Photo by Artem Chernyshevych

We have been told that advancing years are a time of ever fuzzier thinking and brain deterioration over which we have no control. On the contrary, neuroscientists have discovered that even though the brain’s decreasing number of brain cells causes it to lose between five and ten percent of its weight by the time we are ninety, the brain can build more connections that help it to work better as it ages, and even grow new cells in certain areas. It turns out that aging can give us a better ability to replace negative emotions with positive ones, the resulting emotional stability forming the basis of wisdom. This concept of “neuroplasticity” not only suggests that our brains can grow and change throughout life, but also suggests that we can cause positive changes in our brain structure with our thoughts.

A neuroscientist from Harvard, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, taught a group of nonmusician volunteers a simple piano exercise that they practiced in the lab two hours a day for five days. A week later, brain scans were performed and showed that the part of the brain that controlled finger movements increased in area. Volunteers that practiced the finger exercises in their minds alone had the same result. We can infer from these findings that our thoughts can affect our mental and physical health more than previously thought.

What happens when we consciously control our thoughts and always steer them in a positive direction? Richard Davidson, of the University of Wisconsin, conducted a study in which he compared the brains of eight Buddhist Monks who were very experienced with meditation, with the brains of a group of students who were given some quick instruction in how to meditate. Both groups performed a “nonreferential compassion” meditation in which they concentrated on feeling infinite generosity and love for all living beings, while being connected to an EEG machine. The EEG readouts showed an increase in gamma brain waves for all meditators. The monks experienced thirty times higher gamma output than the students. A functional MRI showed that the brains of all the meditators showed moreactivity in the brain area responsible for positive emotion, and less in the area that distinguished between self and others. The brain areas dealing with maternal love and empathy reacted much more strongly in the monks’ brains, where the happiness brain area totally overrode the brain area dealing with negative feelings. The brains of the students didn’t show this reaction.

It appears that training the mind can cause brain changes that predispose us to more positive feelings such as empathy, compassion, and love. Isn’t it good to know that we can teach ourselves to be happy?

Inglis Carre’-Dellard, M.F.A. is a Los Osos artist and teacher whose teaching style emphasizes individuality and self expression in a nurturing environment. For information on creativity classes, individual creativity counseling, or to receive her creativity newsletter, contact her at ingartist@yahoo.com or 805.534.9693.

For more information regarding the latest scientific brain discoveries and their relationship to creativity, read ‘Embracing the Wide Sky,’ by Daniel Tammet.