Why Everyone’s Talking About Neuroplasticity Right Now

A few years ago, neuroplasticity was unheard of. Now, my TikTok feed is flooded with videos talking about ‘how to rewire your brain’. This comes with the influx of wellness culture, people’s growing obsession with good habits, self-improvement and trying to reclaim their attention spans. In an age of continuous self-growth, we’ve been inspired to put our brains to the test.

But what is neuroplasticity? To put it simply, it’s the brain’s amazing ability to change, reorganise and rewire itself throughout life. Think of your brain not as a rigid computer, but as a flexible, dynamic network that builds new connections every time you learn something new, experience something different or heal from an injury. Your brain can rewire itself based on what you repeatedly do. This is why repetition and practice are so important for our minds.

A fascinating example of neuroplasticity has been the famous London Taxi Driver Study. To get a license in London, taxi drivers spend years memorising thousands of streets. Scans showed that their hippocampus, the area of the brain used for spatial memory, physically grew larger the more time they spent practising and repeating those routes.

@emonthebrain One of the best times to reprogram your mind is first thing in the morning because your brain’s neuroplasticity (its ability to rewire) is naturally high at this time. I’ve been starting my mornings with OSEA’s Ocean Cleanser, and it’s become more than just skincare—it’s an intentional act of self-love. Taking time for yourself is so much more than a beauty routine—it’s a way to wire your brain for love, confidence, and belief in yourself. 💫 Here’s your reminder to make YOU a priority every day. #OSEAwaves #oseapartner ♬ original sound – emily | neuroscientist 🧠

But you don’t need to become a London taxi driver to experience neuroplasticity. It can be achieved through tasks such as learning a new skill, brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand or completing a puzzle. Experts also suggest that exercise, sleep and novelty help support the brain’s adaptability.

I think neuroplasticity is really resonating with people at the moment in an era of doomscrolling, ‘brain rot’ and burnout. As attention spans continue to shorten, many people are looking for ways to pull themselves out of this mentally exhausted state. That’s the beautiful thing about neuroplasticity: our brains still have room to grow and there is also hope that we can change as we age and it’s never too late to learn a new language, retrain, socialise or pick up a hobby. For many people, improving neuroplasticity has become a kind of gamified journey of self-growth.

However, the rise of wellness culture online can also be overwhelming due to constant pressure to “optimise” your brain in order to be busy and productive. In a world where your life consists of working, eating and sleeping, there has been an evolution into a hyper productive culture where users can often feel like failures for not constantly improving themselves.

This overwhelming productivity culture pushes a “hustle” mentality, blending self-improvement with an often obsessive and performative approach to success. This can happen when social media forces individuals to treat their personal lives as projects requiring constant optimisation. This often manifests online through trends like ‘That Girl’, where highly aesthetic routines turn self-improvement into a performance rather than a healthy practice, in an era where people have transformed healing and wellness into content.

At the same time, consuming wellness content online isn’t entirely negative. For many people, it offers an alternative to doomscrolling and rage-driven content, replacing passive consumption with a more reflective mindset. Wellness videos can act as a short-term “mindset reset”. If your brain is hooked on constant stimulation, content feeding it rage or gossip just worsens the issue. Wellness content redirects that constant stimulation towards something more constructive.

Something useful that we’ve learnt about neuroplasticity however, is that we are not confined to our current ability. Our habits are shaped by what we repeatedly consume and what we choose to pay attention to holds far more power than we think. In a world constantly competing for our attention, neuroplasticity reminds us that what we repeatedly return to, both online and offline, quietly becomes part of who we are.

Words by Katie Walsh