Charged 2026

Tag: stress

  • How The Science of Neuroplasticity Can Help You

    What is Neuroplasticity?

    Neuroplasticity seems like something a person would read about in a science-fiction novel. How can the brain, a seemingly unchanging mass of brain-goo, be constantly re-modelling and changing itself? As crazy as it seems, research has shown that throughout a person’s life, even as a person reaches adulthood, there are parts of the brain that remain “plastic” or moldable. For example, if a person loses their sight, the neurons associated with sight are re-wired to be used for other senses, such as touch or hearing. Although a child’s brain exhibits more neuroplasticity, the adult brain is still surprisingly flexible. This is specifically relevant to students, who use the brain’s natural ability to change for their own benefit.

    The Student Guide to Revamping Their Brain

    Feel less stressed, get better sleep, and feel more in control of your life!

    1.Meditation

    For most of neuroscience’s history, scientists believed that the brain was fixed or set. However, we now know that the brain changes itself in response to experiences, stimuli, thoughts, and the environment. Rather than being a static machine, the brain is constantly processing information and making new neural connections and letting old ones die. Evidence for this phenomena comes from the effect of meditation on the brain. Richard Davidson, a researcher from the University of Wisconsin, studied the effects of both short and long-term meditation practices. The researcher found that the meditator brain’s were different from the non-meditator brain’s. Not only did individuals who meditate feel less stressed, depressed, and more content, their actual brain showed differences too! On average, those who had a consistent mediation practice had more gray matter, which has been linked to mood control and decision making.

    2. Exercise

    If you need another reason to exercise, look so further! Exercise has been shown to not only increase spatial memory, but it promotes the generation and growth of neurons. People that exercise consistently have been shown to have a higher grey matter mass, especially grey matter associated with cognitive control. So, if you exercise, you might think and function better!

    3. Change Your Thoughts

    Although it’s surprising to think about, but the way we think can have an effect on our physical brain. When you think a thought, the brain forms a neural pathway. When you think that thought again, the neural pathway grows stronger. It is similar to the way a canyon is formed. Water flows through a canyon for years, making the path deeper and wider. Thought is powerful. When a person believes something, it has a physical manifestation in the brain. If a student believes that they can never be good at math, they will form a mental block. However, if they practice doing math, their brain will form a mini “map” for math and they will get better at it. The way we think can shape our worldview, what we do, and how we behave. It is good to be aware of that, even though a large part of our thoughts are not in our conscious awareness.

    Citations:

    Doidge, N. (2017). The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science. Strawberry Hills, NSW: ReadHowYouWant.

    Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R. J. (2004). Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(46), 16369-16373. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407401101

    Begley, S. (2007, January 19). How Thinking Can Change the Brain. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116915058061980596

     

  • The Science behind ‘Frenemies’

    The Science behind ‘Frenemies’

    High school can be very painful for anyone who is the slightest bit different.  Thankfully, I’m 5 years removed from it but my little sister is a freshman so I get to sit back and observe this social phenomenon as an objective outsider.  When you’re in high school (specifically a teenage girl in high school), it seems that every social situation is a CRUCIAL moment in your life.  Not abiding by the invisible rules of pubescent social etiquette could result in getting shunned from the clique.  This, by the teenage spectrum of standard exaggeration, is death.  Girls strive to fit in and seek reassurance that they are ‘secured’ in their pack.  This essentially creates an army of mini tyrants disguised in pink twill.

    This brings me to introduce the concept of a ‘frenemy.’  A ‘frenemy’ is someone who you’re friends with by all appearances, but is actually someone who you would like to squirt ketchup on.  In the high school scenario, she might be characterized as the bully of the group or perhaps the arrogant leader of it.  Either way, you find yourself supporting her terrible behavior because you’re too afraid to speak out and risk losing your social standing.

    There’s a biological reason for this behavior.  According to Dr. Louann Brizendine, who wrote the fantastic book ‘The Female Brain,’ the main job of a girl brain is to keep social harmony.  The teen girl’s brain circuits are wired so that social rejection actually triggers a neural stress response (Brizendine 35).  When a relationship is threatened, the female’s feel-good brain chemicals drop (such as serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin) and the stress hormone cortisol takes over.  Now this has become a matter of life or death.  She’ll start feeling anxious and fearful of being rejected.  She’ll become cranky to family members.  She soon begins to crave that feeling of closeness again, for that great intimacy drug oxytocin.  She’ll eventually decide to stick to her clan of frenemies to keep that utterly important social harmony.

    This can also explain why girls go to the bathroom together.  Those girls hanging out in the bathroom are reinforcing their most important relationships- with other girls.  Many women find biological comfort in one another’s company and language is the glue that connects them together.  Talking and sharing secrets activates even more oxytocin release.  The oxytocin reinforces the desire to gossip and connecting then brings a sense of pleasure and well-being (Brizendine 37).

    Why exactly are girls built this way?  One plausible reason goes back to primitive basics.  Remember- our modern female brain still has the circuitry of our most successful foremothers.  Studies have shown that female mammals in a bonded social group are more likely to come to another’s aid in a threatening situation, such as if a male is overly aggressive to a female.  Members of a group can alert one another of conflict ahead of time, enabling them to move away from potential danger and to continue safely tending dependent children.  This pattern of behavior is called ‘tend and befriend,’ and it is particularly a female strategy (Brizendine 42).  Since teen girls are biologically reaching optimal fertility, their primitive brain begins to stress the importance of this strategy.  It’s saying, “Lose that bond with your peer, and both you and your offspring are toast.”  No wonder girls find it unbearably hard to cope with feelings of being left out.

    There’s even a biological reason for why some teen girls can become so evil to one another.  Hormonal surges can turn these girls mean but so can sexual competition.  This competition is much different in girls than in boys. When females are competing with other females, they often use subtle tools, such as spreading rumors, to undermine a frenemy.  That way she can cover her tracks.  Instead of using force, which is the male’s standard protocol, the female uses her best set skill-language- to get what she wants.  Such tactics lessen the risk of destroying the bond that the teen girl brain sees as essential to survival.

    The teenage girl brain is drowning in estrogen and other chemicals that make it pretty difficult to survive these years. It’s always drama, drama, drama. That’s not to say that teenage boys aren’t dealing with an insurgence of hormones- they are and they have their own set of embarrassing problems.  But research findings like these can reassure a gal that her feelings of mayhem are only temporary.  So if you are a teenage girl, remind yourself that you will mellow out.  Then remember to tell your frenemy that it is not her fault she’s acting like a jerk but that it is just her cortisol coming out to play.

    Brizendine, Louanne. The Female Brain.  New York: Broadway Books, 2006.

     

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