Your brain has the built in ability to physically change itself when faced with new, challenging experiences. This ability is called neuroplasticity.
Your brain has billions of neurons which interact with each other in complex ways. Signals travel from one neuron to another down intricate neural pathways whose structures determine your thoughts, impulses, emotions, insights, and more.
As our brains develop throughout childhood, these neural pathways change: less-used pathways are pruned away (synaptic pruning) while pathways that you use regularly grow stronger. Every task you do relies on a different neural pathway.
Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to create new neural pathways and reshape existing ones, even as an adult. Your brain makes these small changes naturally throughout your lifetime. But when neuroplasticity’s potential is thoughtfully and methodically explored, this physical reorganization can make your brain faster and more efficient at performing all manner of tasks.