According to neuroscience, “we can use awareness, the mental experience of consciousness, to intentionally alter the structure of the brain.”[i] How mind blowing is that? Read it again. “We can use awareness, the mental experience of consciousness, to intentionally alter the structure of the brain.” We can intentionally alter the physical structure of our brains by paying attention to what we’re thinking and choosing to think something else. Anything else. When we interrupt the firing pattern of neurological synapses, we make it more difficult for our brain to repeat the same pattern in the future. The reverse is also true. The more we allow our brains to go on autopilot, repeating the same old messages, running the same old programming, the more we reinforce that firing pattern and make our brain more likely to repeat it in the future. We have got to get this simple concept through our thick skulls. If I keep thinking the same things I’ve always thought, I’m going to keep getting the same results I’ve always got.

---

[i] Daniel Siegel. The Developing Mind 15