Change the Input

Recently I listened to a webinar about neuroplasticity.  At the risk of sounding far out there, it made me realize how much we create our own reality.

Yeah, that’s pretty woo-woo, even for me.  Let me give a practical example that can also be a party trick, depending on the kind of parties we go to.

 

Don’t try this if you have bone loss in your spine.  Everyone else:  stand up and then bend forward as if you are going to touch your toes.  It does not matter how far you can reach, but note how far you can reach.  Stand back up.  Now think about that problem part of your body, the ankle you keep spraining, the scar from your appendectomy, that shoulder that hurts in the morning.  Once you’ve settled on one (any one will do!), rub that part of your body for a minute or so.  Longer is better for this exercise, but a minute is enough.  Then do that forward bend again.  I’ll bet you could reach farther than you did the first time.

 

Why does it work?  Because we distracted our brains.  We gave a bunch of input to our brains from something that wasn’t reaching for our toes.  Our brains stayed so busy with that that they couldn’t focus on our limitations in the direction of our toes.

 

We just changed our reality.  When we change the input, we change the output.

 

Go make some stuff real.