Neuroplasticity

Understanding the principles of neuroplasticity and how it benefits people:

The more you practice or repeat an activity the neurons in your brain fire, when you continuously repeat or perform tasks it strengthens connections between the cells. It is understood that the brain is plastic, moldable and constantly changing and can not only affect the way your brain works but also its physical shape and structure. Mental practice is as important if not more important than the physical practice in an area. While you need to put the work in physically, you need to adjust your thought patterns in a positive manner otherwise your hard work and repetitions physically can be undone by your thinking patterns.

For instance; this year i have been practcing gratitude, morning and evening. By training my brain to see the the things i'm grateful for, even if they have been challenging, it's allowing me to grow in a positive way and also learn from the things that i would have previously thought of as 'bad'. My brain is now searching for the good or the meaning on a daily basis, it requires practice every day. It's not always easy but by showing up and doing the practices even if i don't want to, makes every day a little easier and i'm not instantly looking at circumstances as a negative but an opportunity to expand and grow as a person.

"When you learn something new, your brain makes a new connection. When you stop learning your brain starts to disconnect itself" - Dr Daniel Amen

How you might engage with the principles & ways to increase neuroplasticity for your benefit:

Repetition, time & practice

Action & experience

"Use it or Lose it" ; If you don't actively engage in the task you want to improve at, you won't build strong connections in the brain

Using your brain and understanding you can change your brain, silencing the inner-critic that beileves you can't do it

Sleep

Exercise

Eat healthy foods for better brain function

Hydration

Mindfulness

Gratitude

Some resources i found particularly useful: First link Second link

Growth Mindset

What it is & Why it's relevant:

Embracing problems as opportunities to learn

Diving into situations you fear, regardless of how you look & the outcome; Playing the game, rather than, sitting on the sideline thinking/talking about it

If you fail, you have the opportunity to learn from it and grow. How you view and react to the problem is crucial so it doesn't keep happening because we will always fail at something

If you fail and have negative self-talk, you will remain stagnant and afraid to try anything

"Losing is exciting" - Kobe Bryant ; we hate losing but it gives you the opportunity to review the situation you are losing, learn from it, adjust and adapt for improvement

Did anything surprise you? Change for you? & How will you integrate growth mindset into your learning journey?:

In this exploration, it had already changed for me at the beginning of this year properly. I always had a fixed mindset and was under the assumption i could never get better, evolve or do anything great. This growth mindset has been in the works for a couple of years now because i knew there had to be a better way and life wasn't what i made it out to be. It was always like my mind was stuck in a 'mental prison' and one day the cell door was left ajar and i finally made my escape.

This year i have put in so much work to find the 'real me' and one of the big reasons was because, someone i barely knew one night asked "why do i do that? after i had told him what i had been doing this year in terms of trying to teach myself to code, and the various things i was trying to do to better myself, but still thought it wasn't good enough. The next day i asked myself "Why do i do that?", which led me on a reflection about previous experiences as to why i treated myself the way i had.

In a couple of months my life changed; to positive self-talk, gratitude, not needing validation from others apart from my own and showing up for myself every day for the small wins. I still have a lot of room to grow and it takes a lot of hard-work everyday, but i have seen the positive growth in a couple of months and that can really turn your life around! So i will be continuing with this growth-mindset, and trying to quieten the voices, especially so far regarding JavaScript. If i keep showing up everyday and wiring my brain to learn it, staying positive in the hard-moments and looking for a way forward, it will work out!

A resource i found particularly useful: Link

Reflect and discuss how these understandings may shape or influence your learning plan and strategy:

My learning plan won't alter to much i don't beileve, at this stage anyway. I know i have learned a lot this year and want to continue to do so, the hardest part is keeping the voices at bay and showing up for myself everyday. I know i will struggle, which i have done a bit with some of the JavaScript content, but i need to continue to implement what i have been doing all year and not getting discouraged when i have challenging moments.

If i can continue to show up for myself and then other people everyday, i will continue to learn and grow! I had a whole life being stagnant and no moving forward so i need to continue to work at what i'm doing, especially on the darkest of days!