Apr 23, 2012-- "A dangerous belief in our culture is that we can't change. We've all heard the disempowered statements: 'He's just grumpy. He can't change that.' or 'I will always be anxious. It's the way I was born.' While we most certainly have genetic predispositions, the brains of individuals' young and old can change in amazing ways. Neuroplasticity is a fancy way of saying that our brains can change. We are not victims of our neurons or genes. We are empowered creators of our mental states. The erroneous belief that we are 'set in stone' can stop people from trying to change and take away their responsibility. In the same way that germ theory altered the way we look at sanitation and hygiene, I think that spreading the knowledge about our brain's ability to change can alter the way our culture approaches emotions, attitudes, and values. (105134 reads)