Ready to Change Some Habits? Start With Your Brain.

So much about improving our health requires changing our habits. That’s true for physical, mental, and emotional health. But for new habits to stick, we also need to retrain our brains.

Do you ever feel like your brain is keeping you stuck? You are not alone!

Signs of a “stuck brain” can include:

・ Anxious Thoughts and “Racing Mind”

・ Negative Self-Talk

・ Caving to Cravings/Diet Sabotage

・ Feeling Unmotivated

・Trouble Concentrating

These are just a few examples of feelings and behaviors that can be hard to break and feel like an endless cycle!

But here’s what you need to know:

You have the power to retrain your brain.

Think of it like rewiring. You can teach your brain to form new connections: to strengthen pathways that serve you and weaken pathways that don’t.

It’s called neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is why we can recover function after a stroke, learn new skills, and reprogram our thoughts.

Neuroplasticity is also a key to behavior change and breaking free from past patterns that keep us feeling stuck.

Here’s the great thing about neuroplasticity:

✅ The more you trigger neural pathways in the brain, the stronger they get.

❌ The less you trigger other neural pathways in the brain, the weaker they get.

That means:

・Every time you lace up your walking shoes instead of sitting on the couch, you’re training your brain to believe you’re a person who exercises.

・Every time you drink water instead of wine, you’re training your brain to believe you’re a person who stays sober.

・Every time you take a deep breath instead of yelling, you’re training your brain to believe you’re a person who stays present and relaxed.

The key to making neuroplasticity work in your favor is to practice your positive and health-promoting habits in little bits often:

🗝️ Little & Often 🗝️

That’s how you train your brain, and that’s how you make habits stick.

- Stay tuned for my next blog where I’ll highlight five daily practices to improve neuroplasticity for lasting behavior change.

Are you ready for a fresh perspective on your health? As a board-certified Integrative & Functional Medicine physician, I can help you “think outside of the box” and dig deeper with a variety of laboratory testing to help uncover the underlying root causes of your symptoms and create a plan personalized for you that goes beyond the prescription pad to incorporate diet/lifestyle change, nutritional supplements, holistic therapies, health coaching and more! Contact us to schedule an appointment or learn more.