The Neuroscience of Change or How to Rewire Your Brain

One of the reasons I’m drawn to neuroscience is that it bridges the gap between the brain, the body, and our lived experience. It offers a language to explain why we think, feel, and behave the way we do and, more importantly, how we can change. For me, understanding the nervous system has been a turning point in my growth, and professionally, it’s one of the foundations of how I support others. In therapy, I utilise a range of tools, including body-based approaches and mindfulness, as well as cognitive techniques such as those employed in CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). What unites them all is that they work with the brain’s natural ability to adapt and rewire, known as neuroplasticity. When we understand this concept, change stops feeling abstract or impossible and becomes something practical, visible, and empowering.

How Your Brain Rewrites Itself

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganise and adapt by strengthening neural pathways that are frequently used, while weakening those that are rarely activated. This dual process allows us to learn, heal, and adjust to new experiences throughout life. When we discuss neuroplasticity, the focus is often on building new pathways, including new behaviours, beliefs, habits, and thought patterns. But just as important is to discuss the pruning of old ones. If behaviours, beliefs, habits, and thought patterns aren’t reinforced through use, the synaptic connections underlying them are gradually weakened or eliminated, a process known as synaptic pruning. Concerning strengthening the new paths, repetition is critical because each time a neural pathway is activated, the connections involved become stronger and more efficient—a process often summarised by the phrase ‘neurons that fire together, wire together'.

The Forest Path Allegory

Imagine your brain as a vast forest full of different paths, some well-worn, others still undiscovered. Each path represents a thought pattern, behaviour, belief, or habit. The more often you walk(ed) a path, the more familiar and automatic it becomes. Some paths you’ve walked since childhood. They feel like the only way to get from A to B. So, whether helpful or harmful, they become your default: familiar, easy to follow, automatic, but not always better for you, and sometimes even detrimental. Starting a new path can be unsettling. There’s resistance, unfamiliarity, anddiscomfort. The trail is barely visible, covered in brush and uneven underfoot. You might stumble, second-guess, or feel like turning back. But the more you walk it, the more natural it becomes. With repetition and intention, the new path clears, firms up, and begins to feel safe and intuitive. Meanwhile, the old path, the one you no longer use, begins to fade. It becomes overgrown, nature reclaims it, and eventually, it may even disappear.

A Real-Life Example - From Negativity to Perspective

Take, for example, a habitual pattern of interpreting situations in a negative light. Let’s say a friend doesn’t reply to your message. Rather than thinking, “They’re probably busy,” your mind jumps to, “They’re ignoring me,” or “I must have done something wrong.” If this kind of attribution occurs frequently enough, your brain reinforces that negative bias. It becomes your default even when the situation is ambiguous or neutral. That’s not because the thought is true, but because it has been repeated. But, imagine catching that thought and pausing. Instead of running with the usual story, you ask yourself, “What else could be true?” Maybe they’re having a hard day. Maybe they forgot. Perhaps it’s not personal. At first, this shift feels unnatural or unconvincing. That’s normal. However, over time, with consistent effort, your brain begins to build a new path, one that sees the bigger picture, a more realistic, less reactive one, while the old one starts to fade.

Cognitive Restructuring: How to Build That New Path

This process is known as cognitive restructuring - an essential tool in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It’s the practice of identifying distorted or unhelpful thoughts and replacing them with more balanced, reality-based alternatives. However, it is important to note that while cognitive restructuring helps change our habitual responses, it may not fully address the root cause, which is often shaped by deeper emotional wounds or early life experiences that have influenced those thought patterns. That’s where other therapeutic work can be supportive. That said, cognitive restructuring offers powerful benefits. It helps us:

  • Interrupt automatic negative thoughts

  • Reduce emotional reactivity

  • Develop more flexible, adaptive thinking

  • Begin rewiring the brain toward healthier mental habits

Here’s a simple framework you can try:

  • Catch the Thought

Notice when a negative or unhelpful thought arises. Write it down if you can.

  • Question It

Ask yourself: Is this thought true? Is it the only possible explanation? What evidence supports or challenges it?

  • Reframe It

Try to generate a more balanced alternative thought. Not forced positivity, just something that makes sense, is fair, grounded, and less self-critical.

  • Repeat

Like walking a new path in the forest, repetition is key. The more you practice reframing, the more familiar it becomes.

Let’s look at a few examples.

If you suffer from social anxiety, it’s likely that you enter a room and immediately think, “Everyone’s judging me,” or similar. If that’s been your default interpretation for years, your brain has likely strengthened that social threat pathway. Even when there’s no judgment happening, the feeling is real because the pathway is strong. Now imagine catching that thought and asking, “What if no one’s thinking about me at all?” or “What if people are more focused on themselves?” Initially, this reframe may not take hold. But the more often you apply it, the less intense the anxiety becomes.

Or consider the belief: “If I fail, I’m a failure.” This event/identity pattern is often learned early, usually through shaming, perfectionism, or a lack of emotional safety around mistakes. The brain associates any setback with a personal deficiency. Reframing might sound like: “This didn’t go as planned, but that doesn’t define me.” Or, “Mistakes are part of learning, not proof that I’m not good enough.”

Or similarly, a belief “I have to achieve to be worthy.” This might be something you never consciously chose but was absorbed from your early environment through family expectations, cultural norms, or the way love and approval were given. Over time, your brain internalised that message. It became a deeply grooved path: your sense of worth tied to performance, productivity, or perfection. Reframing that belief as “My worth isn’t conditional; I’m enough as I am” can feel untrue, radical and unfamiliar, even threatening at first. But each time you interrupt that old narrative and replace it with something more compassionate and grounded, you’re clearing up a new path for yourself.

The Role of Emotional Learning and Behavioural Change

However, thought alone doesn’t always change a deeply rooted pattern; the brain also learns through felt experiences of safety, connection, and compassion. Our emotional experiences play a major role in shaping and reshaping our neural pathways. That’s why it can be so powerful to pair cognitive restructuring with practices that engage the emotional system, such as self-compassion, co-regulation (with a therapist, partner, or friend), and/or somatic tools that help the body feel what the mind is learning. When we combine insight with emotion, change becomes not only cognitive but embodied. If this emotional piece is missing, there’s a risk that we will continue to reinforce old pathways simply by acting them out. This is why changing our behavioural patterns is essential. Yet this is often the trickiest part, because our behaviours are not just habits; they’re strategies our nervous system uses to stay safe.

For example, let’s say you’ve cognitively reframed the belief “I’m not good enough” into “I have value even when I’m not perfect” but you continue to stay in a toxic relationship, at work or home, where your worth is consistently undermined, or you keep saying yes when your body is clearly saying no. When this happens, your brain receives mixed messages, causing the new belief struggle to take root, while the old one is reinforced through behaviour and emotional experience. This is why meaningful change must happen on multiple levels: not just in how we think, but also in how we feel and act. In this case, setting boundaries, or even letting go of relationships that consistently trigger self-doubt and seeking out safer, more affirming connections, is key. Of course, this is easier said than done. But every small step in that direction, every boundary held, every honest no, every moment of self-respect, signals something new to your brain. Over time, your brain begins to rewire itself in response to your conscious choices. Each aligned action helps reinforce the new pathway, making it stronger, more familiar, and eventually, the new default.

Final Thoughts

Neuroplasticity, and understanding how it works, is powerful because it reminds us that change is possible. Every time you pause, reflect, and choose a new response, you're not just changing your mind; you’re literally reshaping your brain. Knowing that gives a deep sense of hope in change and that, if we set our mind to it (and stick with it long enough), everything is possible. I hope it gives you hope, too, as well as the courage to take even one small step toward the positive change you want to see in your life.

A Woman's Journey to Safety

A Woman's Journey to Safety

The following story is about a trip home I took during the pandemic, but it serves to illustrate a bigger subject - feeling safe in the world, especially as a woman. I promised to write it years ago and never got around to it. A student friend reminded me recently, and I felt today, on International Women’s Day, was the perfect time to reflect. Please note that I mention some statistics that some might find triggering. So, here it goes...

Yoga in a Divided World

Yoga in a Divided World

Even though I stay well-informed about global events, including politics, and often discuss these topics in my personal life, I usually avoid bringing them into platforms I use for work, including social media, or blog posts, unless I feel it’s important. A conversation with a new friend, a fellow yogi and self-described “refugee from the US” reminded me that this is one of those times, and inspired me to share some thoughts. She expressed heartbreak over what she sees as the slow erosion of democracy and equality in her country and how many in the yoga community contributed to it. “That’s what hurts the most,” she said. I have to say I agree and am worried about the future.

Living from the Essential Self: The Path to True Liberation

Living from the Essential Self: The Path to True Liberation

We start to be conditioned from the moment we are born. Before we even draw our first breath, we are labelled without choice— our gender determined, our name given, and our religion and social status inherited from our family. As we grow, this conditioning continues through cultural norms, societal expectations, and the stories we are told about who we are and should be. But it doesn’t stop there. Our experiences, both joyful and painful, add new layers to this conditioning. For instance, traumas leave deep imprints on our psyche, shaping how we see ourselves and the world, often creating limiting beliefs or protective patterns that are difficult to unravel.

Emotional regulation

Emotional regulation

Emotional regulation is an important skill for our overall mental health and the health of our relationships. This is why I included emotional regulation tools in Spanda Institute's 300-hour Yoga Therapy training; understanding emotions and tools for emotional regulation is essential for teachers and therapists (and humans in general). In this blog, I want to shed some light on what emotional regulation is and what it isn't and share some tools and strategies you can use. 

Understanding Adult Attachment Styles - a key to understanding relationships

Understanding Adult Attachment Styles - a key to understanding relationships

Adult attachment theory is a tool for a better understanding of ourselves and others. Learning about ourselves and becoming more aware is a crucial first step in understanding how we typically respond to closeness, intimacy, and emotional needs in relationships. It is not a perfect tool, as we are complex beings, but it is a good start when it comes to relationships, both romantic and other. And we know that good, honest relationships are essential for our well-being and happiness. This is the second part of the attachment series. The first, available here, was an intro to this subject. In this post, I will discuss the importance of understanding attachment styles and cover each in detail. In the next, I will focus on the dynamics of different combinations of attachment styles.

The importance of perspective-taking

The importance of perspective-taking

While, for many, the holiday season is all about joy and happiness and (re)connecting, it brings anxiety and stress for some. This happens for many reasons, including spending time with friends and family we don't often see eye to eye. A spiritual teacher, Ram Dass, once said, 'If you think you're enlightened, go and spend the week with your family.' Still, the challenges are often opportunities to learn and change. Last year, I wrote about ‘navigating the holiday season using Buddhist principles’. This year, I will focus on a more contemporary type of wisdom offered by Social Psychology and the theory of perspective-taking.

What is Trauma-Sensitive Yoga and why is it important?

What is Trauma-Sensitive Yoga and why is it important?

Trauma seems to be a buzzword in yoga and wellness circles lately, with various modalities, from movement and breathwork to chanting and various ceremonies, advertised as trauma healing. However, can trauma be something we can move, breathe, sing or dance out? Of course, it is not that simple. When it comes to something as complex as trauma, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. While a particular asana, breathing pattern, or any other practice or technique might be healing for one person, it can be triggering for another.

The science of breath - hyperventilation

The science of breath - hyperventilation

We can all agree that breathing is essential and one of the most important life-sustaining functions, if not the most important. We can go without eating, drinking and sleeping for days and only minutes without breathing. Besides the apparent gas exchange function, breathing also regulates our pH and can quickly influence our autonomic nervous system. Thus, knowing how to breathe well can positively affect our health and well-being, decrease stress and increase our mental and physical performance. When done well, altering our natural breathing pattern, which is what we do when practising pranayama or other breathwork techniques, can be very beneficial. However, altering our breathing patterns can be detrimental if the technique is not for us, is too advanced, or is based on misconceptions and pseudoscience. 

Why we all need to become climate activists 

Why we all need to become climate activists 

We have been warned about the effects of global warming for a few decades now. Still, nothing much changed, and we continued to live and consume as before. There is a glimpse of positive changes, but not close to what we need to change things around. The events we are witnessing around the globe have a clear message – we must wake up from this ‘business as usual’ dream. It is very evident now that our unsustainable lives impact the planet and our future.

Tools for growth

Tools for growth

In the past month, I had one-on-one consultation sessions with my 300-hour YTTC graduates. Instead of having a long lecture about where to go from here for everyone, the idea was to discuss each unique situation. I believe it was helpful for them, but it also made me realise that most of us (yes, I include myself as this was me before) are reluctant to promote ourselves. 

Anxiety-Free part 2

Anxiety-Free part 2

This is the 2nd part of the Anxiety free post in which I will be focusing on prevention or things you can do to have more calm and less anxiety in your life. But first, a bit of science that forms the base of the prevention tips below. One thing all anxiety disorders have in common is our body’s reaction to them, or rather the stress response they trigger so I will touch upon that very briefly (and much more in detail in one of the video lectures coming up soon!). 

Anxiety Free - part 1

Anxiety Free - part 1

Mental health has never been so fragile for so many as it is today, yet perhaps never as important for our survival. This statement may sound dramatic, but to heal everything that’s wrong with this world we have created, starting with the global warming crisis we’re facing, we need to heal the individual first. Division, anger and fear (often wearing many discuses) we see so much evidence of, comes from pain, or rather protection patterns and unresolved trauma.

Sustainable life

Sustainable life

If you read the news you know that after the lockdowns this time last year have triggered the largest annual drop in global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions since the Second World War, showing us what is environmentally possible when we stop with our ‘normal’ lifestyles, which are a far cry from anything normal, we are back doing to the same thing and expecting different results, what Einstein called a definition of insanity.

Building resilience

Building resilience

As it turns out, Nietzsche’s famous quote That which does not kill us makes us stronger” is not only a philosophical discourse but a theory backed by constantly emerging scientific evidence. Challenge and adversity can build resilience, and it seems that the opposite effect is often true when it comes to our life of convenience and comfort. And this goes for psychological as well as physical resilience.

The Future of Yoga

The Future of Yoga

In just over two decades, since I have been witnessing the unfolding of Yoga in the West, the perception of Yoga and it’s practices have been changing and transforming quite fast. I say perception, because it is not up to us to decide what something which has been defined thousand of years ago is, but rather to see how it can expand, grow and evolve, taking into the account the age we live in and everything available to us today like science and information.