Can you change the way you think?

Updated 23 July 2026 by Chanelle Segerius-Bruce

You can change the way you think, and it is not wishful thinking to say so. New experiences physically reshape your brain, which is what neural plasticity means. This guide covers a simplified version of how your brain works, the five neurotransmitters driving most of your moods and decisions, why new habits are so much harder than they sound, and a framework for choosing your response deliberately rather than by default.

What neural plasticity actually means

You have probably heard that you can shape how you think through new habits, affirmations or giving your brain something awkward to chew on. There is real science under it. New experiences change your brain, and that reshaping is called neural plasticity. The paths in there are far less fixed than they feel.

What it means in practice is that by understanding a simplified version of how your brain works, you can change your habits, your happiness and your health.

When you do something positive, you activate a different part of the brain. Keep feeling that way and those pathways strengthen, which makes the feeling easier to reach next time.

One caveat worth holding on to. You are a human being and feeling a full range of emotions is normal. If you are aiming to feel good about half the time, you are doing well.

How your brain works, briefly

Your brain has roughly a hundred billion neurons passing signals to each other using neurotransmitters. Those signals produce the thoughts and feelings you have, and the emotions attached to things around you. It is why freshly cut grass can bring back a memory with no warning.

Your brain is trying to do right by you, and it still misleads you. It is why you can be brutal with yourself over a detail nobody else noticed, and why you reach for chocolate because some part of you is convinced that is where happiness lives.

The five neurotransmitters worth knowing

Dopamine

Dopamine energises you to seek reward. The rush feels good because it brings a sense of power and motivation, which is why hitting a milestone gives you a buzz.

It works on small things too. You get hungry, you anticipate the meal, dopamine is released, and that is what actually gets you to the fridge.

Serotonin

Serotonin is tied to social standing. We are social creatures and we spend a lot of energy working out where we sit relative to everyone else.

The comparison is not the point. What matters is the answer, because your serotonin rises and falls with it. Feeling low in the hierarchy brings anxiety. Being admired brings the opposite.

Oxytocin

Known as the love chemical, though it has nothing to do with lust. Oxytocin is the connection you feel with the people closest to you, playing with your child in the garden or catching up with a parent you have not spoken to in a while.

It sounds like serotonin and is not. Serotonin is about approval. Oxytocin is about trust and depth.

It mattered enormously when survival depended on staying physically close. The catch now is that people go along with things they do not want in order to feel they belong.

Endorphins

Endorphins are how your body handles pain, and you also get them through exercise and laughter. Push yourself further than usual on a run and they kick in, masking enough discomfort to let you keep going. You find out about it the following morning.

Cortisol

Cortisol is the stress chemical, and it works like dopamine in reverse: instead of anticipating a reward, you are anticipating pain.

Here is the part worth sitting with. Cortisol does not rise when you feel pain. It rises at the thought of it. Most stress happens for no present reason at all, because your body has decided something is going to hurt. That was useful when the danger was a lion. It is harder to justify for a speaking slot.

There is more on managing that in how to deal with anxiety as an entrepreneur.

How to use your mind to change your brain

Changing how you think means taking charge of how those neurotransmitters get triggered.

Mental activity strengthens neural pathways. Every thought and every feeling firms up the route. Oversimplifying it: focus on being happy and you strengthen the happiness pathway. Those pathways then decide how you see the world and set your habits of thinking, feeling and acting, across your relationships, your money, your career and your lifestyle.

Keep building new ones and the old habits weaken. The method I have found most useful is affirmations, particularly ones tied to the feelings attached to your goals.

Why it is so much harder than it sounds

In theory you simply melt the plastic down and remould it. Anyone who has actually tried knows it does not go like that.

The reason is that most of life runs on autopilot, and your neural pathways follow the law of least effort. A worn path is far easier than wading into long grass to cut a new one. So when there is a choice between happy and miserable, you take whichever route feels most natural, which usually means whichever one you have walked most often.

A framework for choosing the path deliberately

Brooke Castillo's model, sometimes called CTFAR, gives you somewhere to stand while you decide, by separating what happened from what you made it mean.

Your circumstances trigger thoughts. Your thoughts cause your feelings. Your feelings drive your actions. Your actions produce your results.

Circumstances are the things you have no control over: what happens around you, and other people, where you may have influence but never control. Everything after that is yours, which is both the uncomfortable part and the useful one.

Key takeaways

• Neural plasticity means your brain is reshaped by experience, so how you think is not fixed.
• Whatever you practise gets easier, because thoughts and feelings strengthen pathways.
• Dopamine drives you towards reward, and works on small goals as much as large ones.
• Serotonin follows where you believe you sit socially, which is why comparison stings.
• Cortisol rises at the thought of pain, not the pain itself, which is most stress explained.
• Change is hard because pathways follow the law of least effort and the worn route wins.
• Circumstances are outside your control. Thoughts, feelings, actions and results are not.
• Aiming to feel good about half the time is a realistic target, not a low one.

Frequently asked questions

Can you really change the way you think?

Yes. New experiences physically change your brain, which is what neural plasticity describes. The pathways that decide how you perceive things are built by repetition, which means they can be rebuilt.

What is neural plasticity?

The brain's capacity to be reshaped by what you do and experience. The routes in there are far less permanent than they feel from the inside.

Which neurotransmitters affect how I feel?

Five do most of the work: dopamine for reward-seeking, serotonin for social standing, oxytocin for trust and connection, endorphins for pain, and cortisol for stress.

Why does stress happen when nothing is wrong?

Because cortisol responds to the anticipation of pain rather than pain itself. Your body decides something will hurt and reacts accordingly, which was useful when the threat was a predator and is less so before a speaking slot.

Why is it so hard to change a habit?

Your neural pathways follow the law of least effort. A well-worn path is far easier than cutting a new one through long grass, so under any pressure you default to the familiar.

What is the CTFAR model?

Brooke Castillo's framework: circumstances trigger thoughts, thoughts cause feelings, feelings drive actions, actions produce results. It separates what actually happened from what you decided it meant.