I enrolled myself in an advanced coaching course related to Neuroscience, to better understand how our brain works and how we can help ourselves create that change or shift our mindsets more effectively. The tools I am learning to use are based on the idea of Neuroplasticity. So what is Neuroplasticity? The simple definition according to Mrs. Google is:
“the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury.”
In other words, research shows that our brains have the capacity to create new pathways, therefore new responses to triggers, new beliefs, and also unlearn, or shut down connections that don’t serve us or we don't believe anymore. When we create a new connection in our brain, such as “If I speak in public I will embarrass myself”, it is as if we walked on a field of snow for the first time, leaving those first footsteps in a possible pathway. The more we think that we are terrible public speakers, the more footsteps walk on that pathway turning those initial footsteps into a defined road, so our brain automatically has that thought in belief. So every time we think of public speaking, our mind takes us to embarrassment, failure. So what if we now learn that "If I speak in public, people would listen and enjoy what I have to say"? That’s a different route, so where does our mind take us the next time it thinks of public speaking? What a dilemma! Well our road to "Embarrassment" is so marked already, that we will tend to automatically think of that first. And that is why breaking old habits and beliefs is hard! But we now know that we have the ability to re-teach our mind and consciously, with lots of practice, make it think differently in our advantage Well, coaching is about creating those changes we want to make and that is why it is fascinating to learn more about neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity allows us to change habits, beliefs, biases in a conscious way, until they become part of us. Some of these tools help us find a way to make that change, as if we were going to a gym.
When I think of things that are hard to change, I think of my eating habits, my approach to exercise, managing my emotions when stressed, my expectations of others and myself, how I react to my kids when they trigger me, and how I can lose my confidence in certain situations. Coaching can be a great partnership in the creation of those new mind pathways in our brains that can better help us in life and work.
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