"What My Brain's Made of Plastic?!" Money Psychology-2

Just as plastic can be moulded and reshaped, your brain has an extraordinary ability to reorganise itself throughout your life. This "plasticity" isn't about being made of actual plastic. We’re talking about neuroplasticity—a scientific term that describes how adaptable and changeable your brain truly is, challenging the outdated belief that our brains become fixed after childhood.

 

Power of neuroplasticity

 Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt. Think of it like a super flexible muscle that can grow stronger, learn new things, and heal. When you learn something new, practice a skill, or experience something different, your brain forms new connections between its cells. These connections strengthen the more you use them.

 

For instance, if you practice playing an instrument, your brain will develop new pathways that help you improve over time. Neuroplasticity explains how we can continue learning and growing throughout our lives, even when we take on new challenges later on. It also clarifies why the brain can adapt after an injury, such as when someone relearns how to move their hand after a stroke. Essentially, your brain is constantly changing, and with the proper habits, you can mould it to excel at anything you set your mind to!

 

Effectively managing money involves building a solid foundation for budgeting, spending, and saving. Neuroplasticity helps in managing money by enabling you to develop better habits over time. Every time you repeat a habit, you strengthen specific neural pathways in your brain, making those behaviours increasingly automatic. This neuroplasticity means that consistent daily choices are literally reshaping your brain's physical structure. The power- and potential danger- of habits is that your brain becomes more efficient at whatever you repeatedly do, regardless of whether those actions help or harm you.

Just like learning a new skill, improving your budgeting, spending, and saving requires rewiring your brain to develop better financial habits. Here's how it works:

 

1. Building Awareness of Your Spending

At first, you might not realise how you are spending your money. However, by paying attention to each purchase, your brain starts to create new connections. These connections help you identify patterns in your spending, like impulse buys or unnecessary subscriptions. Over time, your brain becomes more skilled at making thoughtful spending choices.

2. Developing New Habits

You form new neural pathways when you set a budget and start tracking your expenses. For example, each time you decide to skip an impulsive purchase and instead put that money into savings, you strengthen your ability to resist temptation. The more you practice this behaviour, the more automatic it becomes. Eventually, saving and adhering to a budget feels more natural.

3. Improving Emotional Control

Managing money can evoke emotions such as stress, fear, or excitement. Neuroplasticity enables you to train your brain to manage these emotions more effectively. By practising calm and rational decision-making—such as taking time to reflect before making a significant purchase—you can reduce emotional spending and make more intentional financial choices. Over time, your brain learns to handle money-related stress with greater control.

4. Adapting to New Financial Strategies

If you choose to alter your approach to money, such as establishing a new savings strategy (e.g., the 50/30/20 rule) or investing, your brain can adapt to these new methods. With consistent practice, your brain rewires itself to make these behaviours easier and more automatic, just like developing a new habit or routine.

5. Positive Reinforcement

As you begin to notice the benefits of your new financial habits—such as seeing your savings grow or feeling less stressed about money—your brain receives positive feedback, reinforcing the behaviours that led you to this point. This creates a cycle where you keep building on your progress, and over time, better financial habits become deeply ingrained.

 

By consistently practising good money habits, you take advantage of neuroplasticity. Your brain can continually adapt and improve, enabling you to improve your budgeting skills, spend wisely, and save more effectively.

 

The Bible and Neuroplasticity

 

While the Bible doesn't directly discuss neuroplasticity, several principles and teachings align with the concept of the brain's ability to change and grow, particularly through intentional effort, transformation, and renewing the mind. Here are a couple of biblical illustrations that can help explain how neuroplasticity works in both spiritual and practical terms:

• Romans 12:2 – "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Believers are encouraged to renew or transform their minds, which parallels the concept of neuroplasticity. Just as neuroplasticity describes how we can reshape our brain's connections through repeated actions and thought patterns, this verse emphasises that we can change our thinking and behaviours by renewing our minds—essentially rewiring how we think and respond. Focusing on positive, godly thoughts allows the brain to establish new, healthier patterns.

• Proverbs 23:7 – "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he."

Our thoughts play a powerful role in shaping who we are and what we do. Neuroplasticity suggests that what we repeatedly think about and focus on can alter the structure of our brains, reinforcing certain thoughts or habits. Similarly, this verse teaches that our thoughts influence our actions and character. By concentrating on positive, wise, and righteous thoughts, we can transform our behaviour and life direction, much like how neuroplasticity enables us to shape our habits.

 

• Philippians 4:8 – "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

We should concentrate on positive and uplifting thoughts. This aligns with the biblical principle that our thoughts and focus can influence our identity. We strengthen our mental and emotional "muscles by cultivating these positive thoughts. " Neuroplasticity shows how the brain adapts when intentionally directing our attention to specific behaviours or thought patterns.

• 2 Corinthians 10:5 – "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

We have the power to control and change our thoughts. It aligns with the concept of neuroplasticity in that it suggests that through conscious effort and discipline, we can "retrain" our minds to align with God's truth and wisdom, much like how we can train our brains to form new, healthier patterns through focused effort.

 

Try moulding your plastic – today!

Next time: How the Bible can transform our brains. Neuroscience demonstrates that mindfulness and meditative prayer can help the brain rewire, making godly behaviours more automatic. For instance, when we meditate on the parables of Jesus or His teachings, the brain processes these messages and constructs pathways that enable us to respond in faith to life’s challenges