and I work with people often to help them change self-opinions using neuroplasticity. In this method, you change beliefs by treating them like thoughts, and using neuroplasticity techniques to change them (see my book Seven Steps to Forgiveness and podcast Overcome Useless Thoughts or books by Doidge and many others).
THEORY: Neuroplasticity
The theory of neuroplasticity involves some basic principles
Learning and practice
Rewards
Use it or lose it
What fires together wires together
Neurons out of sync fail to link.
Learn about these principles. They are worth getting to know well. We rewire the brain when we learn and practice something over and over and over and step by step. This is the case for any skill. We think that gaining knowledge will lead to change in our brains, but often, you have to practice a skill. Reading a cookbook doesn’t help when you’re hungry, you’ll have to learn and practice cooking. Reading a book about violins won’t help you play, you’ll have to learn and practice. Knowing hockey teams and rules won’t make you a good player; for any skill you’ll need to learn and practice. It all takes effort. Reading 8 posts on beliefs will give you knowledge but to apply it in your life you’ll have to learn the methods and practice them. Rewards help keep us motivated. If you use a skill, you’ll get better but if you don’t play the piano or use the foreign language for a few years you’ll lose it; you’ll get rusty. Brain pathways will fire together to wire together or fall out of sync and fail to link. This is how the learning and practice ends up as real changes in your brain. It’s amazing science that puts you in more control of your brain, but only if you decide to apply the principles.
APPLICATION: Using neuroplasticity to change beliefs
Here’s one simple method of applying neuroplasticity to belief-change in subjective self-evaluations. It’s in three steps:
1. Know your goal beliefs
2. Build a road to get there
3. Practice
1. KNOW YOUR GOAL BELIEFS. This employs your will; your intention and choice. Write down your old problem belief, then choose a believable, irrefutable goal belief, it usually involves a 180 degree turn around.
Old belief: I’m just a no-good loser TO
Goal belief: I can win and succeed if I put in effort.
The aim is to actually believe this and to feel the belief. We won’t “fake it till we make it.” Faking is lying and deceit, and your brain will reject it.
2. BUILD A ROAD TO GET THERE. To get there, we’ll methodically and painstakingly move step-by-step towards the goal belief. We do this by working with words to build steps with
Qualifiers
Conditional phrases
The positive flip
Thought-chains
Associated thoughts.
This will give us a step-by-step road; later we’ll practice believing each step.
Qualifiers are words that qualify or “water down” a statement; words such as perhaps, maybe, seldom, sometimes, often, possibly, probably, and most likely.
I’m a no-good loser TO
Sometimes, maybe I’m a no-good loser.
Qualifiers change the belief only a little bit; just one step, and it is still easy to believe. Using them, however, already takes us one step away from believing the absolute truth of a problem belief. Notice this in the two statements above; it’s important in loosening the old belief, like doubt.
Conditional phrases further water down problem beliefs. They include: at the moment; if I work on this; the day will come when; in the future, and with practice.
I’m a no-good loser TO
Sometimes I’m a no-good loser TO
At the moment, sometimes I’m a no-good looser.
The more qualifiers and conditional phrases you add, the more watered-down your new statements become.
Perhaps, I believe I’m a no-good loser at the moment, but, maybe, with time, my belief may change.
This further loosens belief in the old problem belief. At the moment is a conditional phrase we use for the old belief. If I work on this, the day will come when, in the future, and with practice are all used after the “positive flip.”
The positive flip happens when we turn the statement 180 degrees towards our goal belief.
At the moment, sometimes I’m a no-good looser TO
With practice, the day will come when I’ll probably succeed.
Now you’re on the home stretch.
Thought-chains are chains of thoughts which are close in meaning but separated by qualifiers and conditional phrases. These help change your beliefs step by step. You will notice this thought-chain includes the “positive flip.”
I’m a no-good loser TO
Maybe I’m a no-good loser TO
Maybe at the moment I’m a loser TO
Perhaps, one day, if I work at it, I can succeed when I put in effort TO
Occasionally I feel that I can succeed when I put in effort TO
I can succeed when I put in effort.
When working with thought-chains, you want to believe each statement 10/10 before moving on to the next. The temptation is to go through them quickly, but problem self-opinions turn around very slowly. If I’m a no-good loser is a belief you have had since childhood, expect at least a fortnight’s practice on each thought before moving on to the next. That makes this months of effort.
Associated thoughts are thoughts that are associated with a thought you are working on. Maybe I’m a no-good loser will spark the associated thought but maybe I’m not! That will lead to other possibilities: maybe I do win, maybe I’m a better person than I realize, maybe there’s hope yet. You’ll be able to believe all of these; they logically follow. Pondering these, but discard any useless associated thoughts your mind may generate.
3. PRACTICE. This takes
Planning
Dedicated practice time
Practice during idle thinking time
Rewards.
Planning means finding a daily dedicated practice time of about ten minutes and sustaining this for months. It will become a life project for you to work on. It won’t just happen by itself.
Dedicated practice time. Choose a time – morning, noon or night – that you can commit to almost daily. Just as musicians practice scales and footballers practice ball skills you will practice using qualifiers, conditional phrases, thought-chains, and associated thoughts. You will go over a thought in your mind noticing your level of belief in it, make adjustments and looking for associated thoughts and feelings to reinforce the growing belief step by step.
Practice during Idle thinking time anytime you’re not concentrating on a task. While jogging, walking, driving, waiting, gardening, cleaning, cooking, toileting or while eating. Don’t give this time to a screen, or going over old beliefs or inner self-pity parties, give it to practicing your thoughts step by step. Ponder them, paint the picture of your future as you feel good about your goal belief. This takes worthwhile effort which allows your brain to build new networks.
Reward yourself for your effort by feeling good. This reinforces the beliefs you want. Practicing a new skill has a built-in reward: the joy of proficiency. It feels good to be good at something. It feels good to be progressing towards a goal belief. New, useful beliefs make you feel better and feeling good is the best reward you can give a brain.
Important
Your brain wants integrity. You can’t fool yourself, you can’t make yourself believe what you don’t. With practice your brain finds a pathway to grow into a new belief. Your feelings will slowly adjust towards this new belief. With practice your brain finds the needed pathway; it figures it out. But it takes time.
Concert pianists do the impossible. So do gymnasts, mathematicians, surgeons, tight-rope walkers, jugglers, dancers, lion-tamers and magicians. How? Lots of relaxed practice. Do it slowly and gently but persistently.
Belief is modulated through gentle voluntary consideration.
With practice, your brain builds new neural pathways to change your beliefs. This is not positive thinking or manifesting, this is a skill like touch-typing, playing a musical instrument or a sport. It takes time, learning and practice, step by step and you get better at it. I believe you will do very well if you learn and persistently practice the science of neuroplasticity.
Cheers.