“Neurons that fire together wire together.”

This phrase coined in 1949 by psychologist Donald Hebb in his book The Organization of Behavior is used a lot when referring to the powerful potential of Mindfulness to actually change the structure of our brains…for the better.

We all want to be happier, right? What we now know, as a result of Donald Hebb’s work, is that whatever we focus on, grows. The more we train our attention to focus on a certain topic, feeling, etc., the more we strengthen the neural networks in our brains associated with those topics, feelings, etc. When we purposely direct our attention to building skills that enhance our capacity to stay in the present moment, without judgment, and relate to our experience with kindness, we are strengthening the “feel good” circuitry in our brains. Over time this equates to a greater sense of happiness.

We actually change the structure of our brains as a result of what we choose to attend to in our lives. Neurons that fire together, wire together. In other words, the more we activate certain sets of neurons by purposely choosing what we attend to, the stronger and more plentiful the pathways become, making them more likely to be our “go to” in times of stress and adversity.

This is really quite extraordinary. Science used to teach us that we are born with all the neurons we would ever have, but now we know that we can grow our brains, and literally shape them moment to moment. This is a concept that neuroscientists refer to as neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is the term used to describe how the brain changes based on our experiences. These experiences may be our mental habits, behaviors, biases, beliefs, even physical injury.

When we practice Mindfulness and Compassion, waking up when our mind wanders away from our object of focus and purposefully directing our attention back to the present moment with kindness, we are literally rewiring our brains to support greater levels of ease and well-being in our lives, physically, emotionally and mentally.

Don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.