Your Brain Can Heal. So what?!!
with Julie Long
If you struggle with anxiety, depression, ADHD, Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic pain, autism, sensory processing disorder, and the list goes on, you might benefit from learning about the book, The Brain’s Way of Healing, by Norman Doidge M.D
Why? Doidge talked about a few very cool approaches that show how our brain cells (neurons) can heal when they form and reform new connections when they communicate electronically with each other moment by moment. These various approaches address the whole body because we have a central and peripheral nervous system that affects all aspects of our wellness: physical, cognitive, environmental, social, spiritual.
Your nervous system was created and started firing neurons when you were in utero and it has the ability to continue to rewire itself until you die. That’s neuroplasticity. Your brain can heal itself as it works everyday of your life.
Inheritable traits, adverse life situations, unhealthy lifestyles, and concussions affected how my brain fired and wired. BUT the brain can change its structure and how it functions in response to experiences that I can choose so that my brain regains some if not all of my cognitive and motor functionality…all because of neuroplasticity. So you can teach an old dog new tricks! When you learn, you create new connections among your nerve cells and that learning can also turn on genes that can change the structure of your neurons, the building blocks of your nervous system.
So how can you harness neuroplasticity to your benefit? Energy! Whether it’s light, sound, electricity, vibration, or motion, energy passes invasively and naturally into the brain through oursess senses to fire up the brain’s electrical signals or communication between neurons to stimulate the brain and change its structure and thus harness its healing capacity.
While the East has traditionally used energy to heal like acupuncture in Traditional Chinese Medicine, tai chi, yoga, meditation, reiki, etc. The West is now embracing interventions Doidge explored in his book. I’ve experienced some of the approaches he mentione din his book and use to this day.
Neurofeedback is brain training or a special form of biofeedback often in the form of sound that the brain registers and responds to in real time - thus changing how it fires and responds to stimuli thus strengthening its adaptability to stress. It’s been found to remove ADHD symptoms as effectively as medication and without side effects.
Light therapy - Florence Nightingale - babies suffered from jaundice improved with direct sunlight. Seasonal Affective Disorder lights 10 000 Lux of light in the morning or for 20-30 minutes a day without looking into it directly. Laser therapy using red or infrared light to heal soft tissue wounds by reducing inflammation.
Feldenkrais Method Functional Integration and Awareness Through Movement with a trained practitioner's touch and guidance someone can learn how they currently organize their body and through touch and movement can learn patterns that are more comfortable, efficient and useful to them.
Exercise using your conscious brain to control movements using long distance walking to activate the brain’s growth factor GDNF glial derived neurotrophic factor. These GDNF’s are like neuron protectors helping neurons wire and rewire when they constantly talk to one another and modify the electrical signals of the neurons. Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise by John Ratey MD.
Mental Work using the acronym MIRROR developed by MD Michael Moskowitz after his own struggle with chronic pain. Motivation Intention Relentlessness Reliability Opportunity Restoration
Outside of these practices you might consider creating conditions within and around your body that supports your brain being able to do its thing like:
Limiting or avoiding neurotoxins (natural or man made substances that disrupt and potentially destroy neurons and thus affect how your nervous system works). Examples include: alcohol, fluoride, mercury, pesticides, asbestos, lead, etc. Listening to the Huberman Lab podcast about alcohol was a game changer for me!
Relying only on medications that decrease symptoms temporarily by changing chemical balance not by changing chemical structure so if you go off medications, symptoms return. Using the above strategies in conjunction with medication to support your brain from both ends might be helpful.
Healing takes time. Knowing that it’s in you to heal, it’s really up to you what choices are available to you to make at this moment to start using the energy around you and within you to fire your brain in a different way every day and ultimately change your life. I truly hope this episode has been of benefit to you.
Gratefully,
