How much neuroplasticity does your brain have?
Dr. Laura Boyd TEDX
Neuroplasticity has fascinated me even before realizing its importance while recovering from my strokes. Years ago, I discovered Dr. Laura Boyd’s TEDx talk “After watching this your brain will not be the same.”
Her work started with stroke and brain-injured patients, but expanded into learning applications that apply to everyone.
“The brain has a remarkable potential for change — that’s neuroplasticity. All learning of new facts, skills, and experiences changes your brain.”
— Dr. Laura Boyd
In her talk she debunks several myths:
we don’t actually use only 10% of our brains
even when we sleep, our brains are never at rest
our brains change throughout our lives, we never stop learning, so our brains don’t stop changing
According to Dr. Laura, the #1 driver of neuroplastic change is our behavior; both positive and negative. During my stroke recovery, I became the project — complete with color-coded spreadsheets tracking blood pressure, exercise, and medications. I also kept up with my journaling — and a renewed commitment to writing as part of my healthier lifestyle.
Documenting what I learned and going over the material was a bit like being back in school — highlighting, summarizing, looking for patterns, asking questions, experimenting, tracking, and writing. My active engagement activated the neuroplasticity I felt I was capable of and Dr. Laura’s TEDx talk reinforced my experience.
I became obsessed with becoming healthier and learned everything I could about holistic ways to wean myself off my meds —much to my husband’s understandable concern — he’d nearly lost his wife, why would I jeopardize that? Under my doctor’s supervision and three and a half years of methodical work, I rewired my brain and body to a healthier place.
Why does this matter? Because active involvement (including writing) helped with rewiring my brain, especially as aphasia (not being able to communicate due to brain injury) lingered even after I was able to talk again. Writing down my experiences and thought processes helped, despite monkey-mind showing up uninvited.
How is your behavior changing your brain?
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