Actively create mismatches or errors in your performance, as this signals to the nervous system that something is wrong, triggering the release of neurochemicals (acetylcholine, epinephrine, dopamine) needed for neural circuits to change and learn.
When experiencing frustration from making errors, leverage that feeling by drilling deeper into the endeavor instead of walking away, as this engages plasticity mechanisms and prevents negative rewiring.
For adult learning, engage in bouts where you actively seek and make errors, continuing for 7 to 30 minutes even when frustrated, to liberate the chemical cues that signal plasticity needs to happen.
Subjectively tell yourself that making errors is important and good for your overall learning goals, which helps release dopamine in your brain and significantly accelerates the rate of plasticity.
To accelerate and magnify plasticity, create a serious incentive or high contingency for the learning to occur, as the importance of something to you gates the rate and magnitude of neural change.
As an adult, focus on incremental learning by tolerating smaller errors over time and stacking them, rather than attempting massive shifts, to achieve significant neuroplasticity.
Engage in smaller bouts of focused learning for smaller bits of information, as trying to learn a lot of information in one session as an adult is a mistake for effective plasticity.
Before any learning session, assess your level of autonomic arousal (limbic friction) to determine if you are too alert or too tired, then engage in behaviors to bring yourself to an optimal state of heightened arousal for learning.
To heighten or accelerate plasticity, intentionally engage your vestibular system by getting off balance and compensating, as errors in balance directly signal the cerebellum to release key neurochemicals for learning.
Identify and utilize the time or times of day when you naturally have the highest mental acuity for engaging in learning bouts, as this optimizes your ability to tolerate errors and focus.
If you are too alert or anxious before a learning bout, perform a physiological sigh by inhaling twice through the nose and exhaling once through the mouth to offload carbon dioxide and calm your autonomic arousal.
To reduce excessive alertness or anxiety, shift from tunnel vision to panoramic vision by dilating your field of gaze, which helps to calm your autonomic nervous system.
If you are too tired or calm to focus, increase your alertness by engaging in super oxygenation breathing (inhaling more than exhaling) or breathing very fast to deploy norepinephrine.