Change your attitude
(your brain is plastic).

If Eva hesse were living today, scientists would be able to investigate exactly what happened when she got unstuck. sophisticated new technology now allows researchers to map the electrical activity in the human brain, pinpointing precisely what goes on when we experience different states. Negative emotions activate an area of the brain, located just behind the forehead, called the right prefrontal cortex. Happiness and pleasure trigger the left prefrontal cortex.

One of the discoveries of the past 20 years has been the realization that the brain is “plastic”. It had been thought that ones fully developed, our brains remains more or less the same. The opposite is true: the brain changes constantly, from the day we are born until the day we die. Our moods, our surroundings, and our actions have a concrete, biological impact on the brain. The brain is ceaselessly at work, doing a kind of gardening. It strengthens the circuits that are used most, while pruning the circuits that are use least.

Frequent stress carves a familiar pathway in the brain that makes a person more axious, more often. The good news is that we can teach our brain new trick. The brain actually resculpts itself at the molecular level. Because of this, older people who give them selves a mental workout, such as playing chess regularly, are less vulnerable to senility. Habits of mind-like getting stressed out every day in traffic-have consequences. They intensify specific neural pathways, influencing our future selves. We are what we do.

The implications of the brain’s plasticity are exciting. They suggest that we are not the mercy of our circumstance. We have a bit of power over anxiety disorders and mood swings. Though physicians currently favour prescription medication as the most effective treatment for severe psychiatric problem, there is growing evidence that in some cases we can retain the brain through natural methods. The more we loosen up and unwind, the more easily relaxation comes to us. Repeated exposure to any emotional state-stress or tranquility-becomes self-reinforcing. The better we feel, the better we will feel.