Pineridge Blog
Think how good this time is for our brains!
The common belief used to be that your brain was like a bank account with a fixed amount of money in it. As you spent the balance over the course of your life, it made sense that you were a bit “foggy” in later years because the account was getting lower and lower. Many of us know as we age what it is to try to remember something and get a message back from our brains stamped, “insufficient funds.” Another metaphor would be wiring in an aging building. Just through regular use there are increasing shorts and breaks as time goes along. That is still a widely held belief.
Neuroplasticity is the belief that the brain actually continues to have the capacity to grow through our lifetimes. In other words it can rewire itself and learn new tasks all of our lives. Neuroplasticity also says this new growth doesn’t just happen by itself. It takes work.
Physical exercise is probably the best thing you can do for your brain any time. But also in order for our brains to continue growing we have to do something we all resist doing—put ourselves in situations where we have to learn new things. Learning a new language; learning to play an instrument; yoga and giving increasing time to centering prayer or meditation can rewire the brain. No one wants to look bad, which we all fear will be the result of doing something new. But risking not knowing, failing and learning stretch our brains in new ways.
Right now in the midst of a pandemic as we are all learning to do new things to keep ourselves healthy and active. Anything new feels awkward and hard before it becomes comfortable. Think of how much our brains must be growing right now!
The Bible speaks of a kind of spiritual plasticity. In other words, God calls us continually to put ourselves in situations where we have to rely on God to make it. Real situations of marriage, family life, and in life in general provide plenty of opportunities to look at things in a new way or try something we have never tried before. Faith is not just about letting God do it, whatever “it” happens to be, but trusting God to meet us in our lives, challenges and all, in ways we can only imagine.