If we think of our brains as a map, those early roads are like grooves, tram tracks, easy to fall into.

We don't have to have suffered brain damage to take advantage of the plastic nature of our brains.

Whether you plan or whether you flow in order to be creative probably isn't the point. The point is to keep practicing to maintain neural pathways and to establish new ones by learning new skills.

It seems whether we have a tendency towards being flexible or structured affects how we create, how we parent, how we work.

Plasticity is an intrinsic property of the human brain and represents evolution's invention to enable the nervous system to escape the restrictions of its own genome and thus adapt to environmental pressures, physiologic changes, and experiences.

The trouble is if we take no new steps to try a new challenge, our comfort zone doesn't seem just to stay still, but retract.

I am talking about being optimistic enough to sow some seeds in the hope that some of them will germinate and grow into flowers.