Neuroplasticity would be the brain's ability to form new neural connections the more it learns and adapts. This adaptability allows the brain to adjust its structure and function in response to experience and learning. It involves the strengthening or weakening of existing neural pathways and the creation of new ones.
Understanding neuroplasticity can empower individuals to take an active role in shaping their brain's development and functioning, leading to improved cognitive abilities, emotional well-being and overall quality of life.
Incorporating a combination of learning, cognitive challenges, physical challenges, social interactions and exposure to new experiences, will allow for a holistic approach to neuroplasticity (the practices). The key is to maintain a lifestyle that continually challenges your brain, to promote its growth. The very idea of neuroplasticity is the growth of one's brain and the adaptability in changing. By knowing when and how to practice neuroplasticity, it can greatly benefit anyone's life in terms of having increased neurotransmitters, perhaps increased social connection as well as general increased cognitive capabilities. As I recently learned; those who are aware of the idea of neuroplasticity and its benefits, show greater results based on some research done by Lisa Blackwell and Kali Trzesniewski.
I view our collective journey through Dev Academy as the perfect example of practicing neuroplasticity. Not only are we taught to come up with our own solutions, but there is always constructive feedback, ways to continuously improve and we're constantly learning something new (at least I am)!
The ability of our brain to create new pathways is an amazing concept. This idea also includes strengthening existing pathways. But how do we do it? Here are the main 3 points that I have taken from this learning experience and found the most useful for easy application into everyday life:
Another important tip to note is how much putting information into a context is helpful. This simply means, find a way to understand the material you're learning. Also, understand what your brain is doing when you're practicing, this particularly helps.
A growth mindset is a psychological concept developed by Carol Dweck, wherein it refers to the belief that one's abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work and problem-solving.
Having a growth mindset can promote a more positive approach to learning and development. In her TED Talk, Carol talks about the "not yet" mindset, where just because you didn't get your desired outcome, doesn't mean you never will. It just means you didn't get it "yet". With this mindset, you can see how it would become easier to problem-solve and adapt to create the desired outcome, rather than just being told "you didn't get it". Growth mindset is knowing your mind will adapt and learn from criticism or rejection. It's a mindset of wanting continuous improvement through dedication and perseverance.
If you think about it, a growth mindset and neuroplasticity are closely linked. Both of these concepts share similar ideas; change and adaptability, positive outlook on challenges, belief in potential improvement and continuous learning. The difference between the two concepts, though, is that a growth mindset emphasises beliefs and attitudes. Arguably, it's the driving force to making change and learning new things. Without a good attitude to learning, you wouldn't be as open to change and therefore will not fully embrace it.
I like to think that I practice a growth mindset by learning from my mistakes and developing plans to overcome them. It's also important to me to look to different sources of knowledge, rather than just the same one so that I'm exposed to new ideas or strategies and so that I'm able to implement them into my learning and my work.
As mentioned before, the journey we on at Dev Academy is a great place to practice our growth mindset. We are going to come up with a lot of challenges (and we already have), so it can be good to adopt the "not yet" growth mindset and have patience and perserverance in our journeys.