The Power of Thoughts: How They Can Change Your Brain & Brain Cells

The Power of Thoughts: How They Can Change Your Brain & Brain Cells

Your body is changing while you are reading this; that is a fact. It is responding to the thoughts you are reading.
Thinking about anything, no matter how small or insignificant it is, makes your brain release neurotransmitters which are the chemicals that connect all the parts of your brain and connect your brain with the rest of your nervous system.

Thoughts alone are so powerful. Studies show that thoughts can improve strength and vision, reduce fatigue, stress, and anxiety, and elevate dopamine and serotonin. The placebo effect is one of the things that indicate the power of thoughts.

Let’s discuss the effects of thought on your overall brain and your brain cells.

• The Effect of Thoughts on Your Brain:

Every single thought of yours has an impact on your brain. Each thought causes changes in the structure and function of your brain; some of these changes are temporary and others are permanent
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A study was made on college students who are in deep love. When they see pictures of their partners, their reward center gets activated. The same area is activated when they are asked to think of their partners. Once they stop thinking, the reward center becomes deactivated again.

Thinking is the responsibility of your mind. But what flows through your mind shapes your brain in both temporary and permanent ways. Your mind creates thoughts which run through your nervous system. Your nervous system does not understand the thoughts; it transforms them into electrical signals. These signals are capable of causing changes in your nervous system according to their type and intensity which is determined based on your thoughts in the first place. It is a complicated process resulting in changes in your whole neural structure.

When you run a certain thought through a certain region in the brain over and over, it makes connections with the surrounding areas creating new neurons and synapses. These new connections make the thought stronger.
A study was made on taxi drivers showed that they have larger hippocampus which is responsible for visual-spatial memory. Their brains become larger to be able to memorize all the streets of the city. In this example, the map is the thought and their brains become larger and stronger over time to memorize the whole thought.

• The Effect of Thoughts on Your Brain Cells:

Your thoughts reprogram your brain cells. The thought creates electrical signals. The signals are the results of the electrochemical reactions occurring within your brain and nerve cells.
Each cell experiences a lot of emotions such as sadness, guilt, anger, happiness, etc. If a cell experiences a certain emotion more than the others, certain changes occur within and on it such as increasing the receptors responsible for translating this specific emotion into chemical reactions. When this cell divides, the changes will be applied to the new cells. For example, the new cells will have more receptors responsible for translating this specific emotion which their mother cell experienced.
It is a very complicated process and depends on a lot of factors. This reprogramming process happens all the time according to your thoughts, habits, behaviors, and experiences.

Try to keep the reprogramming process as optimistic as possible by having healthy habits and positive thoughts.

• The Conclusion:

It is the time of neuroscience. You are capable of enhancing your mindset by understanding how your body and your brain work down to the cellular level.
Improving your thoughts, habits, and mentality is like investing in your own self.