Neuroplasticity and Growth Mindset
24 September 2019
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of the brain to change neural pathways and synapses in response to and in order to adapt to different factors such as behaviour and environment.
This process occurs throughout an individual’s life and is the avenue through which all permanent learning takes place. Aside from allowing an individual to learn and master new skills, neuroplasticity also enables them to recover from injury by restructuring itself when the brain is damaged.
By understanding what neuroplasticity is and the benefits of improving one’s neuroplasticity can bring about, we can incorporate ways to improve and develop our neuroplasticity.
There are many ways proven to stimulate neuroplasticity, and most are simple things you can easily incorporate into your daily routine.
Exercising for 30 minutes or so per day, or even just meditating has shown to stimulate production of new synapses. There are also many foods that have proven to help with brain elasticity -- foods rich with antioxidants or flavonoids, for example.
Another activity that improves neuroplasticity is ensuring you get enough sleep. You should be doing this regardless, for your overall health, but sleep also allows the brain to reset connections which are needed for memory and learning. In a similar vein, reducing stress also improves neuroplasticity.
Research conducted by Emory University has proven that reading fiction showed increased and ongoing connectivity in the brains of the study participants.
Finally, a great way to increase your neuroplasticity is to continue learning new skills. Similar to how the body benefits from exercise, the brain benefits from learning.
In a way, while knowing about neuroplasticity and being aware of how we can improve it is something that will help me with this course, learning how to code actually will improve my neuroplasticity as well. Especially for such an intensive course, making sure that I don't neglect exercise, rest, and healthy eating is extremely important in having a healthy brain and mind.
If you want a more detailed overview of neuroplasticity, check out this article in ScienceDirect. The link also contains in-depth articles on neuroplasticity's effects on different conditions and links it to other mental phenomena.
Growth Mindset
Mindset is our attitude towards certain situations that determines how we react and interpret what we are faced with it. Oftentimes, we can trace our mindset to past experiences and our general belief structure.
To fully understand Growth Mindset, we must contrast it with its antithesis: the Fixed Mindset.
As we go through life and face challenges and dilemmas, we can choose to either embrace these situations as opportunities to grow and learn or avoid them lest we fail or face disappointment.
People who cultivate a growth mindset believe that they can improve and get smarter. That failing at something is not permanent but rather a temporary hurdle. Therefore they put in time and effort which then leads to success.
As you can guess, people with a Fixed Mindset is the exact opposite. Failure is not acceptable and they would rather not try at all than fail and face disappointment. They believe that intelligence is set and you either have it or don’t. Improvement is pointless and putting in effort is futile. They would do things that they can succeed in and revel in their competency at that specific thing rather than going out of their comfort zone and trying things that they may struggle in.
Knowing this allows us to choose how we want to lead our life. Being aware and accepting that we may be holding ourselves back by having a fixed mindset is the first step to changing our mindset to one that is focused on growth. It will allow us to look into our decisions and thought processes and figure out if we are actually giving ourselves the best chance at succeeding in overcoming challenges.
What some people occasionally forget when learning about these concepts is that most of the time people adopt either a Growth or Fixed Mindset depending on the situation as opposed to just having either mindset that encompasses how they deal with every facet of their life. I can honestly admit that I tend to default to a Fixed Mindset when it comes to learning and doing sports as I’ve conditioned myself into thinking I simply wasn’t born sporty as opposed to the Growth Mindset I tend to adapt for learning most other skills.
Being aware of this means that I can constantly remind and train myself (thanks neuroplasticity!) into adapting a growth mindset for times when I may get frustrated and feel stupid. It also means that whenever I end up falling into the trap of thinking that maybe I’m just not cut out for this, I can catch myself and turn it around into seeing my current challenges as an opportunity to just learn more instead.
For those wanting to understand growth mindset in an easy-to-digest format, this video uses interesting sketches and real-life examples to explain the concept and compare it to a fixed mindset.
If you’re looking for a more in-depth and data-driven study, this article published in Nature looks into how mindset training can improve student performance. It’s quite dense but the results are interesting and definitely worth looking into more.
