The human brain is indefatigably plastic. With upward of 86 billion neurons (individual brain cells), each with up to ten thousand synaptic connections, there is virtually no limit to what extent a person’s brain can reorganize its structure and function. The core principle of neuroplasticity is that “neurons that fire together, wire together”. We have solid proof that COVID, especially long-haul COVID can effect the way our brains function and make our bodies feel crazy. We spoke to the experts at Re-origin about why a brain-retraining program can help us protect our physical and mental health. Keep reading for more!
Here’s How Brain-Retraining Can Be Effective Against Long-Haul COVID
Why is this important and how does it relate to a person’s mental and physical health?
In an effort to operate ever more efficiently, the brain “links together” neurons related to certain experiences. For instance, if when you were a child, you had gone to a sleep-away camp and stayed in a cedar bunk, now as an adult, the smell of cedar may cause you to experience nostalgic memories of that place and time in your life. However, the brain’s primary job is to keep us safe. And it has been shown that negative memories and associations are typically given more neuronal real estate than positive ones. This, in an effort to remind us to avoid a repeat of the past unpleasant or perceived to be, dangerous experience. So for instance, if while at that camp, you had a particularly traumatic experience, then that same smell, cedar, may become linked back to the feeling of trauma, despite having also had positive experiences in that place.
Most of the time, these associations are formed subconsciously without our permission. If left unattended, these can become the invisible forces that drive our behavior. According to psychiatrist Dr. David Hawkins, MD, Ph.D.: “We carry around with us a huge reservoir of accumulated negative feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. The accumulated pressure makes us miserable and is the basis of many of our illnesses and problems. We are resigned to it and explain it away as the “human condition.” We seek to escape from it in myriad ways. The average human life is spent trying to avoid and run from the inner turmoil of fear and the threat of misery.”
How brain retraining can help?
Re-origin offers a science-based and systematic approach to permanently decoupling and destroying the old obsolete neural pathways that may be keeping us stuck thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that are detrimental to us. We do this through the use of a 30-day program that has been designed by Ph.D. neuroscientists and clinical psychologists on The re-origin Brain Trust. The program guides its members, step by step, through a series of exercises derived from such evidence-based approaches as PRT (pain reprocessing therapy); CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy); SE (somatic experiencing); and NLP (neurolinguistic programming). Through the use of the re-origin program & coaching, participants are guided to:
- Identify and map out their current triggers and mind-bodily responses
- Learn to interrupt them using our methods derived from the disciplines listed above
- Replace the old pathways with new more functional ones that, through a phenomenon known as “reciprocal inhibition,” lead to a decrease in stress hormones and resulting inflammation, and an increase in parasympathetic (rest & digest) activity including the natural replenishing of so-called “feel-good” chemicals: domain, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.
In addition to reducing anxiety and depression, many of our members find that they are able to self-heal and recover from inflammatory-based conditions ranging from Long-Covid and post-viral fatigue to food, chemical, and EMF sensitivities. The key, we’ve found, is to help our clients employ gradual exposure to systematically de-sensitize themselves to triggers that were previously labeled by the limbic system as noxious.
What people can do right now to feel better?
For anyone struggling with persistent symptoms, negative thoughts or strong emotions, the first thing they’ll want to do is seek out the care of a doctor to rule out any ongoing physical or mental cause. When negative feelings or symptoms persist without any clear or apparent physiological-based cause, then there is evidence to suggest that the issue may have to do with a maladaptive stress response as a result of past conditioning. In the case where someone feels “tired and wired”, burned out or deplete without a discernable pathogenetic cause, a simple practice that anyone can do is as follows:
- Become aware of the negative thought, feeling or sensation, and simply accept that it is there without trying to push it away or change it.
- Understand that what you are experiencing is the result of a neurological process, and the sensations are not, in and of themselves, dangerous.
- See, feel, and imagine the sensations receding into the distance while replacing your attention on to a scene, sense, or memory that gives you a more positive and pleasant feeling – and sense that scene expanding (even crowding out the negative sensation).
- Celebrate the fact that you’ve just exercised your freedom to choose where your attention goes and repeat this process whenever you notice that your mind has latched on to the negative symptom, thought or experience.
- With practice and repetition, such exercises have been shown to calm the limbic system and even return pain-sensing neurons into regular neurons to heal chronic pain.
- People can go deeper into techniques like this and learn how to personalize them to their unique set of circumstances through the programs and coaching that re-origin offers.
- We’re finding at re-origin, that by leveraging the power of reciprocal inhibition using sensory-based techniques, including but not limited to introspection and self-directed visualization, many of our participants have experienced a dramatic reduction or even elimination of chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and a host of chronic inflammatory conditions including Long-Covid, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and hypersensitivity syndromes of all different types..
