Irresponsible Thinking

Many people would agree that there is an immoral way to use your body. To spew hate speech with your mouth or to enact violence with your hands. 

When we use our bodies to hurt others we all agree that’s wrong. 

Using our bodies to hurt ourselves may or may not be immoral. But at the very least it’s irresponsible. To drink or eat or smoke away decades of our lives. To lounge away our own strength and mobility, decreasing the quality of our lives.

Neuroplasticity is a term used to describe the human brain’s ability to change its own shape. Every movement and thought we have travels through our neural pathways—and the ones used most often become easier and easier to use. Even as adults, our brains rearrange themselves to make our most common thoughts easier. 

We’re quick to think of the mind as a formless, vaporous thing. We would never purposefully harm ourselves or others, right? We can think whatever we like, but at least it doesn’t harm anyone…right?

Neuroplasticity suggests that thoughts can harm us. 

Maybe the Twitter outrage factory that brings us so much dopamine is digging a deeper trench in our minds. Maybe the one-sided explanation of the world that comforts us is sinking us deeper in neural mud. Maybe the thoughts that we can’t get out of our minds are wrapping their tentacles around us more and more each day. 

Maybe there’s an irresponsible way to use our brains—not just on a mental or spiritual level…but on a physical one.