The Joy of Neuroplasticity
Psalm 5, 6 • Psalm 10, 11
Job 6: 1-4, 8-15, 21 • Acts 9: 32-43 • John 6: 60-71
Isn’t it funny the connections we make?! While thinking on Psalm 6, I was led to thoughts of human adaptation and then on to brain plasticity. Wowee — the mind is an amazing thing! Please walk with me through this.
In the ancient context of Psalm 6, when sickness was thought to be punishment for sin, this is a prayer for recovery from illness — O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger. The author is so weary — how long? — how can I praise you if I am in Sheol, the realm of death? — they beg for God’s healing powers. Then, trusting they have been heard, the psalmist is transformed, the terror gone. Yet it is not at all evident that any physical change has come. What is apparent is the psalmist’s trust in God and their confidence that all will be well.
Adapting to new events and new conditions has been necessary for our survival, particularly when unwelcome changes swirl beyond our influence. Our human self has demonstrated a herculean capacity to adapt, much thanks going to the 86 billion neurons that compose our brain. Depending on the malleability of those neurons, brain functions can move from a damaged area to an undamaged area in a stroke victim, i.e. functional plasticity. In structural plasticity, our brains can actually change their physical structure as a result of learning — and not just when we’re very young! Having new experiences and making new memories can reroute, reorganize, reinvigorate — even make new neurons! I know you probably already know the science part of this but still — the wonder of it all, yes?! *
The psalmist most likely didn’t know about these neurons but did grasp — not with passivity or bitterness — that the mind and heart could adapt to what the body could not influence. At the close of Psalm 6, trust transcends weariness; we are told yet again of a different pathway to healing, bringing new experiences and new memories to build upon.
Like the psalmist, we have a choice. And though the pandemic has set us on a path we did not ask for nor welcome, it is still a chance for learning and healing, for love and patience.
Written by Bernadette Reda
While keeping busy at her home in the Goshen woods, Bernadette continues to make lively attempts at improving her neuroplasticity with music, sewing, amateur meteorology, photography, and finding more British mysteries to watch.