Share this post
If you read the previous post in this series, you know we've got neuroplasticity on the, errr, brain. Or should we say, mind?
In Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, neuropsychologist Rick Hanson defines the relationship between the mind and the brain as an integrated system. How one "makes" or exactly shapes the other isn't known--and the answer to that question may be akin to determining how the earth revolved around the sun some 350 years after Copernicus made the observation that it did.
It's reasonable, says Dr. Hanson, to define the relationship as "the mind is what the brain does."
The mind includes the neural signals that regulate such things as your stress response, your knowledge of how to do something, your hopes or dreams, and your personality tendencies. Essentially, the mind is the information that is being moved around by your brain. Your interactions with the world and your own body will also contribute to your mind's "make-up."
How does knowing that the mind and brain are thought of as individual but collaborative performers matter? Quite simply, it gives us deeper insight into the power of neuroplasticity, and why this attribute can pave the way for happier thinking.
As Hanson writes, " . . you can use your mind to change your brain to benefit your mind--and everyone else whose life your touch."
