Change begins when you understand the brain.
- Lavanda Insights
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
You know those habits that stick with us for years, that we just can't seem to change after countless attempts?
We gave up, we got tired, we lost heart.
And indeed, change is not easy.
This happens because changing a habit is not just a rational decision.
Often, we need motivation to start — and structure to sustain change over time.
But then a very common misconception arises.
We constantly hear that "motivation doesn't matter," that all it takes is determination, acting rationally, and ignoring our feelings. Many self-help and coaching speeches reduce the process of change to willpower, as if the brain only functioned on the basis of discipline.
Neuroscience shows that this is not the case.
Motivation plays an essential role in the beginning of the change process because it is directly linked to the brain's reward systems, especially dopamine. When the brain perceives meaning, pleasure, or the expectation of gain, it engages more easily. Without this, change becomes burdensome, aversive, and often unsustainable.
However, motivation alone is not enough either.
It is unstable, fluctuating with fatigue, stress, and the environment. Therefore, relying solely on it leads many people to start enthusiastically and give up halfway through.
This is where brain neuroplasticity comes in.
The brain changes through repetition, attention, and context. When small actions are repeated consistently, new neural connections are strengthened, and what once required effort gradually becomes more automatic.
In other words, it's not about expecting to feel motivated every day.
It's about creating conditions for the brain to learn a new pathway.
Small choices, made consciously and repeatedly, teach the brain that there is another way to act. Over time, the effort decreases, resistance falls, and change no longer depends exclusively on willpower.
How to educate the brain (in light of neuroscience)
Educating the brain is not about forcing it, nor is it about ignoring emotions.
It's about teaching new patterns through experience, repetition, and appropriate context.
Canadian neuropsychologist Donald Hebb formulated one of the central principles of neuroplasticity:
"Neurons that fire together, connect."
This means that repeated behaviors strengthen specific neural circuits. Small, consistent actions have more impact than large, sporadic efforts.
Furthermore, the brain only changes what receives attention. Research on attentional systems shows that old automatic behaviors persist because they have been reinforced over time without conscious awareness. When a new action is performed attentively, the brain understands that this path matters.
Another essential point is emotion. Antonio Damasio demonstrates that emotion and cognition are inseparable. The brain learns best when it feels safe. Environments of guilt, extreme self-criticism, and punishment activate the threat system, hindering learning and behavioral change.
Context is also crucial. Studies on habits show that they depend much more on the environment than on willpower. Adjusting schedules, reducing stimuli, facilitating healthy choices, and making old patterns more difficult helps the brain learn without requiring constant effort.
Finally, dopamine is not only linked to immediate pleasure, but also to the expectation of progress. The brain responds better to small victories than to the pursuit of perfection. Celebrating real progress, even small ones, strengthens consistency.
When we understand how the brain works, we stop treating change as a moral failing and begin to see it as an education of the brain.
It's not about feeling motivated every day.
It's about creating conditions for the brain to learn a new path, step by step.
To help you on this learning journey.
If you feel that changing habits has been difficult, know that this is not a lack of willpower; it's a matter of how the brain learns.
To further explore this process of brain training, I suggest reading some texts that can help you on this journey:
Dopamine Menu: Does it really work?
In this text, I explain how dopamine works in the brain, what the dopamine menu is, and what its real limits and benefits are in light of neuroscience.
Consistency: what neuroscience explains about maintaining habits over time.
Here, you will understand why maintaining habits is more difficult than starting them and how neuroplasticity, environment, and conscious repetition influence consistency.
Insight Lavanda: Learning about how the brain works is not just informative.
It's liberating.
Comments