Neuroplasticity is the science behind our brains, and more so how we think and learn. Understanding neuroplasticity can be incredibly helpful for anyone in life. Neuroplasticity is the understanding that our brains are ever changing and ever learning. That we don’t necessarily have a “cap” on our intelligence or ways of thinking. Our brains have pathways, and every time we use a pathway, it strengthens. Everytime we try thinking outside of our comfort zone, exploring other avenues for answers or results we are wanting can create and help improve other neural pathways.
When you hear someone say “well that's just how I am”, that just simply isn't true, They may not have tried to think or explore other avenues and in turn are likely restricted themselves. This could be called a “fixed” mindset. Exploring Neuroplasticity within ourselves is considered a “growth mindset”. It's about changing the way we think and approach problems in our lives, whether that be academic or daily life. A “growth mindset” can be very helpful to our perspective of ourselves and the perspective of how much we can achieve. Instead of thinking about passing or failing a new idea or concept, we could change how we think about it, such as “I don’t quite understand YET”. This alone changes our perception of our task, instead of giving it a rigid structure of success or failure, we change it to a fluid structure that has no real end but more of a process that allows failure while also encouraging more meaningful connections to what is being learned. These connections are what allow us to look at problems with different perspectives or approaches, which in turn helps the neurons in our brain fire down different pathways. This allows our brain to develop and grow with each new pathway explored and reused.
It's all well and good to talk about something, but implementing what I have spoken about to myself is another thing entirely. I personally had somewhat of an understanding of neuroplasticity and its effects and use them for my own benefit where I can. When I find myself stuck on something I usually ask myself “What am I missing”. This to me means “I know what I should be doing, but something isn't adding up or working. What information or perspectives have I yet to think about that might help me solve this problem.”. This is using a “growth mindset”. Trying to explore outside my comfort zone, to think about a problem or the solution to it in ways I may not usually think. This helps the Neurons fire down pathways that may be less used, thus strengthening the pathway and how easily accessible it is. To utilize neuroplasticity in my learning plan, I need to push myself out of my comfort zone more, especially into areas I know I struggle in, Such as designing. I'm not a particularly artistic person and struggle to come up with ideas for design or layout. I think I will try to engage with design concepts more and try to think about how I might go about coming up with ideas and how I might design something.