I came across freeskier Eileen Gu over the past couple of days due to her dominance at the olympics and her freeskiing accolades. I feel it’s fair to mention that she’s quickly become my new celebrity crush. Fangirling aside, she had this great speech in her post game press conference where she explained her thought processes which included self reflection and applying an analytical layer to her introspection and overall wanting to become the best version of herself everyday. Additionally, she defined this idea of being able to control your thoughts and shaping the way you think, also known as neuroplasticity. This struck a chord as I’ve been on this journey of self discovery and self improvement but had no idea there was a phrase for this already. Google defines neuroplasticity as:
The brain’s lifelong ability to reorganize its structure, functions, and neural connections in response to learning, experience, or injury.
I went through one of the most traumatic but also life changing breakup a few years ago that made me redefine who I am as person and human. It took me back to first principles and who I thought I was and also how I viewed myself. Safe to say I learned a lot in terms of self-love and self-belief. It was on this journey that one of the most obscure reddit comments had the most profound and long lasting effect on my perspective of being in control and the human psyche. It went a little like this:
Think of your current thought processes as a marble rolling down a sand hill. There’s two paths (two thought processes) with one being your current thoughts which is a path that leads straight into mud while the second path hasn’t yet been developed. The marble always follows the path of least resistance and is trained to follow this paved path of negative thoughts down into the mud. However, we want this marble to create a new path on otherside of the existing path into a nice clean area or clean water or whatever your heart desires as paradise for this little marble. Just like we can change our thoughts, we can change the marbles’ path. We can alter the path little by little to carve out its new path. Of course we’re still talking about reality and the marble will relapse, following the path of least resistance back to the old path but I never said this will be easy. Over time this new path gets deeper and eventually becomes the new path of least resistance. Sand eventually covers the old original path. It comes at its cost as there will always be resistance and friction on the creation of this new path. However, the outcome never felt so great. The new pathway is this the minds new state of positivity.
Eventually the existing path starts filling becoming contaminated with mud and we need to create a new path once again but enjoy the fresh clean water while we can. Similar to the ebbs and flow of life.