The subject of neuroplasticity reminds me of a story of the emerging butterfly. One day, a small opening appeared on a cocoon. A man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.
Then, it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could not go any further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly: he took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a withered body, it was tiny and had shrivelled wings.
The man continued to watch because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand, to be able to support the butterfly’s body, and become firm.
Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a withered body and shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and his goodwill did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening, were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we could go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been.
When people go into the weightless environment of space, stress is eliminated to a large degree from their bodies. In this environment their body has nothing to push against and starts to weaken, muscles start to atrophy and bones start to demineralise.
Innate intelligence needs forces, commonly known as tropisms to grow to. Without opposing forces, we shrivel and die. Without challenge, there is no growth.
The avoidance of stress is endemic in our society. We have developed a culture that is hell-bent on reducing risk and making life easy. We are taught from a young age that if something hurts we need to avoid it or take something to make it better. The reduction of pain has become an obsession with countless millions being spent on medical care, drugs and other solutions to reduce or ease pain, be it physical, mental or emotional. Antidepressants and painkillers are being handed out like candy.
The new wiring of our brain and nerve system relies on new challenges. To the degree that we can generate new pathways of nerve firing through multiple perspectives when processing information or experience is the degree that we can ask better quality questions of life, respond with better behaviours and thereby do and have more.
The ability to be flexible in the face of adversity, to weather the storms of challenging times and adapt to the ever-changing environment around us are the hallmarks of greatness. The ability to move from Quadrant to Quadrant in the in8model® easily and gracefully while we embrace the kaleidoscope of neurological preferences that we can so easily access is an exciting journey to be embraced.
As you encounter the difficult situations in your life know that you are developing your brain every time to challenge on and while it feels bad, wrong, awkward or unpleasant it is developing your wings so that you too can fly like the butterfly.
