What is neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity, also known as brain plasticity or neural plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. Neuroplasticity was once thought by neuroscientists to only occur during childhood, but research in the later half of the 20th century has proven that many aspects of the brain can be altered through adulthood.
This groundbreaking discovery has given rise to new hope for people struggling with certain conditions that stem from a limbic system impairment in the brain.
In this article, we’ll be covering everything you need to know about neuroplasticity, including how re-origin, a neuroplasticity-based treatment program, can help you change the brain patterns perpetuating your chronic health conditions.
Neuroplasticity training can help you overcome:
- – Long-Haul COVID Syndrome
- – Post-Viral Fatigue
- – Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- – Chronic Lyme Disease
- – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
- – Chronic Pain Syndrome
- – Fibromyalgia
- – Anxiety
- – Depression
- – PTSD
- – OCD
How can re-origin help you heal through neuroplasticity training?
Before we talk about how the science of neuroplasticity and chronic illness, here’s a glimpse of hope: we’ve seen dozens of people transform their chronic symptoms with our re-origin neuroplasticity program.
In the program, you work through 6 modules of virtual classes and practice 30 minutes per day of re-training exercises.You can join weekly group calls, group coaching, and virtual events to encourate you and keep you on track.
The course, coaching, and community support you to rewire your brain and feel like yourself again, all with scientifically-backed and proven methods that you can rely on to shift persistent symptoms.
“Phenomenal Neuroplasticity Program”
"Ben Ahrens and the team at re-origin have created a well-thought-out, highly educational, and very practical platform and program for learning about and implementing neuroplasticity. Grounded in solid research from many of the best minds in the field, the re-origin program goes way beyond anything else available. The re-origin program should definitely be in the tool bag of any individual or professional interested in the fields of brain science and mind-body health.”
- Richard Hoffmann
“This is the best brain training…”
"This is the best brain training programme I have used (I have previously used three others). Very good value for money and excellent support. The app is very user friendly. I’m using it for chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, POTS and MCAS and have made significant improvement where nothing else was helping. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Re-Origin.”
- Claire Logan
“Great program”
"Great program. I am only a few weeks into the work and I have a very different perspective on my condition and what I can do to change old stimulus/response patterns.”
- Edward Towar
“Wonderful program!”
"Re-origin is a fantastic and easy to use program that can help to address so many different issues. I have been using the program to deal with chronic migraines and fatigue. Since I started working with the program, my outlook feels so much more positive and accepting. I am much better able not to react to my symptoms with panic and fear, which has really changed my daily reality. The modules are really easy to use and understand and Ben explains things so well. His wisdom is very impressive. I have tried a lot of different things over the years and was skeptical, but have been so pleasantly surprised by the results I have gotten from Re-origin.”
- Felice Botts
Why is neuroplasticity important?
You can change how your brain functions… which may alleviate symptoms.
Simply put, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change, both structurally and functionally, throughout a person’s lifetime. This ability to change helps promote:
- – The ability to learn new things
- – The ability to enhance existing cognitive capabilities
- – Recovery from strokes and traumatic brain injuries
- – Strengthening certain areas of the brain that have lost function
- – Recovery from limbic system impairments, commonly resulting in fibromyalgia, CFS/ME, and depression.
How does neuroplasticity work?
Our brains discard unused neural pathways… and strengthen new ones based on our habits.
When we experience something new, our brain creates new connections between neurons so we can remember how to do a certain task. The repetition of every action, emotion, or thought reinforces a particular neural pathway in our brain.
The more the actions, emotions, and thoughts are repeated, the more deeply these neural pathways become ingrained in the circuitry of our brains. That’s why the more you practice something, be it playing the guitar or speaking Spanish, the better you get at it.
Neurons that are used frequently develop stronger connections, while those that are rarely or never used are eventually eliminated. This process is known as synaptic pruning.
By developing new connections and pruning away weak ones, the brain is able to continuously adapt to its changing environment.
This is really exciting information, as it means that we can actually train our brain to let go of unfavorable neural pathways, replacing them with beneficial neural pathways.
The science behind
neuroplasticity and chronic illness
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Neuroplasticity has both a positive and negative side. Limbic system impairments are an example of the negative side of neuroplasticity.
The limbic system is the part of the brain that drives your primal fight or flight response. Changes to this system can lead to a wide variety of negative symptoms and conditions, such as depression, anxiety, OCD, sensitivities, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue syndrome, just to name a few.
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It’s important to understand, however, that if you’re suffering from a limbic system impairment, it’s not your fault. Limbic system impairments occur unconsciously as the result of trauma and chronic stress.
When we say trauma, we don’t mean physical trauma to the brain, but rather any experience that your brain deems life-threatening, such as a car accident, an intense emotional event, or contracting a serious virus.
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In many cases, limbic system impairments arise when someone experiences a traumatic event while their chronic stress load is already high.
For instance, someone who gets in a car accident or contracts a virus while going through a divorce has a higher risk of developing a limbic system impairment.
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The combination of stressors essentially overwhelms the brain, causing it to go into an extreme survival mode in which it’s hypersensitive and hyper-reactive.
When impaired in this way, the limbic system continuously sends out alarm signals that stimulate the nervous system and immune system as if a threat is present, even though there is no threat or it’s long gone.
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These faulty neural pathways ultimately become conditioned, meaning they get stuck in an unconscious loop that perpetuates itself.
This continuous stimulation of the nervous system and the immune system keeps the brain and body locked in an unconscious defense cycle, opening the door to ongoing inflammation in the body and a number of different symptoms and sensitivities.
How can you increase neuroplasticity?
Negative changes may have occurred in your brain, but remember, neuroplasticity goes two ways. This means that any changes your brain has learned can be undone, allowing you to reclaim your peace, happiness, and health.
Your brain is not stuck—it simply needs some retraining that threats are no longer present and it can calm down. That’s where re-origin comes in.
re-origin is a science-backed neuroplasticity-based treatment program that can teach you how to eliminate the dysfunctional neural pathways that are perpetuating your chronic health conditions.
As you’ll learn through our program, there are certain factors that can increase neuroplasticity, including repetition, strong emotions, language, imagery, and other specific neurocognitive exercises.
How to use Neuroplasticity to
improve your health
While neuroplasticity is something that happens on a day-to-day basis beyond our conscious awareness, it is also something that we can actively influence and encourage.
Through re-origin, you’ll learn to apply an easy-to-follow, five-step neurocognitive technique to directly retrain the unconscio us nervous and immune system responses that are at the root of your symptoms. re-origin’s approach does not chase or mask symptoms, but rather works to rewire the part of the brain that’s causing the dysfunction (the limbic system), resulting in long-lasting recovery.
The program is easy to follow, self-directed, cost-effective, and takes just minutes a day to implement. Plus, re-origin offers access to a community and coaching specifically geared towards helping people retrain their own brains and return to feeling like themselves. Our program is based on decades of research and development and aims to put an end to your suffering once and for all.
The re-origin program is winning scientific recognition and has been featured in:
Frequently asked questions
Neuroplasticity is a real, scientific term that refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. It’s not conjecture—it’s fact!
- Use it or lose it. Failure to use specific neural pathways can lead to a loss of abilities. Conversely, training that consistently stimulates specific neural pathways can lead to improved abilities. That’s why it’s important to stay consistent and persistent in your brain retraining efforts.
- Specificity. The nature of the training experience dictates the nature of the changes in the brain. That’s why re-origin has created a simple five-step neurocognitive technique that is easy to learn and apply.
- Repetition matters. Changes in the brain require sufficient repetition. You’ll quickly learn that through re-origin!
- Time matters. Changes don’t occur overnight. Sufficient time must be allowed for changes to occur. In the re-origin program, we encourage you to give it at least six months.
- Salience matters. The training experience must be meaningful to the person in order to cause change. In other words, it’s important to really understand and feel what you’re saying and doing, rather than just going through the motions.
Imagine a car driving over a field. It drives the same way every day. As such, deep tire grooves appear in the grass and dirt that the car drives over each day. With neuroplasticity training, you choose to start driving down a new path, instead of the well-worn path you were driving on before. It may take some effort initially to carve out a new road in the field, but as you continue driving the same new path each day, the grooves will become deeper and deeper, allowing for an effortless ride.
The same thing happens when it comes to rewiring your brain using neuroplasticity. The original path the car took represents your current neural pathways that are creating your negative symptoms. To rid yourself of these symptoms, you need to start driving down a new path. With practice and repetition, your brain will naturally start driving down the new road. Soon enough, the old road will become overgrown and fade away into nothing, just like your faulty neural pathways.
Your brain isn’t broken- it’s just over stressed.
Believe it or not, you have these conditions and symptoms because your brain is trying to protect you. It’s triggering and re-triggering defense responses because it thinks that you’re constantly in danger.
You may be thinking, “How could my brain get so confused?” Limbic system impairments are largely disorders of modern living. Never before have humans been exposed to so many stressors. As such, our brains are much more vulnerable to becoming overwhelmed and, consequently, going a little haywire.
Thankfully, you can use the principles of neuroplasticity to interrupt the overactive threat detection and response mechanism that’s causing your suffering. With our proprietary neurocognitive exercises, you’ll essentially be communicating to your brain, “We’re safe. There’s no danger here. You can let go and relax now.”
With persistence, patience, dedication, and time, you can change your neural pathways and step into a life free from symptoms and full of happiness and well-being.
References:
- https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100359
- https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn700
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3870490/
- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00177/full
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3912552/
- https://www.pnas.org/content/117/28/16096
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181836/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18037014/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32491743/
- https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/1092-4388%282008/018%29
- https://www.hindawi.com/journals/np/2017/6871089/
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1711.09536.pdf
