What are Neural Pathways?

When you start stimulating your brain, your brain creates new neural pathways. This neural stimulation encourages new dendritic growth within your brain. This allows for faster and smoother neural communication within your brain, and also provides more “processing power” in the brain. The dendrites are the many branching fibers extending from the neuron/cell body. These fibers increase the surface area available for receiving incoming information. The more dendrites the brain has at its disposal, the more quickly and smoothly it can process information.

Whenever you learn something new, such as playing a musical instrument, new dendritic growth occurs as a result of stimulating the mind in a new and different way. At the same time, old dendritic connections can become inactive and dissipate. (The shortening of dendritic branches and the reduction of the number of branches is associated with senility in the elderly.)

To see a striking example of how this works, click here to read the story of Cameron Mott.

These neural pathways are created whether you want them to or not. If you tend to focus on the negative, then you’re essentially programming your brain to be negative. And if you focus on the positive, your brain physically changes to accommodate more positive thought processes.

Setting Goals

Let’s use weight loss as an example. Are you just trying to lose weight? Or are you trying to lose a specific number of pounds? Can you visualize how you would look if you lost ten pounds? Or would it be easier to visualize yourself in a certain pair of jeans?

What if you combined your weight loss techniques with prayer or meditation? You could pray for the strength and fortitude to stay with your program. You could meditate and visualize yourself wearing your new jeans. You could visualize what your life would be like if you were weighed a little less. What would you do? How would your friends and loved ones react to a thinner, lighter you? How would your quality of life improve? Would you be more confident, more outgoing? Why? How would your health improve? What would that do for you?

Asking yourself “yes or no” questions isn’t as effective as asking yourself open ended questions. Open ended questions lead to more thought, which engages your brain even more. In this way you start building neural pathways.

What is Personal Development

According to Wikipedia, Personal Development refers to individual self-development and the development of others.

If you’re doing anything to improve yourself, you’re taking part in personal development. If you’re trying to lose a few pounds, are taking part in a fitness program, trying to focus a few minutes of each day on prayer or meditation, or even something as simple as writing in a journal for a minutes each day – you’re taking part in personal development.

Getting started in personal development is as simple as making a decision, a commitment to improving yourself. And then what? What do you do next?

You Set Goals.