WHAT HAS BEEN WIRED, CAN BE REWIRED (WITH PRACTICE)

Ok, let’s do a quick review of where we’ve been.

Your brain is incredibly efficient. It's always looking to automate. Repetition is the secret sauce—whatever you do often, your brain starts to do on autopilot. And over the last decade, much of what we've all practiced (without even realizing it) has been shaped by our phones, our notifications, and our endless scrolling.

The tricky part is that your neural wiring doesn't distinguish between helpful and harmful patterns. If you do it enough, it gets wired in. But here's the hopeful part: what has been wired can be rewired—with intention and practice.

This capacity for transformation isn't just a quirk of biology; it's part of what makes us human, created with the remarkable ability to participate consciously in our own becoming.

My Own Journey With Unhelpful Wiring

Remember how I said I created this site because I personally needed something like this? 

Well, I do.

I'm going to do my level best to avoid discussing politics in this blog. What I will say is this: over the last eight years, I've noticed how hard it's become to extend loving-kindness to people whose views differ sharply from my own. Philosophically and theologically, I know openness to other people matters. But I feel like I'm swimming upstream in a neurobiological river that's been flowing the other way for years. I want to be wise in conversation and loving in action—but that kind of wiring is hard to strengthen while swimming upstream.

So I need help. And I’ve come to realize that swimming against the current—feeling that resistance—isn’t failure. It’s the work of rewiring in real time. 

Growth through difficulty isn't a bug in the system; it's a feature of how transformation happens. And the difficulty gently reminds me that what has been wired, can be rewired (with practice).

I Need to Focus & "Think on These Things"

Focused attention exercises—the kind you'll find on the Train the Mind page—are how I do it. These simple (but not always easy) practices give my brain something new to attend to: presence, goodness, hope. 

Consider something as basic as loving-kindness meditation: you begin by bringing someone you care about to mind, then silently offering them phrases like "May you be happy, may you be at peace, may you experience love today." After a few minutes, you extend this same goodness to yourself, to people you feel neutral toward, and eventually even to those who challenge you.

It's a practice as old as the contemplative traditions themselves, yet neuroscience now shows us it literally rewires our capacity for compassion.

And now, you might be asking:

• How does rewiring actually happen?

  
  

• How can it stick?

  
  

• And for those thinking spiritually: Doesn't this take God out of the equation?

These are all great questions.

Question 1: How Does Rewiring Happen?

Again, let’s do a quick review:

• Neurons are cells that communicate with one another.

• When certain groups of neurons fire together repeatedly, they form a neural pathway.

• With continued use, these pathways strengthen—becoming faster, more automatic, and more dominant.

  
  

Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb summarized it this way: "What fires together, wires together."

So when you repeatedly think a thought, feel an emotion, or act in a certain way, your brain begins to make that pattern your default. That's true whether you're practicing anxiety or compassion. 

Attention is not neutral. It's formative. 

Research from neuroscientist Richard Davidson's lab shows that even eight weeks of contemplative practice produces measurable changes in brain regions associated with attention regulation, emotional processing, and self-awareness. 

So… how does rewiring happen? Through weeks or months of reshaping our neurobiological architecture and this reshaping is facilitated first by focused attention. (there’s more to this which you’ll see in the next couple posts)

rewiring can occur anywhere focused attention exercises are practiced

And here's the great news: what doesn't fire together... well, it fades.

Question 2: How Can the New Wiring Stick?

Two core processes help new wiring take root: myelination and synaptic pruning.

Remember myelination? It wraps your most-used neural pathways in a fatty coating, allowing the pathways to fire faster and more efficiently. It's like your brain saying, "Hey, we use this road a lot—let's pave it." 

At the same time, synaptic pruning is occurring.  Unused neural connections are pruned away to make space for those more frequently used pathways.  (What doesn’t fire together, well, it fades.)

That's why daily, focused attention matters. 

Every time you return your gaze to what is good, true, or beautiful—even for a few minutes—you're reinforcing the neural architecture for that kind of life. 

The research suggests that while initial changes can occur within 2-8 weeks of consistent practice, lasting structural changes typically take 3-6 months. This isn't instant  transformation, but it's reliable transformation.

James Clear puts it this way: "Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you want to become." Focused attention exercises are actions we take which intentionally cast votes, teaching our brains and bodies about the kind of person we want to become.

Question 3: Doesn't This Take God Out of Spiritual Formation?

Not at all.

This kind of practice actually reflects the mysterious, grace-filled partnership between divine work and human participation. You're not "hacking holiness." You're creating space.

Consider this: 

the very capacity for neuroplasticity—our ability to change, grow, and consciously participate in our own transformation—reflects something profound about how we're made. I would often blurt out in class “This is God’s good design!” whenever we came across some incredible science like this.

We're created as beings capable of growth, of turning toward love, of becoming more than we were. This isn't separate from spiritual reality; it's how spiritual reality works through the material world.

Spiritual practices are how we say, "I'm open and available."

Available to grow.

Available to be shaped by love rather than fear.

Available to the Spirit who is gentler than the world and more faithful than my best habits.

The contemplative traditions have always understood this.

When ancient practitioners developed techniques like Lectio Divina—slowly, meditatively reading sacred texts—or the Jesus Prayer—repeatedly calling on Christ's name—they were training attention just as surely as any modern mindfulness practice.

Formation isn't forced—it's chosen. And it's practiced. These focused attention exercises are one way we posture ourselves to participate in the work of the Spirit within us.

Where This Leads

When you begin to reclaim your attention, even in small ways, you're doing more than improving focus. You're interrupting old defaults. You're rewiring desire. And you're creating new capacity for the kinds of relationships, decisions, and inner peace that digital distraction can never deliver.

It's not just for you, either. The more grounded, wise, and present you become, the more you ripple that into your conversations, your community, and the culture around you. Your individual transformation becomes part of something larger—a contribution to the collective flourishing that happens when people choose to embody love rather than react from fear. This is how personal spiritual formation begins to serve the common good.

One focused breath.

One intentional practice.

One moment of choosing love over reaction.

This is a great place to start.

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In the next post, we’ll look at the next essential layer of transformation: behavior-based practices. It turns out, we can’t just think our way into new ways of being—we have to practice our way there. The exercises you'll find in the Influence Reality section of the site help us move from intention to embodiment. When your thoughts and actions begin to align with wisdom, generosity, and love, something changes—not just in you, but in the world around you.