I’m reading “Why Therapy Works, Using Our Minds, to Change Our Brains” by Louis Cozolino for a class I’m taking. One section talks about genotype (the set of genes that make up our DNA ) and phenotype (how those genes are expressed). Our DNA, or the genes we inherit from our parents play a large role in the person we become, but they are not the only key player. Prenatal exposure, early life experiences among other things impact how those genes express themselves. Cozolino states:
This strategy allows each human brain to adapt to a very specific environment. Culture, language, climate, nutrition, and parents, factors that may differ radically from culture to culture, generation to generation, and even day to day, shape out brains in unique ways.
The ability our brains have to adapt and change is called neuroplasticity. Without it, humans as a species would have died out long ago, lacking the ability to adapt to new environments. Sometimes our brains, adapting to our unique experiences, with the basic drive to maintain life and safety, can actually become maladaptive. Cozolino calls these “distortions of conscious awareness”. In therapy they are also often referred to as “thinking errors” or “cognitive distortions”. Cozolino states that these distortions are not character flaws, but are “preprogrammed by-products of our evolutionary history based on their proven survival value”.
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I recently heard someone talk about the concept of spiritual DNA. That we are all born with some inherited genetic inclinations that impact our spirituality. As I was thinking about the idea of spiritual DNA, I remembered reading about genotype and phenotype and how our experiences shape our brain development, and impact our perception and experience of life.
Last week I was visiting with my Relief Society President, and mentioned how my brain just seemed to operate in a way that led me to be constantly grappling with issues surrounding spirituality, and religious culture. Applying neuropsychology to this idea means that the way my brain works isn’t a character flaw. It may be maladaptive at times, and if that’s the case, it’s crucial that I examine those thinking errors, but it’s also designed to protect me, so the way my brain operates in spiritual matters is important.
I am not broken. I am not unworthy. My brain is doing just what God intended it do. I get to decide what kind of help I need to address maladaptive thinking patterns, and I get to decide what parts of those thinking patters are protective. Most of all, when I feel fear or uncertainty, it can be overwhelming. Sometimes it feels like I’ll feel that way forever, but brains adapt, and I don’t have to stay stuck.
Over the next little while I’ll be sharing common thinking errors and how they might apply to our spiritual development or relationship with the church. If you have any thoughts you would like to contribute to these posts, feel free to email me at alliegator321 at gmail dot com.