Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.
I like to think of it like this. Imagine a large field with tall grass. You want to get from one side of the field to the other. The first few time tread a path the grass bounces back relatively quickly. After a few more times the grass doesn’t bounce back so fast. After many frequent trips, the grass starts to flatten out and going from one side of the field to the other becomes easy, happening almost without effort. This process can happen faster if you’re aware of your ability to groove that pathway, as you put a little intent into each step, adding some weight behind it to help the keep the grass down, and clear a path a little faster.
When people are aware of how the brain can respond to change over time, to develop new skills and abilities, they become more engaged AND more motivated in learning.
With the belief that they can grow their abilities, people tend to learn faster and perform better.
I have frequently tried to make use of neuroplasticity in areas of physical development. For example when decided to get better at running, there was intent behind each run or training session I went on. Sure moving the motions and repeating the behaviour over and over again will yield results, but going out with intent and focusing on stride length or getting the breathing under control will yield faster, more useful results. As practice makes permanent, the idea is to practice as close to perfect as I can achieve on any given day, so that becomes the permanent.
With study I try to apply the same logic. Knowing that the brain will adapt and respond to whatever beliefs I hold and information I give it, I aim to direct the learning to fill in gaps in my knowledge and then apply them to personal projects on a regular basis so that the brain can solidify new ideas and I can further my skills.
The first is to be aware that you can develop your abilities and that they are not fixed.
The big one that we’re all familiar with is to practice. This can be both mental and physical. A combination of the both is likely to yield the best results. Practice frequently as well, the more often you can practice the more signals you’re feeding the brain to retain and develop that skill/ability.
And lastly, put everything into context. Draw relationships between concepts, try to understand how things work together. I myself find I need to physically draw out relationships between things like a family tree to best understand how they work together.
If you’re after a good book on the brain in general I recommend checking out this book:
Growth mindset pairs well with neuroplasticity. As the name suggests it is a mindset.
Traditional mindsets are usually fixed. The belief being that you are born with pre-set skills and abilities and can develop them to a degree through your childhood and teens, after which point that’s pretty much the limit and you know have to work with that for the rest of your life.
Research now tells us this is not the case. This is the idea of neuroplasticity above.
A growth mindset is the belief in that ability, an understanding that intelligence is not fixed.
It is particularly useful in helping people to overcome internal obstacles, and allowing them to pursue new skills and abilities.
Growth mindset is an invaluable tool on the quest to happiness and success.