The concept of neuroplasticity is absolutely fascinating! Neuroplasticity is our brain’s ability to be rewired through persistent practice. The Oxford Language Dictionary defines neuroplasticity this way: the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury.
Neuroplasticity and Stroke Patients
Through neuroplasticity, stroke patients relearn how to speak, feed themselves, get dressed, and so on. The brain and nervous system work together to help make these recoveries possible. Patients undergo intense and frequent physical and occupational therapy sessions to retrain their minds and bodies to do the desired tasks.
Think about this in terms of a record player. The stroke patient’s brain has a record that, when played, gives instructions to the brain and nervous system on how to button a shirt. The stroke has interrupted the brain’s ability to naturally locate the neuropathway to that record, so the patient cannot button their shirt.
The physical and occupational therapists help the patient’s brain build a new record with all the steps needed to grasp, hold, aim, and push a button through the hole. Through guided practice sessions, the brain starts responding to the stimuli. The brain makes new connections and neuropathways that will prompt the nervous system to access and play this newly built record. The “how to button my shirt” record becomes easily accessible to patients as they practice it. If the recovering stroke patient took a month off too soon from buttoning buttons, the neuropathway to the buttoning record could go dormant.
At the end of this post, you can find two links: a Forbes article about brain function and neuroplasticity and a YouTube video that explains neuroplasticity. The scientific community embraces the concept of neuroplasticity, which is found in Christianity, too. Here’s one example:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2, NIV, emphasis added
Neuroplasticity in My Life Story
Several years ago, I went through a complicated marriage crisis. My brain played a record of hopelessness on a continuous loop. It led me deeper into depression, isolation, low self-worth, and constantly revisiting the crisis in my thoughts. Someone shared the concept of neuroplasticity with me, and I decided to figure out how to use neuroplasticity to get out of my painful funk. When I heard my psychologist quote a verse from Philippians 4 (from The Message Bible), it caught my attention, and I looked deeper into this chapter. I found this set of verses that talks about how to take our brains in a different direction:
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Philippians 4:8-9, The Message Bible
Philippians 4:8-9 became the basis for my own home-grown daily “occupational therapy.” I started each morning in meditation, recalling positive events or examples of one word from the list: true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, the beautiful, and things to praise. At first, keeping my mind centered on positive meditation was very challenging. My mind wanted to play that well-worn record of angry thoughts, feeling sorry for myself, and hopelessness. It tried to skip from the track of positive meditation onto the old track of rumination. I often had to redirect my mind back on task: “Positive meditation only, please!”
Day by day, the practice time accumulated. It became easier and easier to have a time of positive meditation. The neuropathway to this record became bright and strong. The neuropathway to depressing rumination started to die back and fade away. Soon, my brain was naturally inclined to meditate on the positive when driving to work and back, which was a real victory! Drive time was my worst time of revisiting and ruminating over my marriage crisis. Even though the crisis event was a long way back in the rearview mirror, my rumination brought the crisis back to life and strapped into the seat next to me. It was causing me a tremendous amount of suffering.
So, when a consistent practice of positive meditation started to invade other areas of my day, it was a great blessing. I was able to naturally think positive thoughts, constructive thoughts, and truthful thoughts. I wasn’t chewing out my husband in my mind on my way to work and back anymore. When I got home, I looked at him through eyes reflecting positivity, not eyes of pain and anger.
This one choice, to start each day with positive meditation, has had a ripple effect that continues to spread wider and wider. It has a positive impact on each interaction I have with other people. I’m less guarded and more open. I can quickly put up boundaries when someone isn’t safe in my life without taking the rest of my life down the tubes back into angry rumination. My smile is more genuine because it reflects God-inspired inner peace about my past, present, and future.
The promise in Philippians 4:8-9 is that God wants to work us into “his most excellent harmonies.” I love this work God does in us, but we play a role in getting this started. We must show up at our God-inspired “occupational therapy” session as vigilantly as a stroke patient needs to practice buttoning a shirt. My meditation time has come to include reading bible passages and meditating on their meanings and practical applications. A common myth we need to bust is that it takes “21 days to build a new habit”. Research has shown it takes about 10 weeks (70 days) for a new habit to become natural. If I miss more than two consecutive days of meditation, I can feel a small shift towards anxiety and rumination. I recognize it quickly, and jump back into the morning routine.
If positive meditation could reduce your internal mental anguish, improve your outlook and perspectives, and lead to a better quality of life, would you try it for 70 days? The Philippians 4 Project provides a free journal template to help you get started, available by clicking the link below.
Resources
Philippians 4, The Message Bible
The Philippians 4 Project, free journal template
The Four Underlying Principles of Changing Your Brain, Forbes Magazine
The Philippians 4 Project 
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