Your Brain Can Change — The Power of Neuroplasticity

“Your brain has learned your current pattern — but it can also learn a new one.”

In our previous blogs, we have looked at how your brain responds to stress, why I use the NeuroInfiniti to measure your brain and nervous system, and why tracking your changes over time is such an important part of your care.

But this raises an important question:

“If your brain has developed a pattern, can that pattern actually change?"

The answer is yes.

Your brain is not a fixed structure that simply stays the same throughout your life. It is constantly adapting to the information it receives from your body, your environment and your experiences. This ability of the brain to change and reorganise in response to repeated experiences is known as “neuroplasticity”.

Every day, your brain is learning.

It learns from the way you move, the way you breathe, the quality of your sleep, the stress you experience, your thoughts and emotions, your relationships, your environment and the sensory information constantly coming into your nervous system.

When life repeatedly demands that your brain stay alert, protect you or deal with stress, your brain can become very good at doing exactly that.

That can become your “pattern”.

You may become someone who is always switched on, always tense, slow to settle after stress or unable to properly switch off. For someone else, their pattern may be quite different. They may become withdrawn, exhausted or have difficulty responding appropriately when life demands more from them.

These patterns are not necessarily something that you consciously chose.

They are adaptations.

Your brain is continually trying to help you deal with the world around you.

But what has been learned can be changed

This is where neuroplasticity becomes so important.

If repeated experiences can influence the way the brain functions, then providing different experiences and different information can also support change.

This is one of the reasons I take a brain-based approach to chiropractic care.

The goal of an adjustment is not simply to "move a bone" or chase a symptom. The adjustment provides a specific sensory input to the brain and nervous system — an opportunity for the brain to receive information and respond.

Over time, with appropriate care and the right environment, we are looking for the brain and nervous system to become more adaptable.

This is also why your NI assessment is so valuable.

It gives us a way of looking at your individual pattern rather than assuming that everyone responds to stress in exactly the same way.

We can identify where you are starting from, develop a care approach appropriate to your pattern and then reassess to see whether your response is changing.

Change takes more than one adjustment

Neuroplasticity is not about making one change and expecting your brain to permanently reorganise overnight.

Your brain learns through “repetition and experience”.

Think about learning a new skill. The first time you do something, it may feel awkward or unfamiliar. With repetition, it becomes easier. Eventually, what once required conscious effort can become almost automatic.

Your nervous system works in a similar way.

This is why consistency matters.

Your adjustments provide one form of input, but what happens between your visits matters too. Your sleep, movement, breathing, light exposure, thoughts, relationships, nutrition and the demands of modern life are all providing information to your brain.

The question is not simply:

“Did my symptoms go away?"

The bigger question is:

"Is my brain becoming better at adapting to life?"

From Recovery to Healing to Growth

At Joshua Wellness Practice, I think about care in three broad stages.

“Recovery” is about helping you move out of the immediate state of stress, protection or dysfunction that brought you into care.

“Healing” is about addressing the deeper patterns that may have developed over time. Your symptoms may improve before these patterns have completely changed, which is why feeling better does not always mean the process is finished.

“Growth” is about developing greater adaptability, resilience and capacity — not simply returning to where you were before the problem began.

This is why brain-based chiropractic care can be about much more than pain relief.

It is about helping your brain and nervous system become better able to respond to the demands of life.

Your brain is always learning

Every day you are giving your brain information.

The question is:

“What are you teaching it?”

Are you constantly giving it signals of urgency, stimulation and stress?

Or are you also giving it opportunities for movement, recovery, connection, rest, sleep and safety?

Your brain has developed its current pattern for a reason.

But that does not mean you are stuck with it.

Your brain can change.

And when we understand your pattern, measure it and track how it responds over time, we can begin to understand the direction that change is taking.

That is one of the reasons your brain is worth paying attention to.