We control the structure of our brain

It was generally believed in health circles that brain once formed is unchangeable. Now it is well known that we can change our brains. Our brain thus is not rigid but it is plastic, malleable in the hands of our own consciousness.

Whether we use the limbic brain to respond to a stimulus or the neocortex depends upon the sense of immediacy of the stimulus and the disposition of our brain determined by the neural circuits. The structure of the neural circuits is not fixed in time as was thought earlier. It is changeable. We need to use a strategy to do so and it takes some time although not an inordinate amount of it.

Let us recollect that the use of our limbic system is fast as it should be to deal with threats to survival or its perceived quality. It is associated with the actiivity of the sympathetic division which is the akin to the gas line in our cars. Its activity elicits the release of stress hormones characteristic of the fight or flight response. On the other hand, the use of our neocortex is slow for safe situations where consideration is required. It is associated with actiivity of the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system which is the akin to the brake line in our cars. It activity elicits the release of the rest and digest hormones characteristic of the relaxation response.

If we repeatedly choose to elicit the relaxation response, we incrementally increase the quantity of the quantity of the rest and digest hormones in our blood stream. Elicitation of this response regularly for some time during the day over a period of time then measurably changes the relative amounts of the rest and digest hormones as opposed to the stress hormones. This change causes a measurable alteration of the neural circuits of the brain changing our disposition to select the neocortex to generate a response over that of the limbic brain.