I’ve always believed that what we put in our brain directly influences who we become. That’s one of the reasons why I refuse to watch violent and horror movies, and will always favour comedies and adventure stories. I’ve long been a firm believer of visualization as a training tool for physical activities and even after 20 years away from Aikido, I still catch myself mentally rehearsing tsuki kote gaeshi and shomen uchi irimi nage.

I recently found a fascinating CBC documentary via Stumble Upon; it’s called "The brain that changes itself" and it talks about the emerging concept of neuroplasticity, which is the ability for our brain to change and rewire itself upon learning or receiving new input. That’s a drastic departure from traditional brain science that had it all figured out: our brain was a fixed machine. It would start aging and decaying and the process would never stop until the end. Trauma was irreversible and no new neurons could ever be created.

With the new concept of neuroplasticity, this all changed. Scientists are beginning to realize that our brain, like most of our body, has the ability to adapt and regenerate. But what’s even more fascinating, it would seem it is able to reprogram, or rewire itself to use various areas to perform a given function – in other words no single region of the brain can be exclusively associated with specific tasks and activities.

What’s more, studies are showing that our thought process has a direct impact on brain development and hence, on our personality. At some point in the documentary, neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone is explaining a study he conducted where subjects were instructed to rehearse a five finger piano sequence for five days, after which their brain was examined via transcranial-magnetic-stimulation (TMS). A specific growth was registered in the motor cortex region associated with playing the piano.

However he decided to push the experiment one step further and repeated the process with new subjects, this time instructing them to only mentally rehearse the sequence without actually touching the piano or even moving their fingers. Stunningly, he found out that the same growth was registering in the brain of these passive subjects, without any actual physical practice!

At that point of the interview, he goes on to say: "What that ultimately means is that one needs to be careful what one thinks…"

It gives me chills.