Exercicios Especiais Mindfullness _ Compreenso

WHAT IS NEUROPLASTICITY AND WHY DO WE CARE? PATHS IN THE GRASS Close

your eyes and picture a lawn of green grass. Now imagine that someone
walks across the grass diagonally from one corner of the lawn to the
opposite corner. Notice how the grass changes. Perhaps the grass is a
bit matted down where they walked. Now imagine lots of people walking
across the grass following the same path. After a while, notice that
some of the grass is dying where so many footsteps have fallen.
Imagine that this process continues until there is a path worn in the
lawn where there is no longer any grassjust a dirt path worn smooth
from all the foot traffic. This is like the process of
neuroplasticity in the brain. According to Hebbs axiom, neurons
that fire together wire together (Hebb, 2009), and dendrites increase
in size and efficiency when something is repeated over and over. So,
like the path worn in the grass, the neuronal pathway gets stronger
and stronger with repetition. Mindfulness practice is an effective
way to create more healthy pathways in the brain. Now imagine the
lawn with the path across it. Notice what happens to it over time
when no one walks on it anymore. The grass slowly starts to grow
where the path was until at some point there is no longer a path at
all. Mindfulness practice can help rewire the brain so it no longer
automatically responds with anxiety, or anger, or fear, or feeling
stressed. Mindfulness helps to decrease the negative pathways in the
brain. HANDOUT 2-10-2 PAPER FOLDING EXERCISE Ask clients to fold a
piece of paper, then fold it again, and then again. Have them
unfold it and fold it again where it was already folded. Ask them
if refolding is faster and easier than folding in the first place.
Relate this to moving information along a well-traveled path of
neurons. Discuss whether it is easier for your brain to think
something new or the same thought. Ask them if it is easier to
learn something new or do something you have done before. TOOLS FOR
EXPLAINI