Episode 2: Synaptic Plasticity - Becoming the Engineer of your Brain

Join our host, Liza Tullidge, on this episode of Humaning as we dive into the fascinating world of synaptic plasticity. Discover how our brains have the incredible ability to change and adapt in response to new experiences and information, allowing us to reshape our thoughts, habits, and behaviours. Through relatable examples and personal stories, we'll explore how understanding and harnessing synaptic plasticity can empower you to break negative cycles, overcome anxiety, and build the life you want.

We'll cover the basics of this essential neuroscience concept and provide practical tips to help you become the engineer of your own brain. Imagine taking control of those automatic processes that feel like fundamental parts of who you are, and replacing them with intentional ones that serve you better. Whether you're dealing with anxiety, negative self-talk, or just trying to form new habits, synaptic plasticity is the key to making lasting change.

Tune in for an inspiring journey into the science of personal transformation. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow the podcast on your favourite platform, and subscribe to the Humaning newsletter at lizatullidge.com for exclusive content and resources. Check out the show notes for more information and join us next month as we explore the dopamine cycle and how it reinforces the work of synaptic plasticity.

To get every episode along with our monthly newsletter, which continues exploring the topic covered in that month's episode plus book recommendations, links to further resources, and helpful exercises, straight to your inbox - sign up here or at lizatullidge.com

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Transcript

Well, hello there. Welcome to Humaning. I'm your host Liza Tullidge. Thanks for taking a snippet out of your day to come and join us as we explore how to be human. Let's get to it. In today's episode, we're going to explore synaptic plasticity and how we can become the engineers of our brain and our lives.

Today we're diving into a topic that is one of my personal favorites. I find it truly fascinating as well as fundamental to understanding how we can reshape our lives. It's one that's helped me to empower myself and to take control of areas where I had often felt like I was constantly struggling or victimized or just couldn't break the darn cycle. It gave me a new lens at which to look at my mindset and reminded me of the power that I have in choosing how I build my life and the way that I get to show up in my life. This topic is synaptic plasticity.

Synaptic plasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt in response to new experiences and information. And let me tell you, this ability is a real corker. But before we get into the science, I want to mention that this episode will cover the basics. It's kind of like the step one in understanding the neuroscience here. We'll be looking at a relatively general level today, but if you're interested in diving deeper into the more technical details, be sure to check out the show notes and our monthly newsletter where we will provide more in -depth information. Our goal here today is to maximize the impact for you and catalyze your thinking without having to take you through the real deep rigor of technical neuroscience. 

Now let's talk about a common experience. Have you ever set a New Year's resolution with all the determination in the world to build this fabulous new life and all these new habits only to find yourself slipping back into those old habits a few weeks, days, or even hours if you're like me later?

Or maybe you've been trapped in a negative thought pattern and have tried so hard to get out of it, whether it's an anxiety or negative self -talk or just something that niggles in the back of your brain and won't get out. But you felt like you were constantly stuck in this unbreakable loop no matter what you did. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. These challenges all tie back into how our brains work, and that's why we're looking at synaptic plasticity today.

Synaptic plasticity matters because it shows us that these automatic processes in our brain, whether they are those habits and thought patterns we just discussed or certain emotional responses, aren't fixed. They might feel like fundamental parts of who we are because they were formed unconsciously in response to life experiences or when we were children or out of fear, but understanding synaptic plasticity empowers us to take an active role in reshaping these processes.

It allows us to be the engineers of our own brains, choosing which pathways to strengthen, which to adapt, evolve, or completely rewire, and which to let go. This means that we can replace those unhelpful automatic responses with new intentional ones that serve us better.

And whilst they may take some active effort whilst we're building them, eventually these new pathways become automatic. And so then we can then take them forth effortlessly and they become back again part of that unconsciousness. But instead of them being an automatic pathway that doesn't serve us anymore, we're now getting to pick and choose and wire ones that help us to build the life we want and to take us where we want to go.

I know many of us were told, once we leave childhood, we're kind of fixed entities and that we don't really adapt or grow, but we can just kind of tweak. All of the neuroscience is actually showing that this isn't correct, that we are consistently changing and growing and have the total ability to rewire our brain all the way throughout life.

So today we're gonna help you to look and empower at that skill to help you actually build the life that you really value. Let me share a little bit about my own journey here. I, like many others, have always had quite high standards for myself. That came in many forms, perfectionism, fear of failure, or even pure ambition and just enjoying to see what challenges I could accomplish and new things I could learn. And I, like so many others, learned that when I did something well, when I met that standard, enjoyed the respect and the accolade that came with something well done and people telling you that external affirmation of well done, what ended up happening is that ended up creating a cycle in me of fear of being enough.

And I often found that fear of being enough coupled with really quite confining self -talk narratives. And so I lost the sense of just doing it from joy and from challenging myself and back into this perfectionism being driven by a concept of trying to constantly prove that I was enough, that I couldn't afford to publicly fail, that I always had to have it together, that people could not see me crack.

Otherwise, I told myself that people were not gonna respect me or they might realize that I was an imposter and they'd find out that I actually wasn't good enough. And this mindset kept me trapped. It prevented me from starting new ventures when I was looking to build a new business.

It kept me from exploring and playing or even just being able to actually show up in a moment, breathe, and just see what all that moment held because I was so trapped within the narratives of my mind.

And I tried very hard and in several different ways to try and change this, whether it was meditation, therapy, but often aggressive self -shaming. And it was only really when I started to understand this concept of synaptic plasticity that I realized how I could change these patterns.

As a human being, I've always loved this concept of beginner's mind, of getting to show up in something as a fresh slate and getting to explore every part peace, nook, and cranny. To constantly just try and be curious. To give myself the space to not have to know anything or not have to have any standard or assumed experience, but just to explore and embrace that curiosity as we talked about in the last episode. But this beginner's mind requires vulnerability and an honesty with yourself and with the world to say, look, I'm not even at square one, I'm at square zero. Help me to understand this. Share with me your wisdom. I am the beginner. I would like to learn from you. But because ofthese negative self -talk narratives I had developed, I was only allowed to embrace this beginner's mind in private.

Then slowly these narratives started to take away more and more and more spaces where I could embrace this curiosity, where I could have that vulnerability even in private. And I ended up in this lifestyle and cycle where I crave and seek and so desire to have that open and free curiosity. To have that permission to just be and to play on the playground of life. But then I totally denied myself that permission and I became a human divided. But in understanding the synaptic plasticity and by constantly practicing this new way of thinking and most importantly, giving myself that permission to both play and fail, I started to rewire my brain.

And guess what? For me, it's working. I'm here doing this podcast that I thought of years ago, but didn't have all the answers, didn't have all the resources, hated hearing my voice, every other answer under the sun and would just, any time it came up, any time I got curious about it, would tell myself, no, but look, here I am.

And it's okay to be a work in progress. We're all figuring it out. Hey, I'm definitely one as at this podcast, so please give me all feedback so I can keep getting better. But it's okay to not be there yet.

You're not alone on this journey. I am right here with you. I am using these tools that I'm sharing with you and I'm still getting curious to try and learn how to do them better. What I'm sharing today, this learning of synaptic plasticity is something that I am by no means a master of, but it's something that I cherish and value and has truly impacted my life in the best way.

And I hope that it might help you too. Before we get into the science, I wanna explain a little bit about why I'm leaning on neuroscience here. For me, it's because brains are the core of everything we do, how we think, how we feel, how we act. Our brains are the mechanisms that drive our lives. There's this neuroscientist called Daniel Siegel out of UCLA, and he has a really interesting perspective of our life experience. He calls it mind sight. He believes that our experience in life and the world around us is made up of our brain and our mind working in harmony. So our brain is the machine. It's the function, the mechanisms, all the inputs, the processing, the information centers. Our mind is the human experience. So our brain is the one that's taking in all of the senses, the sights, the smells, the inputs, potential dangers, potential excitement. It's taking in all of the data and processing it.

And our mind is the one that has that human experience. It's got the flavor. It's got the memories, the emotions. It is the one that's interpreting what the brain is giving and applying it into our life.

So we really need these two to work together to build the life that we want. We can focus on what we're doing. all we want on having therapy and doing all the wonderful things for the mind. But if we're not actually understanding how our brain works, we're missing a piece.

Understanding how our brain is working and what the mechanisms of our brain are doing can empower us to make meaningful changes in that mind part of our life. It allows us to understand where we're making something consciously versus where we're doing something unconsciously.

And I'm guessing most of us have experienced times where we felt like our mind is working against us. For example, being stuck in a cycle of anxious thought or stress, spiraling, struggling to form new habits, or when you're having a glorious day, that nasty little insecurity thought pops in your head. This episode will help us to understand why that is happening and why it's not a symptom of you. It's not something that you're at fault or that you're not good enough or whatever other narratives we tell ourselves.

It's actually a process that's going on in our brain that's attempting to do something good and beneficial and trying to keep us safe, but it's gotten off the tracks. And so understanding the synaptic plasticity allows us to use our mind to influence the brain, take that desire of our brain to keep us safe and help us, and put it into a positive cycle that aligns with our desires of our mind.

Okay, let's get into the nitty gritty for a minute of the neuroscience. Imagine your brain as a vast network of roads and highways, and you, as the human experiencing life, are like the car traveling down these roads.

So each thought, action, or memory becomes like its own road in your brain. The more frequently you use a particular road, the more well -worn and efficient it becomes, turning from a bumpy dirt road into a smooth highway. So the process of creating and strengthening these roads or pathways is synaptic plasticity. Remember, synaptic plasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt into response to experience. So it's basically like having a personal road construction crew in your head 24 -7, building and maintaining the routes you travel most often, and also deconstructing the routes that are no longer serving you.

And like any construction crew, they are given a plan, instructions, a blueprint, shall we say, in the... that we're gonna try and explore here is that instead of that blueprint being something that is from your unconscious and an automatic reactive process that's just happening without any insight and taken into something that's conscious, something that's reflective of who you want to be, what you want to do,

and where you want to go. Let's break this down a little further and we'll explore some of the technical neuroscience here.

So as we do this, if there's a concept you don't understand or that isn't explained enough, don't worry. Whilst I'll try and explain some here, if it doesn't resonate, make sure you check the show notes or read our monthly newsletter. And I'll make sure that you get the resources to properly understand the different concepts explored here.

Before we jump in, let's define two key terms. First is neurons. Neurons are the... basic building blocks of the brain. They're specialized cells that transmit information throughout the brain and nervous system. Think of neurons as the individual intersections or junctions in that network of roads in our brain. So when you learn something new or form a memory, neurons communicate with each other through our second term, which is synapses.

These synapses are the connections between the neurons. They're the points where the two neurons meet and exchange information through electrical and chemical signals. Let me give you an example to help explain this. Think about when you start learning a new language. Let's say you go to your new language class. Let's say you're learning French. In your first class, your teacher just says, merci to you. You've never heard this before. You have no idea what to associate it with. It's like you're driving your car and the road in front of you is black. Just ends in this total blackness. You have no idea where to go. Yet now all of a sudden, the teacher says, thank you. And in your car, in that blackness, a little spot of light pops up and gives you a direction to go. And so you're sitting there going, ah, okay. It means thank you. I've got that. You can connect that road between where you are and that spot of light.

But the next time you come around and you hear that word merci again, you know, that's still, it's gonna be a little awkward because that road is still quite faint. You're still driving in the dark and there might be a little bit of a road there, but it's still tricky going.

And so it's gonna take you a little minute to go, oh gosh, I know I've heard this before. Shoot, what does this mean? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it means thank you. Then the more times you keep hearing that word merci, the more times you start to say it, the more times it pops up around you, it becomes quicker and quicker, that recall.

Ah, merci, that means thank you. That road in the darkness in your brain starts to become stronger and brighter and brighter. So that when you hit that intersection, when you hear the word merci, all of a sudden you get to the point where your brain knows exactly where to go.

You don't even have to think about it. In that instant, it comes up. So you're on your glorious visit that you've always dreamed of to Paris and the waiter hands you your coffee, or your champagne if you're me. And as soon as he hands it, you just quickly pop back out merci. You don't have to think about that point. But at the beginning, you spent your entire life saying the words thank you. So trying to learn something new for thank you is challenging. But because of this practice and because of the synaptic plasticity, over time, you've been able to learn a context and a specific example where you say, merci, this is what we're aiming to do. We're aiming to get that easy recall and that specificity of what you want and that natural flow for our new habits so that you can have the space and the time to get through that awkwardness of the first few times of trying to remember where you're going through the time where it's so easily and quickly comes out that you don't even have to think about it, that you are getting to be automatically the human you want to be. When you repeatedly practice a skill or reinforce a new habit, like saying merci in the situation of French instead of thank you, you're essentially driving that same road again and again.

And this repeated communication strengthens the connection between those neurons, making that road easier and faster. faster. It makes giving that message from neuron A to neuron B faster and easier to deliver in the future. It's like going from a road, as we said before, in the darkness, in the middle of the forest. At first you're driving over grass and bumpy holes. You get a blown -out tire. It's a slow going journey. But as you drive more and more down the same pathway, the road goes smoother. The grass gives away to dirt, which then over time smooths out, becomes easier to drive. And in this concept, because we've got our personal construction crew, it becomes a high -speed highway that we can basically just drive without thinking.

How many of us have a drive that we've driven in our cars a thousand times? And it's basically automatic, right? You don't even notice the world passing by you. You don't even think about the drive. You can think about everything else because you can just automatically get yourself from point A to B, basically an autopilot.

And that's basically what we're doing when we keep firing these synaptic pathways. We're getting to the point that we can take that automatic drive and not have to think about it. Our brain has a real quest for efficiency. It wants to maintain its road system to allow it to spend the least amount of energy getting from point A to point B. Think about it. If we're our car, our brain wants the highest fuel efficiency to allow it to travel the farthest it can on a single tank down roads.

So it's focusing its resources on maintaining the pathways that are most frequently used. This is why sometimes old habits can feel so hard to break. Those roads are quite well paved and easy to travel, whilst new habits are like that bumpy road in the middle of the forest we just spoke about.

This is why that active process of pulling from your unconsciousness into your conscious intention is really important here because what we want to be able to do is to give that feedback of what pathway to maintain and what pathway to kind of like fall into disrepair.

Okay, so we have our neurons, we have our synapses, and we have this connection between them. Now let's talk about the magic of synaptic plasticity, but first let's explain three more key topics here.

Axons, myelin, and myelination.

Axons are the long thread -like parts of the neurons that emit the electrical signals that travel across the synapses. Think of them as the highways that carry the messages from one neuron to the other. So they're the actual road. So remember when we were talking about the first the first time you hear the word merci in French class and the world ahead of you is dark. That first time you heard the teacher say thank you and that light turned on the distance and you could follow that light to figure out where you were going.

This is that signal from the axons, so keep that in mind. And then we've got myelin as our second one. Myelin is a fatty substance that wraps around the axons, much like insulation around electrical wires. This insulation helps electrical signals travel faster and more efficiently along those neural pathways. 

So then myelination, our third term, is the process of adding more myelin to the axons. It's the process of making the signal transmission faster. And so when you repeatedly use that neural pathway, the brain starts to add more and more and more myelin to those axons, making the roads smoother and easier to travel. This process is myelination.

Think of myelination as your brain's planning process for its construction crew. It's basically saying, hey, you seem to be using this route a lot. Let's make it easier for you to get where you wanna go. The construction crew then prioritizes those roads. So this is where that, the peace we spoke about earlier about making unconscious action conscious becomes really important because we want to use that intention to choose what we're myelinating.

Now here's the really fascinating thing. Our brains do not distinguish between what is a real lived experience and visualization. So what does this mean? Let's use a really simple example. Let's say that during the work day, whenever you start to feel a bit bad or tired, you've gotten in this habit of clicking up an Instagram and you know, whilst it seemed fun at first, you've all of a sudden realized, geez, it cost me so much time. I've lost hours of my day, I'm behind on work, and you know what, actually, this isn't making me feel better. So then you decide, okay, I want a new habit. Whenever I'm getting this feeling of feeling a bit exhausted or burnt out for that moment or just feeling a little bit rough, instead, I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna walk around, I'm gonna take a five minute break.

So what this means is that when we go through the process of trying to reinforce this new habit of no Instagram, we're feeling bad, let's say you have a slip up. You have a really down moment, and without even thinking, you just automatically open your phone and click open Instagram.

When you realize that you've done that, yes, you might have myelinated that habit again and opening it, but what you can do is take a second and think through that cycle again. Okay, I was feeling down, visualize that moment, and really try and submerse yourself in it.

Try and feel what you are feeling. Help make it real and vivid in your life, and don't worry, you don't need to be a practiced meditator or someone who is incredibly great at visualization. Just thinking it through and trying to think of the emotions is enough.

Okay, I was feeling down, visualize that moment, and instead of visualizing you clicking open Instagram, visualize yourself getting up, walking around, and taking a five minute break, the thing that you've chosen to do. Take a minute and think it through again. Now in this process, from the time you originally opened Instagram, through thinking it through twice, your brain has fired three different electrical signals.

One might have gone to that old habit, but two now have gone to this new habit. And so if each time you slip up and go back to an old habit when you're trying to form a new habit, or when you go back to an old thought process when you're trying to change your mindset, don't worry.

Take a moment and stop to visualize it. Once, twice, three times. Your brain. Brain will actually outweigh that old habit with now these extra firings towards the new habit. So keep that in mind. We have a real dangerous habit sometimes of when we slip up, of going back and shaming ourselves.

And I know for many of us, this was definitely true for me, shame has been a very effective motivator in the past for change. I used to do this, whenever I got something wrong or was embarrassed or ashamed, it was a real great way for me to beat myself up to get somewhere new that I wanted to go. But in this process, it actually is going counteractive to what you wanna do. By using that shame, each time, shame often requires us to rethink about things and to dwell. And so each time then we dwell, each time we beat ourselves up, we relive that moment.

We're actually myelinating that same pathway again, again, again, and again. So what the most important thing here to do is to try and control where we're myelinating. So you know what? It's okay, you slipped up.

It's not because you did anything wrong, you aren't bad, you aren't less, it is no narrative you might tell yourself, it's because you've got a preexisting strong pathway. And it is gonna be an awkward process and it is gonna take effort to create a new pathway. So you're likely gonna slip up more than once, and that's nothing to do with you. That is just your brain using its efficiency system. So it's okay. So when you catch yourself slip up, remind yourself, it's okay, just take a moment and go back and do that visualization. It doesn't need to be a lengthy affair. It doesn't need to be a two hour Buddhist meditation. It literally can just be the exact same time that you would take to dwell and beat yourself up. But instead of dwelling and doing the negative reinforcement, going and thinking about what you would like to do next time, it's gonna feel really awkward at first. It may even feel quite artificial telling yourselves these new stories. 

So for me, when I was struggling with that lack of permission and the times when I couldn't let people see me be anything, quote unquote, less than, those moments where I was actually telling myself, it's okay to ask for help. It's okay to play. It's okay to be a beginner. It's okay for people to see you try to fail, to mess up, and that is okay. It felt really awkward at first. And sometimes, you know what, it even actually made me feel afraid or felt dangerous, but just keep giving it a try.

It will settle in, that emotion will go away, and it will become more normal. Just ask my other half. I used to say all the time, when I struggled with a victim narrative, I used to take myself out for walks and tell myself repeatedly, I overcome challenges with ease. I overcome challenges with ease. And it felt hilariously weird at first, and it brought up so many little negative thoughts in my head and so many other bits and valves, but then what ended up happening, it became something that I said so many times and in so many ways, and I did it while I was walking up these really big hills and power walking, you know, like an 80s housewife, power walking up my hill, saying, I have overcome challenges with ease, to the point that actually I started to notice when I'd get to a SoulCycle class. Yes, I am one of those girls sometimes, that in the moments where I would sometimes kind of be like, hmm, it's just the last five seconds, I'll taper off now, because I'm quite tired. I'd say, I'd overcome challenges with ease, or a time when I was avoiding something that was making me feel uncomfortable. Maybe I got a bad piece of news, or there was an email where I was gonna have to tell someone something that I didn't think they'd wanna hear. Instead of getting avoidant where I might've in the past, I actually said, I overcome challenges. with ease and it's not because I was being peppy and seeking that out it's just I'd said it so many times I'd built that pathway that my brain had started to believe it my brain had started to choose it it was its response to something as a challenge was not oh avoid run away don't deal with this it was actually I am gonna overcome this with ease and you know what it works and so places where I would have said no in the past or denied myself or too embarrassed to try or place where I had that negative cycle for me all I had to start to do was just take a minute to think of that new thing or going out and doing the walk like I did saying it like a mantra just to try and create those opportunities even if it wasn't actively applied in the real world yet it was trying to create those opportunities for my brain to practice firing that pathway for me to drive that car back and forth A and B even if it's not a lived real lived experience even if it's just in my brain my brain isn't distinguishing between the two so it means that it's firing that pathway and each time I do it's making it easier and easier and easier for the next time that opportunity comes around for me to take that new pathway.

Instead of it feeling like that really painful, bumpy road in the forest, it's building up towards being that highway, so the next time I'm in that point that might be a pressure point, I can drive down that highway. So when my car gets that intersection, I don't have to stop and think, which way am I going? I don't have to feel like I have this Herculean effort to try and go somewhere new. I can follow a more automatic process, allowing that yes to come easier.

Let's say you've always been someone who's wanted to be good at networking and for work you need to start building out your network, but you always get socially anxious any time you go into a networking event and you get really nervous and you get really awkward. So you know this could be for you of sitting there and thinking, okay, every time I go to a networking event, I'm gonna take a minute and breathe when I feel uncomfortable. And instead of shutting down and spiraling out, I'm just gonna take a minute to breathe and to smile.

So you breathe and smile, so you just start to picture in your head, okay, I'm going to this networking event. I'm just gonna breathe. Instead of getting that constricted feeling in my chest where everything's panicking and feeling worse, I'm just gonna actually, it doesn't even matter what the next action is, I'm just gonna take a minute to breathe and to open up. And you just keep thinking about that. So that next time you actually go to a networking event, before you go, think about it once, twice, three times. And when you get there, even if that constriction happens and you feel anxious and it isn't exactly what you want, just take a minute to visualize the new path. And it might take a time or two for you to get there, but one day you're gonna go and you're gonna notice, hold on, I'm breathing. Hold on, okay, I'm not feeling as anxious as I was. And that's you wiring a new pathway, and heck yeah, you. So now when you think about those negative cycles or these habits you wanna change, or if you're struggling with anxiety or fears or just breaking out of those spirals in your head, think about what's going on in your brain next time you have them.

Your brain is not out to get you, it's not trying to hurt you, nor are you weak or a failure or doing something bad or wrong or any of those other narratives you usually tell yourself in those moments.

Your brain has a pathway that at one point in time it learned as a route that was serving a purpose. And now it's just... just following that route at enough times that it's become an automatic response.

It's been an unconscious response more than likely, but now you know how to make it conscious and you know how to work with your brain to choose a new pathway. So how do we choose that new pathway? How do we put this knowledge into practice?

First, set a clear intention. Decide what habit or thought pattern you want to develop. Choose what road you want that car in your brain to drive when it reaches an intersection. Where do you want that car to go?

Take that piece of information and don't focus on what you shouldn't do or ought not to have done. Don't worry about the places that it might've gone in the past. Focus on where you'd like that car to go in the future because even in that thought process of deciding, you're myelinating that new pathway.

You're engaging that synaptic plasticity. Be specific about where you want to go. Then commit to keep practicing that consistently. Repetition is the key to forming that new neural pathway.

At first, it's gonna feel awkward. It's gonna feel difficult. It's gonna feel artificial. But keep showing up consistently and practicing it. It will become easier and more natural. Keep in mind, you might slip up.

You might not get it right. You might go down that old pathway. That is okay. Remember why it's happening. Remember your past myelination. And when it does happen, don't get bogged down on why it happened or what happened. Don't beat yourself up. Just remember, take that moment and visualize where you wanna go instead. Choose which pathway you're going to myelinate. Myelinate that new pathway. I personally do it three times. I find it's a nice number and it's adding extra weight. But take a moment and reflect on where you would like to have gone instead. Once, twice, three times. Be patient with yourself. Help yourself to strengthen that new pathway with positive reinforcement, not negative destruction.

Change takes time and setbacks are a part of the process. Instead of getting discouraged, use these misfirings as opportunities to reinforce the new behavior. Then lastly, celebrate. Celebrate the times that you get it right. The times where your car reaches that intersection and it takes the roads you want. Celebrate it. Whether that is just with yourself and having a little moment where you pat yourself in the back and reinforce.

Yes, that is great. And add a little dopamine spike in there. Or if you tell a friend and accountability partner your other half and have them celebrate with you. Make it something that where you stop and see those moments of progress. It helps us to appreciate ourselves and appreciate the progress and to make it feel more tangible. Plus, it engages our dopamine cycles, which makes us want to do more of it. So make sure you celebrate.

So we've got reflection, consistent effort, visualization, patience and celebration. Remember, your brain is incredibly adaptable. It's never too late to make changes and develop new habits. Embrace the process of learning and growth. Knowing that each step you take is reinforcing those new pathways and making it easier to continue adapting in the future.

Understanding synaptic plasticity gives us the tools to be more intentional with our thoughts and actions, and in building the life we want. It's about realizing that we have the power to shape our brains and by extension our lives. So whether you're working on a new habit, trying to break an old one, or simply looking to understand yourself better, remember that your brain is capable of incredible change.

So if you're somewhere right now that you don't like in your brain, you can change it. If there's something that you would love to add in, you can build it. Every small step you take in that journey is a victory. And with time and persistence, those small steps add up to significant change. Keep practicing, stay curious, and be patient with yourselves. Let's get our brains working with us and for us, not against us.

Thank you for joining me on this journey today. Remember, it's all about progress, not perfection. Keep showing up, keep practicing, keep believing in your ability to change and grow. You've got this.

Until next time, take care and keep exploring the incredible potential within you. I hope you found today's episode insightful and helpful. As we continue to explore what it means to be human, I'm excited to share that the next month's episode will build on the neuroscience from this month's episode and we will explore dopamine cycle and how we can use them to help reinforce this work we're doing in synaptic plasticity and how we can help incentivize ourselves to build the life we want.

If you enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to follow the podcast and rate it on your favorite platform. Your support helps us to reach more listeners who are on their own journeys of exploration and growth.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Humaning newsletter at lizatullidge.com for updates, exclusive content, and more resources to support your journey. Lastly, be sure to check out all the links, notes, and resources that support today's episode in the show notes and on my blog.

There's so much more to discover and learn and we're here to guide you every step of the way. Thank you again for listening and until next time, keep choosing your pathway and playing the engineer of your mind.