Rewire Your Brain: Lessons from Lifting my Big Toes

The other day at work, I was chatting with a co-worker about his physical therapy. You see, he is a runner and was having calf issues. His PT gave him an exercise to do. He had to lift his big toes without raising the other toes. I kind of laughed this off, thinking what a silly thing.

He asked me if I could do it. Ha! Probably! So I tried.

Nope!

I absolutely could not lift my big toes without lifting my other toes. I couldn’t even get my brain to understand how to do this!

According to Johns Hopkins, “raising your big toe involves a neurological pathway originating in the brain, traveling down the spinal cord, and using motor neurons to send signals to specific muscles.” Basically, if I wanted to figure out how to raise my big toe on its own, I was going to have to rewire my brain!

Well, now I was on a mission! Anytime I was sitting down, I would try to raise my big toes. And, anytime I tried to do this, it was like my brain could not figure it out. It frustrated me that I couldn’t do a simple thing like raise my big toe. But it literally hurt my brain to try and make it happen! But yet, any chance I had, I was trying to lift my toes.

The other night I was talking on the phone, and I decided to do my little exercise. And, guess what?! I lifted my big toes!! I couldn’t believe it! I did it multiple times and each time, those big toes popped right up, all by themselves! It took focus, patience, and repetition — but eventually, my brain got the message. I built a new neural pathway!

Now, who cares about raising your big toes, you might say. How can this help me in life?

But, this really isn’t about learning to lift toes. It is about training your brain to do something new, something different, something hard. Maybe something you never thought you could do. Maybe something like changing your thought process, or learning to be calmer in stressful situations. Or even, learning how to let go of the idea of ‘that’s just the way I am.’

The truth is, our brains are flexible. They can change. When we catch ourselves in a negative thought loop — we can literally rewire our brains to think differently.

Here is a simple way the brain works (remember, I am NO doctor!)- Imagine walking through a jungle. The first time you walk through it is full of vines and bushes and you can barely take a few steps. But, the more you walk, the clearer the path becomes. Eventually, from repeated walking over the same spot, you now have an easy pathway and a clear cut path. The brain is the same as that overgrown jungle path. But, instead of vines, it is filled with beliefs and patterns of thinking.

The more you repeat a thought, or a story- for example, saying I am not good enough or I can’t do this. The clearer that pathway becomes. If you’ve been telling yourself the same self-critical story for years, that’s like a well-worn trail your brain automatically takes. It is the easy clear cut path.

But just like I trained my brain to lift my big toes, you can train your brain to think differently. It takes awareness, repetition, and pushing through some frustration! But, each time you replace a negative thought with a kinder, more positive one, you’re clearing a new pathway.

So, here’s the take-away:

Notice your thoughts. When you catch yourself repeating a negative thought or story-

STOP!
turn around
start hacking your way to a new path!

Instead of “I can’t do this”, stop and tell yourself “this is new and hard, but I will keep trying.” Everytime you do this, you are creating a new pathway down a kinder and gentler trail.

It’s weirdly empowering to think that a silly thing like learning how to lift my big toes has really shown me the way to developing a kinder more positive mindset.

Your mind is like a wild jungle, constantly growing and changing. Every thought you repeat clears a trail— so, which path are you choosing to make easier?

Now, go form two new pathways– learn to be kinder to yourself and learn how to lift your big toes!

The Ember + Sage