TFN#28: 🪜Why I’m convinced we can change our brain tissues

So Reader, this really happened to me. And I’m not making it up.

In 2016, I purchased a book named The Prophet. Mostly because I had heard a lot about the author Kahlil Gibran. In fact, during my schooling, we had a Gujarati-translated prose from this book.

So, I thought to myself alright, now I’m fluent in English, let’s read the original.

When Flipkart delivered the copy to me, I opened it.

Andd, I just couldn’t understand what the author was saying.😖 It was one of those moments where the critics appreciated some movie, but you watch it and wonder what exactly they found worthy of acclaim.

⏩Fast forward to late 2020.

Out of boredom, I picked up the same copy from my closet.

And started flipping through it.

Instantly, it became my Geeta. My heartwarming home to retire. And I seriously believe that the spirit of the Universe has spoken through Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet.

But how did this happen?

How did an incomprehensible piece of text transform into a sacred home for me? Someone who couldn’t even gather the meaning in 2016.

Brain changed

In the period of 4 years, due to constant practice and reading abstract topics in English, the composition of the brain changed. It changed to fit the abstract content and make sense of it.

Now, that’s not my pet theory (though I have a hundred of such theories, this is not one of them)

Let’s see what I mean.

The Backwards Brain Bicycle

8 years ago Destin from the YouTube channel SmarterEveryday posted this incredible video of his brain transformation.

Watch this video and come back. (Duration: 07 minutes 57 seconds)

If you don’t get to watch the video, here’s the summary (but hey, the video is much more fun than this):

• Destin introduces a special kind of bicycle: a backward bicycle. Turning the handlebars left makes the wheel go right and vice versa
• He fails to ride the bicycle no matter what technique he uses
• But, after 8 months of practice, he can ride the backward bicycle
• His 6-year-old son learns to ride in just 2 weeks!
• When Destin tries to ride a normal bicycle, he can not. Although he eventually learns it in 20 minutes
• Watch the fun video with people attempting to ride the backward bicycle

Destin is right, it’s neuroplasticity

When Destin and his son learned to ride the backwards cycle, they literally created new neural networks in their brain.

This process is called neuroplasticity. This is the same process that makes us learn anything: from hard skills to soft skills.

Let me share another great story where people have learned outstanding skills by literally shaping their brain.

The Polgár sisters: chess prodigies

The Polgár sisters were part of an educational experiment by their father László Polgár. Being an educational psychologist, he and his wife decided to test their belief that “Geniuses are made, not born”.

They married and provided their three daughters nothing but chess education. No Barbie dolls, toys, or other distractions. Just chess.

Two sisters earned the title of Grand Master and the third one earned Woman Grand Master at a very young age.

Of course, we don’t need to drop everything we are doing…

…and become a chess grandmaster, or learn that weird backward bicycle.

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The point is…

The point is….

The point is that we can change our brain tissues.

We can learn anything.

Literally, anything in the world.

Remember my letter Do you look at the keyboard while typing? I assure you, I have seen neuroplasticity in action. My fingers rhythming on the keyboard week after week, month after month, and now…just typing as I think.

Have you experienced the feeling of learning?

Anything, no matter how tiny or big.

Learning cursive writing, or embroidering or a tiny software or coding or…just anything.

Hit Reply and share it with me.

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Reads of the week:

In this New York Times guest essay, clinical psychologist Dr. Saxbe argues that the wide-scale launch of mental health awareness and mitigation programs after Covid are not only unhelpful, but they’re damaging.

Dr. Saxbe’s essay affirms my personal experience of dealing with people around me and my observations over the past three years.

Teenagers are feeling triggered due to some of the most normal occurrences of life. The problem is the internet exposure. When you learn that so-and-so discomfort is called anxiety, you start labeling incidents that would have been otherwise labeled normal.

That’s called the “hammer and nail” approach. To a man who is holding a hammer, everything else looks like a nail.

Nowadays, most of the articles provide “TW” (Trigger Warning). I’m no exception. When I shared the draft of my May 2020 article In for collateral damage? Anyone? One of my closest friends advised me to add a trigger warning. It is still there. But I don’t think that’s the best decision.