The Profitable Chiro Network w/ Dr. Daniel Kimbley
Welcome to The Profitable Chiro Network with Dr. Daniel Kimbley…
On this podcast, we take deep dives into the science of success, stress, and sustainable practice growth—through the lens of God’s intelligent design. From unlocking the power of your prefrontal cortex to breaking free from pain patterns and maximizing clinic profitability, these conversations challenge conventional wisdom and reshape the way you think about chiropractic, business, and life. This is The Profitable Chiro Network.
The Profitable Chiro Network w/ Dr. Daniel Kimbley
Ep 7: How to Rewrite Your Mindset with Neuroplasticity (Achieve More with Less Stress)
Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/6vxwkFnFVus
Welcome back family to the Profitable Cairo Network podcast here with Heather. As always. Hello Stoked to be here, babe. What are we going to talk about today?
Speaker 2:Neuroplasticity.
Speaker 1:Neuroplasticity. It's such a hot topic. Neuroplasticity, basically, is how your brain writes itself and how it can rewrite itself based on actions that you choose to take or not take, and I think that we'll start with the concept that, like. Once you understand the reality of neuroplasticity and what that means, I think it will allow anyone who hears this message to be able to stop making excuses for themselves or why they can't do something and realize that your brain can be rewritten at any moment in time, with a series of choices that you will have to make, some of which are uncomfortable to do. So We'll talk about that, and it's one of the most special things that God gave us within our systems is the ability to rewrite itself.
Speaker 1:There's some scripture Romans 12, 2, that talks about not being conformed to the world but be renewed in your mind, and I'm paraphrasing, but look up Romans 12 too, if you want. And this is I love the way the Bible talks about the brain and the way the Bible mirrors what we see in our actual, like tangible, if we want to say flesh world all the time. And so, if you are an entrepreneur, if you're looking for success in some way, if you're somebody who feels stressed out all the time, or you know somebody who feels stressed out all the time. I have really good news for you and I have bad news for you is that you are not stuck. You're not broken. Everything you're experiencing is normal, but you have to understand neuroplasticity in order to get to a place where you could actually be as successful as you want to be, live a life that's more relaxed, live in more abundance, and be able to experience that on a daily basis is nothing more than how your brain is wired. Okay.
Speaker 1:So let's jump in. Yeah, um, I think the place where I would start, I guess, is with a story of a client who we've taken care of, and I want to weave this will kind of circle back to lots of clients that we've worked with inside of the office and it. This is important for a number of reasons. So, like, if someone's listening and they're a business owner and they feel stuck at a certain point or maybe feel like everybody else has it figured out, but they don't as much, then the good news is you can rewire your brain. If you're someone who maybe you're not an entrepreneur or a business owner, but you are maybe looking for answers that you've never heard before about how your body actually functions, well, the good news is we're going to give you the truth today on exactly how the body functions. And then maybe you're just somebody who wants to know more about the brain. We'll get into some of the nerdy, science-y intricacies about neuroplasticity, what it is. There's different types of it. We'll talk about that as we go. I have some cool notes to reference as we go through, but I want to start with a story.
Speaker 1:So there's a client that we're taking care of and she showed up to us with mom and dad when she's 13 years old. So mom and dad's complaints are my daughter has severe anxiety, she has severe digestive issues. We don't want to give her medication if we don't need to and we are really struggling Like we've seen the skin doctors. We've seen the skin doctors, we've seen the digestive doctors, we've seen all of them. We've seen the endocrine doctors and, mind you, this is 13. So this is that like right in the time of puberty, which is crazy with the hormones anyway. So they'd kind of been on this journey of noticing okay, my daughter has skin issues, she has anxiety, we don't want to give her meds, but we feel like it's the only thing that helps.
Speaker 2:Like everybody's at their last straw almost.
Speaker 1:Everybody's at their last straw Mom, dad, the daughter, the whole family. And then the strain. You know they have other kids too. So the strain that the one kiddo with severe, severe anxiety and digestive issues puts on the rest of the household too. Not her fault, and I'll talk about why that's not her fault, but they come in and we sit down and we have a conversation and I couldn't help but ask the question of well, what was your birth like? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And stressful birth in a hospital. She, this daughter, was actually born with forceps, which we know is stress and trauma on the system and we can talk about For mom and baby, by the way, yeah, for mom and for baby. And there was also a number of extenuating circumstances and I think we've talked about this before on the podcast, but if we haven't, I can get back into it, just let me know Is when someone is pregnant and they have stress on in the system. I know this family had a bunch of financial stress and a changing of a business and they're moving from one state to another state, exiting a religion as a part of that as well, when mom was pregnant with this kiddo. So it's kind of like all this perfect storm of chaos and then born, four steps birth which is highly traumatic, and then we get into.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm asking them just history questions that any practitioner would ask or I would hope that they're asking is tell me about when they were, when she was three months old and the conversation was like she was colicky, she had digestive issues. Doctors just said, you know, give her whatever stool softeners and for her colic, like there's not really anything you can do. Try to avoid caffeine, maybe change your diet a little bit. No real other answers and the family's frustrated and I think most of the people who I meet. We can all kind of relate to this in some way, where it's like I want to know what the issue is and why it's there, but nobody can tell me and it's just kind of like well, hopefully you'll grow out of it.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people are wanting to know more about like why, versus just receiving. Like, do this instead. Like they want to know the reasonings behind it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it comes down to that's what I get so passionate about and I always encourage people is like understand the truth about how your body works. That's why I shared that scripture at the beginning of Romans 12 too, because it really highlights the fact that we're encouraged by the Bible to renew our mind continually, over and over and over again. And so this kiddo, three months old, colicky digestive issues. Two years old, start to see some behavioral issues, really bad tantrums, really poor emotional regulation.
Speaker 2:Outside of what is common and normal for the brain development at that age.
Speaker 1:Yes, but mom and dad didn't know that. So the doctors are just saying well, it's the terrible twos, because that's what we're told, and then it's the horrible threes, and then it's the whatever, and then she gets to be. There's all these signs that mom and dad have seen along the way. No one giving them answers, by the way. Very frustrated, but the only course they know is, I guess, we just give her anxiety meds and stool softeners and we hope for the best.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just think about, like, the lasting effects of what that is, and if she would have to take that for the rest of her life, how her body would actually function.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so we. I sit down with dad and I kind of walk him through. Mom was not on board yet, which is interesting, but I sit, I sit down with dad and I just said, hey, do you has anyone ever told, told you why? Or have you asked the question of why this could be happening?
Speaker 1:or what's the cause of all this stuff in the first place? Cause she wasn't just born to be stressed out, anxious, digestive issues, et cetera, and dad's like, no, I have no idea. So I walk him through the process of why, and what we end up getting to is that her body is just stuck in a stressed out state. That fight or flight, fight or flight. And we're not going to talk about fight or flight. We talked about that a lot on the last episodes of the podcast, but I think what it comes down to is neuroplasticity, so literally how the brain is priming itself and wiring itself to adapt to an environment of stress internally when mom was pregnant, and then stress externally. That never really went away because the brain had already been wired in a certain way. And the coolest part is it's all changeable. It's all changeable At any stage of life, at any stage of life. The interesting part about it is is it gets harder the older we get.
Speaker 2:Why.
Speaker 1:Because the way that the brain wires is that most of the synaptic connectivity so we'll talk about connectivity or adaptability, Um, and then the other. Yeah, the other part is like adaptation. So there's connection and then there's adaptation later, and so the connection piece of it happens usually by the age of two years old. So the brain is wiring itself to be more in a fight or flight state.
Speaker 1:It's wiring itself for everything the way that the brain's going to communicate with itself, so more front to back or side to side. It's going to create a lot of those connections, and we can get into the specifics on what connections are being made by two years old. Everything else after that has to do with myelination adaptation to an environment. So myelination meaning what happens is our nerve cells basically wrap fat, what's called myelin, around the cells to conduct messages faster. So I said this on the last episode. The brain is wired for efficiency. We don't want to have to think consciously about doing something every time, and so the brain will wire itself in a way that it makes things happen without us even having to think about it anymore.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's go back to the first two years of life with the connection. What are like signs or ways you can know that the brain is connecting properly or improperly?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that if you ascribe to the fact that our bodies are self-healing, self-regulating and self-maintaining, and I would argue that if we have symptoms, that is not a good thing. So it doesn't matter what it is a fussy baby that's not nursing well, a baby with digestive issues, colic issues, those things at pre three months old would be a very good indicator to me that something is not right, Because I believe that everybody was created perfectly from day one.
Speaker 1:And yes, there are genetic conditions, and I can give you story upon story upon story of people who we've taken care of with genetic issues that have had massive breakthroughs that no one else thought was possible, because it all comes back to how the brain is functioning, specifically how the brain is wiring itself within the first two years of life. So if there are symptoms and we ignore them or write them off as oh, they'll just grow out of it Like colic for example Like colic would be a great example.
Speaker 1:We have a mama that we're working with right now. Her babe had difficulty breastfeeding for the first two weeks and still, like, gained weight back. So this wasn't a cocoa story. This is a babe who would have been like relatively healthy, but luckily some other practitioners like hey, you should just go check out the chiropractic piece of it, because we really think it could help. And so they end up here and baby, going from only nursing on a bottle, had their first two days ever with no bottle, since they were born only connected to mom. So cool.
Speaker 1:Getting enough food, enough milk now why? Because that little symptom of having difficulty breastfeeding was a primer. Yeah, for everything else that would come later if they hadn't addressed it. I'll give you an example of another mama. She had her babe with us but we haven't adjusted the babe for like three weeks and I don't know how great mom's nutrition is. But babe's been constipated since and adjusting her yesterday and a massive blowout.
Speaker 1:She understands that there's a level of higher function involved when we start affecting the brain, and the reason I bring that up is not to talk about the adjustment or any of those things, but to just talk about the way that the brain is wiring itself and priming itself and being prepared for everything else that will come later in life.
Speaker 2:And, besides the adjustment, is there anything that you can do in order to help it wire properly for those first two years of life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's just mitigating stress, right. So there are the and this is where you know. I had a conversation with another, a friend of ours this weekend that I was kind of telling you about, and I think that could be a different episode entirely, but things happen. So the right side of the brain is developing first, and that's developing primarily up until about the age of seven years old, So-.
Speaker 2:And remind everybody what the right side of the brain is.
Speaker 1:So the right side of the brain controls digestion, which is why we see a lot of kiddos colic, like I shared with a 13-year-old that I was talking about. The right side of the brain is our emotional regulation side of the brain. It is our emotional regulation side of the brain. It is our digestive. It turns on the digestive system. It turns off the immune system. So this would be like reduction of allergies and things like that. So if we have an overactive immune system, it would be an indicator that the brain is weaker on the right side. Somebody who's sick all the time, who constantly has symptoms. Um, so the right side of the brain does those things. It's the part of the brain that likes new things. So it's the creative. I like new things. So if you think about a kiddo who doesn't like anything new they like structure and order and routine it's an indicator right side of the brain's weaker. It's a part of the brain that's the emotional, emotional regulator. So a kiddo who has extreme rage or tantrums or whatever it is highs and lows.
Speaker 1:Usually that's the right side of the brain and so, again, the reason that this all matters is because if we're priming it and we're creating connections by the age of two, the longer we let something go, the harder it's going to be to correct later. I'm not saying it's not correctable later, because a lot of things are. There are some things that aren't, but it's more difficult to change the neurology because we have to. There's a roundabout way that the brain does it after the age of two, and I won't even say after fully.
Speaker 2:I'm probably generalizing a little bit but it's just not as efficient after it makes it makes it more difficult to do Yep 100% very, very specific things that you need to do in order to really reprogram and rewire properly.
Speaker 1:Yep, exactly, so there's. There are a number of things that happen when our brain is like is creating connections, but then creating new connections too. So there's, there are kind of different types of neuroplasticity, I guess we could say so. One of the types of synaptic, which just means that where the nerve endings come together and they release different hormones or neurotransmitters, these are called synapses. So where those come together, there can be synaptic connectivity or plasticity, meaning that those things can change. So an example of this would be when our body releases stress hormone, cortisol and high, high amounts, over time our synapses, those connections where dopamine is released, will down regulate. So our body absorbs less dopamine, which means that we need more of it the next time to get the same excitement. So our body absorbs less dopamine, which means that we need more of it the next time to get the same excitement. So this is why addiction occurs.
Speaker 2:I was going to say can you give us like a real life example of how that?
Speaker 1:plays out. Yeah, so let's say that I'm super stressed in work, okay, and all I want to do is I get. So many people could relate to this. I'm super stressed at work, I have a high stress job. All I want to do at the end of the day is I get home and I just want to scroll on my phone. I know in my conscious brain that I should connect with my kids and connect with my wife or do something around the house, but I just can't put my phone down. I want to continue to scroll. And so there becomes this. It literally becomes addictive because your brain needs more stimulation to get more dopamine, to feel this like sense of motivation in the first place. So dopamine is the anticipation of reward. So that gets down, regulated in stress, regulated for dopamine, which means we need more of it, which means we have more addictive behaviors, which means we become more compulsive.
Speaker 1:And this is how gambling addiction works. This is how drug addiction works. This is how food addiction works, sex, any kind of addiction you could possibly think of. Porn would be another good one. There's all of these pieces. It's just neuroplasticity. It's your brain changing the way that it's wired from a synaptic standpoint based on the input that's coming in from the outside world.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:That makes sense so far I think so. Yeah, how are we doing?
Speaker 3:Good, that was deep that was just one, that was just one type.
Speaker 1:So then the next type is neurogenesis. So this is creating new pathways entirely. So let's say, for instance, that I wanted to go play pickleball and I've never played pickleball before which. I haven't ever played pickleball before, so some people are probably going to have a heart attack, especially in Orange County because it is the thing.
Speaker 1:So if I have never played pickleball before, I'm going to have to create new connections within my brain that to learn how to do that skill. Another example would be learning to play the piano. I've never played the piano. I have no idea what the notes on the piano are. So to learn where my hands go, what the keys are, what the foot pedal does, what the different sounds and tones are and the difference between the white keys and the black keys, and if it's a lower tone when you're on the left side or on the right, like there's all this stuff that I would have to learn, my brain's literally going to have to create new pathways to remember all of those things.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that's the same. So learning a new skill is essentially what that is.
Speaker 1:Neurogenesis is so neurogenesis creating new, completely new pathways. So like as simple. I think the. I know you're going to ask me a question. I'm going to ask you another question, yeah, but like, why do we teach if kiddos are going to be bilingual? Is that where you're going?
Speaker 2:I was going yeah, so why is it so important? Or not, Like, why does everybody say to teach kids, or it's easier for kids specifically to learn a new skill versus an adult?
Speaker 1:then Exactly so, because of neurogenesis. Okay, Because our brain is going to create pathways when we are young and when we get. We talked about there's two types of neuroplasticity. There's adaptive, which is adaptation to an environment, so that would be like neurogenesis creating new pathways that have never I've never ridden a bike. I have to learn to ride a bike when I'm a kid, but then that pathway is pretty much going to stay there forever. Okay.
Speaker 1:Um, that would be very adaptive, based on the environment. I put my body into this situation and over time it learns how to do it. So that's learning a new skill. Um, same would be.
Speaker 1:This is why parents who want to teach their kids two languages Like we, have some families. We take care of their Spanish speaking. They speak primarily English, but they'll teach their kiddos Spanish first. Why? Because that Spanish will be ingrained in their brain and it usually won't go away if that's the first language that they learn, and then they'll teach English on top of it. So they created all these pathways, neurogenesis, to learn a first language Spanish, and then, even if the kiddo doesn't use it later a lot of times, it won't fully go away. Just like riding a bike. If I go to hop on a bike today and I haven't ridden a bike in 15 years, I'm going to be a little bit wobbly, but the chances are that I'm still going to be able to balance on two wheels, versus if I've never done it before a million times when I was a kid, like I did when I was a kid.
Speaker 2:So why is it easier then for kids than it is like a grown adult to say learn how to ride a bike? If an adult's never learned how to ride a bike before and a kid has never learned how to ride a bike before, I would say on average that the adult has a significantly harder time in the learning process.
Speaker 1:Why is that then? Because kids' brains are more plastic. It's not to say that adult brains aren't plastic. So if we think of like, the way to think about this would be and I'll use this example again later If you think of a kid's brain like Play-Doh, think about when you open a brand new container of Play-Doh. It's super soft, it's like wet still. You can mold it into anything that you want.
Speaker 1:Kid's brain, adult brain, especially as we get older. Adult brain, especially as we get older. So still, there's changes happening in the brain, but mostly everything after the age of like we can say 16, but it's even before. That is really compensation. So it's way harder to create new pathways. What our brain will do is try to tap into old pathways, to do roundabouts. So I'll share some examples of that in a second. So an adult brain is more like Plato. That's been. We probably have some in the back where it's like it's not dry, where it's rock hard, where you can't do anything with it. But yeah, you have to, like push on it really, really hard. And then it wants to move back into its old shape of the container still and like the outside edges are a little bit rough and you really have to squeeze it and crunch it to get it to do anything at all. That's more like an adult brain.
Speaker 2:So by the age of 16, you've pretty much molded your pathways a general term, would you say. Is there a way that a grown adult, versus doing the roundabout if you're aware of this from an early age that a parent can help make sure that the plasticity continues past the age of 16? Or it's like non-existent?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that would be. That would be the next one. So if we talk about so, we talked about two already we talked about synaptic neuroplasticity, we talked about the neuroplasticity of neurogenesis, so just being able to make brand new connections in general. The third type is what we would say basically is activity dependent, so, based on what we do with our bodies and how we move, that's going to influence what writes into our brain. So if we think about like let's just think about the conversation of pain for a second, and we'll come back to this too If our brains are super plastic when we're younger, wouldn't it only make sense to wire as much movement into the brain as possible, instead of putting a kid at a desk for six, seven hours a day or in front of an iPad or a TV and that's? No judgment.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying like what the brain does you front of an iPad or a TV, and that's no judgment. I'm just saying like what the brain does you've heard use it or lose it. This is activity dependent neuroplasticity. So, based on what we are doing, there's a level of connectivity that's happening within the brain.
Speaker 2:And the brain grows with activity. The brain grows with activity, physical activity. It's stim with activity, physical activity.
Speaker 1:It's stimulated by that physical activity. Yep, so that's one way that we can create more connections within the brain is through activity that we do. So the key word in that is active doing something, not just sitting, doing nothing or things that are mindless, and I'll go back later. But I want to talk about, too, how we can kind of hack this when we talk about identity, and we'll talk about that when we get there. So then the last type of neuroplasticity there's this. This isn't even really a type, but it's just a reminder that there's a to all of this. There's a molecular component. Wait.
Speaker 2:I have to go back. I'm sorry, this just popped in my brain. So essentially not to talk poorly about the school system, but the school system, as you said, sitting at a desk all day sitting and watching TV, or at an iPad for school, a computer for school, is reducing the ability for the brain to be neuroplastic long term 100% Okay In my opinion just confirming that's what I understood it as.
Speaker 1:Yes, which in the context of, we see lots of families. I see lots of families whose kiddos sit at a desk all day. I see lots of families who have outdoor schools. Yep, there is a distinct difference in demeanor and emotional regulation and the issues and challenges that those kiddos come in with um vert dependent on what school they're at.
Speaker 2:And would you say, when you were teaching, that you noticed those differences as well within um, because they're teenagers by the time you saw them, and if you kind of knew what their background was and their lifestyle, would you say that you noticed those significant differences in the public school system as well?
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure, and it goes back to you know a lot of like like. One simple example of this would be we talked about this this weekend that kiddos with autism. I noticed when I was teaching, I wonder they all had forward head posture, yes, and I wondered why that was the case and I didn't have an answer for it. And I wondered why that was the case and I didn't have an answer for it. But what I realized is their brains have been wired to be in a certain posture based on things that happened to them that may not have been under the kid's control or the parent's control when they were young.
Speaker 2:Right, that weak frontal cortex that creates the postural positioning of like a newborn baby Yep, a hundred percent or an older person that no longer primes their brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and so there's. There's so many examples that we could give, but it's just the reminder is this is that the connections that we're making in the brain can be changed, and it gets harder the older that we get. This is why I had a conversation with a mom yesterday and I said hey, this is why we adjust babies when they're brand new, because no one gets it. But if we can affect the way that their brain is making connections and they're making connections in safety and rest and digest and not in fight or flight their decision-making is going to be better, their emotional connection is going to be better, their behavior is going to be better, their emotional regulation is going to be better, their mood and demeanor is going to be better, they're probably going to be more active and to me, that sets a kiddo up for a more successful life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because I mean all of us want better for our kids than what we ever had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everybody does, they just don't know. Yeah, and this is the same where we. So, if we circle it back to the family that I was talking about with a 13 year old, they had no idea until she was 13, that there was a different way. Right.
Speaker 1:And now we have the battle of not only has she had all this stress wired in her brain for 13 years, she's had a series of doctors who are told her that, who's told her that she's broken? That, oh, you're just. Let's just diagnose you with anxiety and depressive disorder and then those become her identity. So now she's telling herself the story that my identity is is I'm a person who's broken because I have these things that are symptoms, but they're just symptoms. It doesn't, it shouldn't define her, but the system let her.
Speaker 2:And when you're creating that thought process about yourself and it's you're allowing it to become your identity of like you are broken per se from what those doctors are telling you, then you start to wire your brain in that negative context when you is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1:100%. So they did one of the coolest studies. I can't remember if I've talked about this one before, but one of the coolest studies I've heard of is they took house cleaners and they take them. And they took half and half, so they took them half of them. They told them hey, like, do your job today, do a good job, and I think they're housekeepers at like a hotel, so they're doing just, you know, they're maids, right, they're cleaning, making beds, doing the stuff.
Speaker 1:They took the other group and they said hey, you're athletes, what you're doing is athletic. And they basically told them this every time before they would start their shift that, hey, you're an athlete, you're doing athletic movements. And so what they tracked over time was that the women and the cleaners who were told that they were athletes had decreases in body fat, increases in muscle mass, changes in all measures of like their resting heart rate and their cholesterol levels and things that we would look at in the blood and say, okay, this is indicator of a healthy human being. So the question was well, why did the women who were told that they were athletes and they were doing athletic stuff, their body physiologically changed? That could be measured. And the answer to. That is because they had a different identity in how they viewed themselves. So their brain changed its function and operation and control of hormones and blood factors and inflammation and all the things based around a thought that they had about themselves as who they were, as a person.
Speaker 2:That's so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's insane. So, yes, this is what what what gets like. So interesting to me is that when we talk about neuroplasticity, yes, it's the activities that we do, but it also starts to trickle into the thoughts that we think and the thoughts that we think about ourselves and the identities that we take on. And this is why you know, we. I sat with a mom last week and her frustration was that I've been to who knows how many practitioners probably 30 or 40 plus looking for answers and we explained to her how the brain works, how the brain writes connections and writes memories and is neuroplastic and the brain can change and there's hope for you and your kiddos. And she was like so mad, to the point of cuss words, but like how come? No other doctor could tell me this? And the reality is, is because they don't? It's not their fault, they just don't know Because they're trained to look at.
Speaker 1:Well, what causes a disease? What causes an issue? But no one, very few people, are asking the question of what creates health or why are those things there in the first place and what caused those. So if a kid was diagnosed with autism, well, what caused that? What things led up to that? Just like the 13 year old that I talked about. No one had ever asked them.
Speaker 1:Well, what do you think caused that? What do you think caused that? What do you think how do you think the stress played into what happened to her when she was three months old with colic? What do you think what stress played into how she was when she you know, her digestion, digestion got off or whatever. Nobody asked the question of, like, what caused it in the first place? They're just like well, well, let's fix the symptom, and if we don't address the cause, we're just chasing symptoms. All right, so let's get into. There's two different types of neuroplasticity that I think are important to talk about, um, and the first one is there's, so there's adaptive neuroplasticity. So adaptive means that our body is going to make connections or delete connections in the brain based on what's happening in the external environment.
Speaker 2:Okay, give us an example.
Speaker 1:So an example of that would be the Play-Doh Based on what my hand, where my hand pushes into the Play-Doh, it's going to create an indentation in the Play-Doh. Or if I roll it in a circle, it's going to roll into a circle. It's that soft, supple Play-Doh. So adaptive is happening first. It's happening based on what's happening in the external environment.
Speaker 1:So if we go back to the client that I talked about with the 13-year-old with anxiety, so the adaptive part of the neuroplastic system and creating the wiring within the brain or the connections within the brain is much like okay, mom was stressed out during birth. That's an external thing that's affecting mom's hormones and ultimately baby's hormones. And then she's born externally. Traction on her spinal cord with forceps creates more stress within the system. And then living in a household that was probably in a little bit of chaos from basically the time she was born, even before, but who knows, I mean even probably into up in 13,. I won't speculate on all those details, but that environment parents fighting, maybe dad not around, moving multiple times, just parents trying to figure out life that stress on her created more of the wiring for stress and we know that stress hormones cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine they increase our fear. They increase our anxiousness to keep us alert, so that we can be on the lookout for the next scary thing, so that we don't die. Okay.
Speaker 1:And so anxiety is just really a fear of the future, that's all. It is A fear of the unknown. But the Bible says a million times do not fear.
Speaker 2:So the stress hormones created that adaptation for her.
Speaker 1:The stress hormones created that adaptation for her. Okay, so the brain doesn't want to go oh there's another threat, dad's not around again to keep you safe and protected. Or mom and dad are arguing again. Let me process this out and think about am I really safe? Am I not safe? What do I need to do? So the brain just says let's start to make connections. Let's use BDNF to create connections that change the way our frontal cortex is firing. So let's just make the cortex weaker and make our amygdala, or the emotional fear part of the brain, stronger, so that I don't have to consciously think about whether that thing's a threat or not. And then we go into just straight fight or flight mode. Mom and dad are arguing I close my door, I fight or run away. Mom and dad are arguing.
Speaker 1:I closed my door, I fight or run away, and that continues to just wire itself more and more and more and more.
Speaker 2:Is there like a an example for like a positive adaptation?
Speaker 1:Yeah, a positive adaptation would be. Um, I think the one we talked about last week on the episode was with cocoa and how, when a kiddo feels safe, the brain is going to continue to down regulate the amygdala, and so basically what happens is the cortex gets stronger. And if the cortex gets stronger, it's like yeah, we don't need to worry about that, we all know people who. It's just like how do you deal with so much stuff and everything? You're just like yeah, it's not a big deal.
Speaker 1:I'm not worried about it when I'm like I would be freaking out right now.
Speaker 2:I want to be that person.
Speaker 1:So that's just adaptation, but it happens. The all of the adaptation happens at a young age. Okay, does that make sense? Yes, so that's that. Supple brand new Play-doh fresh out of the container we can.
Speaker 2:it's easy to change, really, really easy to change is there a possibility where I'm just thinking like my parents had no idea about how to like approach that kind of thing for the adaptation? Is there a way where you can still come out positively in that when you're even though your parents aren't like aware of like consciously rewiring your brain in a positive way?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure there's a way to come out positively. I think part of it has to do with what we decide to do later, if that makes sense. So there's an adult. Yeah, I'm kind of like. I'm like weaving all the stuff that I wanted to talk about in earlier. No, no, no, it's fine. But there I think one of the keys, so this would this would get to the answer of like, all right, that's great. Like we learned about neuroplasticity and there's compensatory and there's adaptive and whatever, but what do I do with it? Well, one of the, I think, the most important thing is to be aware. This is just like when I was teaching and I realized like, oh, there's a hidden curriculum, and if there's a hidden curriculum, if I'm aware of it, it can be changed. But I think most people are so unaware that how they're operating on a day-to-day basis is simply just wired into their system.
Speaker 2:Because they're so stressed out that they're like like at the end of the day with the scrolling and numbing themselves, like they're not even conscious and aware enough to be able to approach it differently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and even if they are aware like they don't have the strength and the willpower within themselves to stop doing it. So because of the neuroplasticity because of the neuroplasticity, because the part of the brain that's responsible for willpower is the front part of the brain, but it's already weakened and the brain's wiring itself every day towards one direction or another. Right.
Speaker 1:That's why people say that like, every day you wake up a decision and the decisions you make now, like that's what. You're leaving a legacy, no matter what. It's just whether you're leaving a crappy legacy or a really, really good one based on every small decision that you make every day all the time. So a lot of people get so far that they're wrapped up in their own stuff, so much that, even if they know, they can't make a decision to get out of it. A perfect example of this would be someone who's smoking cigarettes. It says right on the box hey, this is going to cause cancer.
Speaker 1:And if you tell someone, hey, you really shouldn't smoke, you know it's bad for you. There's no smokers like, oh my gosh, I didn't know that. Thank you so much for educating me on how bad these things are for me. I just had no idea. I thought that I could just get them and I would be good. No one says that. Everybody knows. But there's a willpower involved that takes over. There's an addictive mechanism that takes over, and the longer it's been written in the system, the harder it is to change. It's not impossible to change. That takes over, and the longer it's been written in the system, the harder it is to change.
Speaker 1:It's not impossible to change, but it's like. Again it goes back to is the Play-Doh fresh out of the container, brand new, or has it been sitting in the bedroom forever where it's crusty and only inside just barely soft enough where you can, like throw it down and it barely bounces? Yeah, and it's like nearly impossible to mold into anything. You could never roll it flat, even if you wanted to.
Speaker 1:It'll move a little bit. So that's just the adaptive side. So the adaptive side happens first. This is early age. It's the brain making new connections based on what's happening in the environment.
Speaker 1:Compensatory, on the other hand, is what happens when we're adults. So there are compensations based on everything that's happened previously. So the simplest way to think about a compensation would be like this is if someone went blind, then likely other parts of their brain are going to start to take over from a sensory perspective, where their hearing is probably going to get better, their sense of taste and touch is probably going to get better because the eyes are gone. So the brain has to pick up the slack somewhere. So the connections are already there.
Speaker 1:The brain is just using different pieces to overcompensate for what's happened in the past, if that makes sense. So again, that's like the hard Play-Doh, right. So an example of compensatory if we go deep into, let's just use the 13 year old again as an example. So the first thing that's going to happen is the stress hormones are going to weaken the frontal. The frontal isn't able to turn off the amygdala, which is the fear part of the brain. The fear part of the brain is going to get stronger and stronger and stronger. And the brain's going to compensate for a weak frontal by creating more fear and anxiety. Okay, so if I don't have safety, I want to worry more so that I can stay protected.
Speaker 2:Okay, give us another example.
Speaker 1:Let's see Someone who's addicted to chaos. I think would be a good example. So we all know somebody who's like no matter how good stuff is, you're just freaking out about something and really there's nothing to freak out about. What I played for you this morning would probably be a good example of that. You're on track for a record year. You just had a kid and yet you're still trying to find a way to be stressed about something instead of just enjoying it all and taking it all on.
Speaker 1:I don't want to give too much of the details away because they'll probably listen to this, but those people who, no matter how good things are, they find something to stress about and complain about. That would be like a compensatory mechanism. Okay, because the brain needs chaos in order to feel stimulated enough. Interesting, so a kiddo who's stressed when they're little. We can go to kids. I'll use the example of the 13 year old. One of the issues, nail biting and I know a lot of parents who deal with this. My kiddo bites their nails. They can't stop biting their nails. Why? Because they adapted to a bunch of stress and that adaptive change led to compensatory behaviors. So we're going to compensate by the fact that my brain doesn't get enough stimulus to get itself out of fight or flight by. We'll put more stimulus into the system by chewing our nails or having a tick or whatever it is. It's going to be different from kid to kid to kid, but those are compensatory things that happen later. It doesn't start off that way.
Speaker 2:I have a random question.
Speaker 1:Please.
Speaker 2:So my birth was great with Coco. My postpartum experience was okay. There were pieces that were somewhat traumatic, which I believe that led to some of the postpartum anxiety and rage that I experienced, rage that I experienced. Would those be considered compensatory based off of the stress that I? Experienced the first week or so postpartum Yep A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so your body is compensating. So it's going to. It's not going to make new connections, but it's going to use connections that are already there to try to do something different.
Speaker 2:So that means that, like I probably already had some form of wiring of higher anxiety, which I was I'm like a fairly high strong person, so I would agree with that statement and then, like the rage was already like somewhat ingrained deeply in my body for wiring, is that? What would you say? That yes, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:And I think for you I don't want to share too much of your story, but for you specifically, I think you had to because it was a protective mechanism, sure, because of how your brother was when he was little, right and other stuff you had going on, yeah. Family stuff, yeah, which you know we don't have to get. I mean, we could get way into that. I think that it merits a whole other episode to talk about like generational trauma.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I want to tell my dad's story at some point, because I think it'll, and then like some of the restoration that's happened in me.
Speaker 2:But that's like a perfect example of neuroplasticity and being able to rewire your brain by working through your generational traumas and agreements that have been made through other generations A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:If we wanna get real, real and we just drop all the science-y stuff. This is what it actually comes down to. People who say, oh, it's just the way I am, or that's just the way God made me, or that's just the way he is. He's always been that way is not true. It's straight up, not true. It's not true. It's straight up, not true. It's the way the brain has been wired.
Speaker 1:It's the neuroplastic part of the brain, and the good news that I shared in the beginning is this is that if you understand neuroplasticity, you understand that that's not the way that you were actually made, that you. There is a different way. There is a different person that you can entirely become based on the decisions that you make to wire your brain in a certain way. But it starts with you making a decision and being aware in order to do it.
Speaker 2:And how do you become aware of that if you are a person that is, like, so numb?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you have to start somewhere, so this would be a good start. It's just listening to what is being said and stop buying into the. Oh, your kid will just grow out of it. Oh, it's just the way you've always been. Oh, it just runs in my family. All that stuff's not true. It's just wiring in the brain. Because what does Romans 12 say? Do not be conformed by the world, but renew your mind.
Speaker 2:I think it also says in another version, transformed Transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1:Why, like? Renewing of your mind is a biblical principle, right, and whether you believe in the Bible or not, like anybody who's talking about, well, like I'll manifest my reality, or let's just put it out into the universe, that's all you're doing is renewing your mind. You're creating pathways for you to believe something different about yourself or about the world, or about whatever it is, and that's why I think it's like. That's why the Bible says this stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's so much like neuroscience and the biblical principles.
Speaker 1:And the more I go, the more the heavier it gets. Like I was going to share this stuff at the end, but like think about so Ephesians 4, 22 and 23,. I'm just going to read it, I have it pulled up that, regarding your previous way of life, you put off your old self completely, disregard your former nature, which is being corrupted through deceitful desires, and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude that's available for every person, whether you believe in God or not, whether you read the Bible or not. We were made this way. That's what's so cool and that's why I love talking about these principles is because my encouragement for every single person, that we take care of every person I come into contact with the whole time I was teaching mechanisms of neuroplasticity. All that is is the body's way of keeping itself safe, so that we can continue to survive, to be alive not to live, cause I think being alive and living are two totally different things but just to be alive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like surviving and thriving.
Speaker 1:Surviving versus thriving. Yeah, so all like the anxiety in the 13 year old, the digestive issues in 13 year old, the anxiety with mom, the overwhelming mom. I'm going to talk about some more of this.
Speaker 2:It's truly just a survival mechanism.
Speaker 1:It's a neuroplastic compensatory mechanism to keep us safe and protected. It's a wiring within the brain that can be changed.
Speaker 2:That's good.
Speaker 1:That's it, yeah, and a lot of it comes from childhood and you would have no idea unless you sat down with somebody and actually did some work in it, which that's a whole other thing. I'll talk about that when we talk about my restoration and my dad. We'll do that on an episode. So I want to go back through compensatory real quick because there's a couple of things I want to touch on that I think are important. So, after we have an overactive amygdala, right, so we frontal gets weakened.
Speaker 1:But remember the frontal is the decision-making part of the brain, right? So if we can't make good decisions, then we become very impulsive. So first thing that happens, we're anxious, then we become impulsive. So why, if I want to use the example of the 13-year-old, again, promiscuity and a bunch of issues with boys and sneaking out and alcohol at like a very young age this is older than 13,. But, like I know, I know well, right, what's up, right. So then Then, if that stays on long enough, the body's going to continue to compensate. So it's like, okay, well, let's be fearful. Well, we're not doing enough with that. So now let's go into being like super impulsive. So now we're not doing enough with that, so let's shut down the dorsal vagal. So this is where people get into like life is meaningless. Nothing I do is good enough, I don't need to be here. This is the freeze. So nothing I do is good enough, I don't need to be here. This is the freeze. So there's fight, flight or freeze.
Speaker 1:And this is the freeze state. Nobody talks about that. Some people do, so it's like it's the avoidance, it's the no motivation. That would be like the people who are brain foggy or chronic fatigue. So you see how, once we get to a certain point, the body literally just starts to shut down.
Speaker 2:I have no energy for anything else Freeze essentially means like starting to shut down.
Speaker 1:Starting to shut down. This is where autoimmune comes into play. So now my body doesn't recognize the difference between something external and foreign and something internal.
Speaker 2:Oh that's big.
Speaker 1:Compensatory neuroplastic activity in the brain which, what I say in the beginning, if we renew the mind, can all be restored. It's wild. Yeah, super wild Then, like the other compensatory mechanism would be think of somebody who, like, constantly wants control or wants it needs everything to be perfect, right, so oh?
Speaker 2:yeah, I know that person.
Speaker 1:If I yeah, well, I've worked on a lot too, I know yeah.
Speaker 2:You used to be that person.
Speaker 1:If I had no control as a kid. My brain in big kid time and adult time is going to be to seek out control wherever I can. And what's so cool? I sit in these rooms. One of my best friends in the entire world runs a program that's specifically restoration discipleship and I sit in these rooms with these guys. I've been doing this for a year now. Discipleship and I sit in these rooms with these guys. I've been doing this for a year now and all of us are entrepreneurs and it's the same story over and over. Well, my parents were like this and then now we all have the need to want to micromanage our teams, and it's like the same thing. It's just this compensation for a wiring within the brain.
Speaker 2:So a lot of people end up having similar compensations? Do you think because a lot of people are raised similarly. In that aspect Would you say yeah, I mean it has to do with how they were raised, so like okay.
Speaker 1:I think that as people, it's very easy in this model of compensation that we talk about where we get so wrapped up in our own world that it's hard to see the downstream effects of what we could potentially be passing on to the next generation. That's big right there. Yeah, really big, really really big, and we'll go. We can go into that more. On another, there's going to be a whole one where I talk about, when I talk about my restoration, we'll talk about the generational strongholds and all that stuff. That's part of it. So last little bit of compensation that I didn't talk about yet is the physical body. So the physical body compensations are what people come seeking answers for, generally speaking anxiety, just take meds. Digestive issues just take meds. Well, I don't want to take pain meds for the rest of my life. Or I've never been able to get my shoulders to relax, or I don't like the way I look because I have this hump in my neck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to ask about like scoliosis.
Speaker 1:So those are all physical body compensations. So what happens is, over time, as our brain continues to be wired for fight or flight neuroplastic changes based on what was probably happening from the time we were born maybe before in the case of the 13 year old and then we have really, really bad posture. We have shallow breathing why would we have forward hunch posture? This keeps us safe and protected. Shallow breathing keeps us safe and protected, Like we're just trying to protect vital organs.
Speaker 1:We don't care about oxygenating the whole system. So it's all protection, it's all compensatory, it's all compensation.
Speaker 2:All because their brains have been wired for a fight or flight. Yep. And that can contribute to like, say, somebody comes into your office and is complaining of like shoulder pain. That is a wiring of their brain from an adaptation or compensation from the stress that's been in their system in the fight or flight stage. Yep.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. It's all it is. It's just wiring within the brain, and the good news is I'm here to tell you that you can change it, because your brain is plastic, because it's forever changing based on the decisions that you start to make today.
Speaker 2:And what are some of those decisions?
Speaker 1:That's a great question. So number one I already talked about is being the. So these are the practical steps right? This is this all has to do. This is not like tactical stuff that you're going to be able to go home and do tomorrow. This is you becoming a new version of yourself, a new human being. Be renewed, repetition, renewed in your mind. We don't renew our mind by thinking one good thought one day or do an affirmations one day in the mirror and then we're just a brand new person.
Speaker 2:Just like working out or eating healthy one time and expecting a six pack Exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So first step being aware. Like, oh, maybe now, after you hear this episode, you see that there may be some places in your life where you're like, oh my gosh, I never knew that that could be an explanation for why I was dealing with that issue or that thing, or my kid was dealing with that, whatever it is. So awareness is first step. I'll give you a quick example of this One of our clients that we're taking care of.
Speaker 1:Yesterday she comes in and she's like my back is just bugging me. It must've been from walking a bunch. And I had the conversation. I'm like hey, you walk every single day. That's not what's up. Tell me what's really up. Where? Where do you have stress? Is the joke. Everybody's like I know you're going to ask me what I'm stressed out about and she's like I'm not, though. I just got back from vacation. I'm like, okay, that's cool, but like, did you have stress? Did you eat differently? What was going on? She's like I just walked a lot, and then she's laying there and she said you know what, though, where we were, it was pretty sketchy and I've kind of felt on edge and fearful the whole time. We're walking. We walked all weekend, so of course your brain is literally saying you need to be safe and protected and on guard right now. Yeah, and long enough. And then I asked her. I said why is your pain there? So I'll ask you you can try and answer the question why would her pain be there In her?
Speaker 2:back Cause she doesn't feel supported. Okay, don't go that deep, though she doesn't feel supported.
Speaker 1:Okay, Don't go that deep, though. Go to like a really simple like why?
Speaker 2:would her pain be there? What's what's her body sending a pain?
Speaker 1:signal, trying to get her to do. Oh my gosh, I feel it's really simple, I don't know. Stop, stop moving. Oh sit out.
Speaker 3:I want you to just like literally sit and stop yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, and she's like, oh my gosh, it makes sense. Why? Yeah, of course it makes sense because you're walking into a stressful situation.
Speaker 2:So day in and day out. So it's your body's way of saying like, don't go into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that would be an initial. So if you did that every day for 50 years of your life, of course your posture is gonna suck. Of course your back's gonna hurt. Of course your shoulders are gonna be tight, of course. Second step realize your body isn't broken. I've said this a million times, understanding telling yourself the story that, like, the symptoms that you are dealing with are normal to an abnormal amount of stress and you can rewire it at any time. You just have to choose to do so.
Speaker 2:And it's not just like the physical pain symptoms Like that's a huge thing. Right, there is because people have like brain fog and they're like, oh, it's not a big deal, like everybody experiences brain fog and they're like, oh, it's not a big deal, like everybody experiences brain fog, but like that's a symptom that your body is sharing with you, that you have stress on in the system. There are so many little things that people just kind of like blow over that. It's like, oh, it's not a big deal. I feel overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:I don't know why. I don't know why I can't sit still. I always feel like I have to do something. My brain never shuts off at night. I have so much difficulty falling asleep. I wake up in the middle of the night and my brain's running. I wake up in the morning and I'm so stressed out and I don't know why. Those are all the same adaptations that we're talking about that have nothing to do with physical body. Those are the ones that people deal with more, but they just shrug off.
Speaker 2:Right, that's what I wanted to clarify for anybody that's listening, that maybe it hits them differently. Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:So those would be my three things. It's a shifting of identity. I shared about the house cleaners. Yes, if you look at yourself differently, you're not broken. Everything you're experiencing is normal. Your body's doing exactly what it was designed to do. Then, from there, you can start to rewire new pathways.
Speaker 2:This is why like affirmations are a positive rewiring of the brain within neuroplasticity.
Speaker 1:Yep, a positive rewiring of the brain within neuroplasticity. Yep, movement, yeah, like lots of movement, walking, functional exercises there's a bunch of stuff we get into, but those are kind of all the hacks. Yeah, it just. It's again. It's renewing of the mind. And so what? Second Timothy one says this do not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but he, god, has given us a power of love and sound judgment and personal discipline, abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control.
Speaker 1:That's exactly how we were born and designed. You were given abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind, that have self-control, which is the exact opposite of what your stress hormones do in your system, which is the exact opposite of the adaptive and compensatory mechanisms of neuroplasticity. So it's a renewing of your mind. Day in and day out. You have to make the right decisions in order to get yourself there. It starts with just looking at yourself in the mirror differently, understanding that you are not who you've been told that you are. You are not an anxious person. You are not a depressive person. You may have those symptoms, but they do not define you. It's not your identity. You were never made that way. It's the most powerful, important thing that I could share with people on the episode. That's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, should we end it there? Yeah. All right, fam, you are not broken, we love you.
