The power of utilising Neural plasticity

While it can be fair to say that most of us get caught up and trapped in the mundane daily grind of life, it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way! We become all too familiar amongst the routine and structure that dominates the 7 days filling up our weeks. It’s when we become habitual and complacent to our same old environments that can lead to feeling that everyday dullness, lack of purpose, and mainly mediocrity we all tend to experience in life. But the good news is that all of this can be counteracted by harnessing the innate power of creativity that resides within all of us! Just as cognitive neuroscientists tell us¹:

“Neurons that wire together, fire together!”

We now understand through neuroscience findings that the more our brain does a repetitive task, the stronger our neural networks become as a result¹. It shows us that the brain is just like ‘plastic’, meaning its malleable, bendable, shapeable to learning new tasks. So rather than believing our brain is inherently fixed and stuck to its ways, it can be viewed upon as a flexible, dynamic tool that we can use and harness to grow and learn new and exciting things in many different areas of life.

How many times have you ever met a highly creative person who claims “I don’t have a mechanical bone in my body!” Well, the fact of the matter is that we are all divided between two very different brains². A creative right side of your brain, and a mechanically structured left side of your brain (and they both talk to each other too!) So all of those creative ideas, poetry, art, philosophy and intuition stem from the right side of your brain, whereas those more administrative, scientific, structured, timely and rational components of your being from the left side of your brain.

The creative person who claims to be voided of all mechanical life doesn’t realise that simply driving a car requires a tremendous amount of left-brained mechanics to do so. You are literally operating a machine! It doesn’t get much more mechanical than that. And on the other hand, a highly scientific and rational person may think they don’t have creative bone in their body, but in fact one of the smartest scientific minds to walk the earth, Albert Einstein, would often use his imagination to practically daydream new scientific theories such as the theory of relativity³. Einstein even said “I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.” How much can this tell us about the power of the creative brain?

Changing lanes between brains





It seems as though my own recent circumstances can vouch for this fascinating way of harnessing the creative power of the brain. On Thursdays I’ve gone from gruesomely studying in-depth neuroscience in North Sydney, studying the anatomical structures and functions of the brain learning new and exciting words like ‘Medulla oblongata‘ and ‘medial lemniscus pathways‘, to then finding myself skipping over the harbour bridge at peak hour to attend an African drumming class in Newtown, smackin’ away at drums in a group of 20+ people while yelling out traditional and ceremonial songs in West African languages, hearing the instructor singing things out like ‘Kulay Kulay, Awa Awa“, (calling to the drummers) while we sing back “Yaaa-eeee, Yaaa-eeee” as we drum along to different beats.

Changing lanes between brains! Studying neuroscience to African drumming classes.

As a person who tries to balance the fine line between studying a scientific degree and also practicing meditation, yoga and trying to unleash my creative side as much as possible, I found attending soul drummer classes a very interesting experiment (Look! My left-brain overriding my right-brain caught in action!) But in all seriousness, it’s been a fascinating experience! By attending these drumming classes, I’ve learned a whole lot about myself, how my mind opertates, and felt part of a larger group dynamic. Being in synchronicity within a group drumming session, I felt a unique rhythm, an energy, a group heart-beating in complete symbiosis and harmony.

Whenever I tried to ‘think‘ while I was drumming, this would instantly spoil my rhythm right out of whack, which is why it required me feel instead. Using my senses such as sight, hearing and touch to maintain my drumming rhythm, rather than conventionally using my rational discerning intellect. Another interesting point to make is that I believe it enhanced my emotional maturity skills, because whenever I felt like I was lacking the beat or rhythm, being too fast or too slow, or just simply unsynchronised I would look to those around me, and by viewing their hands moving and body gestures, I was able to mimic or use modelling techniques to resynchronise myself back into the correct rhythm again. These modelling techniques are fundamental traits we developed as children⁴, although one could argue that we never stop developing this trait well into adulthood, as it’s the social lubricant we use to conform and interact with others. Through African drumming classes I found myself growing in ways that I would’ve previously found unimaginable!

As we have just previously learned, it’s quite often that some of the biggest names in scientific breakthroughs like Albert Einstein have used his imaginative, holistic right brain to allow him to venture into deeper realms of thought. Even the famous theoretical theorists Richard Feynman, who was responsible for the development of the Atomic Bomb during the Manhattan Project in his early twenties, also winning the Nobel Prize for his work in developing an understanding of quantum mechanics⁵ can be seen here in this video playing the bongos while singing about orange juice! (mad-man, or absolute genius harnessing the creative half of his brain?…)

Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman playing the Bongos while singing about orange juice…

Seeing the brain from a different perspective

Yuval Harari, world famous historian meditates for 2 hours per day⁸

Even world famous historian Yuval Harari, author of a best-selling book: ‘Sapiens, a brief history of humankind’ is yet another notable figure who harnesses the full power of his creative brain. Harari credits his Vipassana meditation practice for making him a better historian⁶. Vipassana means to see things as they really are, it’s one of the most ancient meditation techniques known to man, with the primary goal of focusing on ones breath⁶. “You need to constantly remind yourself what is the most important thing that is happening in the world — what is the most important thing that is happening in history. The discipline to have this focus is something I gained from meditation.”

“The other major contribution, I think, is that the entire exercise of Vipassana meditation is to learn the difference between fiction and reality, what is real and what is just stories that we invent and construct in our own minds. Almost 99 percent you realize is just stories in our minds. This is also true of history. Most people, they just get overwhelmed by the religious stories, by the nationalist stories, by the economic stories of the day, and they take these stories to be the reality.⁷” Yuval Harari

… So what’s my take home message from all of this?

UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVE POTENTIAL!

Half our brain is developed and dedicated primarily for our creative use. When it comes to learning new skills and crafts, this may seem daunting and frightening at first, but as we learned, “neurons that wire together, fire together!” What may seem like an awkward new skill you’re trying to develop seeming like you’re child again on training wheels will eventually become a routined unconscious habit, just like learning to drive and then eventually becoming a fluently skilled driver. This opens up and enhances new neurological gateways to exciting opportunities both in your environment, and your brain!

Being creative opens up the gates to a limitless range of new possibilities and different avenues which can make life exhilarating and adventurous! Even the world famous scientist Albert Einstein testified that by using his imaginative/creative brain, this allowed him to prosper with his groundbreaking scientific theories. While Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman unleashes his creative power on the bongos. Or how Harari has used meditation to help him summarise all of human history into one single book.

Once we venture into the unknown realms of our colourful, unconscious minds, there’s no limit to what you may learn and discover about yourself, or the entire universe!

-Written by Kieran

Founder

Breaking Barriers Australia

To find out more about African drumming in Sydney region check out: https://souldrummer.com.au/ !

References:

¹ https://www.holstee.com/blogs/reflections/neurons-that-fire-together-wire-together

²https://www.healthline.com/health/left-brain-vs-right-brain#left-brainright-brain-theory

³ https://evernote.com/blog/einsteins-unique-approach-to-thinking/

⁴https://www.verywellmind.com/child-development-theories-2795068

⁵https://fs.blog/richard-feynman/

⁶https://medium.com/the-mission/how-one-unknown-professor-wrote-two-international-bestsellers-that-changed-our-understanding-of-94d89e008b6a

⁷https://www.vox.com/2017/2/28/14745596/yuval-harari-sapiens-interview-meditation-ezra-klein

⁸http://www.calnewport.com/blog/2017/03/13/yuval-harari-works-less-than-you/

Image Credits:

Feature artist left/right brain: obtained from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoqqoPMvtjk

Creative brain: obtained from: https://www.lifehack.org/618689/how-to-boost-creativity-secrets-of-the-creative-brain

Harari picture: obtained from: https://www.npr.org/2016/03/04/468882620/why-did-humans-become-the-most-successful-species-on-earth