Taking a New Road

I'm pretty sure Robert Frost didn't intend his well-cited poem, "The Road Not Taken,"  as a scientific metaphor for how brains work. But that is exactly how I see it. Each thought in the form of an electrical charge races down well-traveled, well-connected pathways known as neural networks. Now I know for sure I didn't start out life with all these established paths in my head. But, as with all people,  repeated experiences caused brain connections to become well-worn and permanently etched into my brain.  Frost writes about coming to a fork in a wooded road and trying to choose between going down the same road as always--one that is well-tramped-down by those who've gone before him, visibly free of obstacles, and seemingly preferred. Or, taking the first step on another road which appears untraveled and unexplored.

Cognitively speaking, the less familiar roads are the ones I'm choosing to take these days, thanks to a form of psychotherapy called "Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)." As a matter of fact, I've been standing at a lot of new mental crossroads for the past year. A lot. Sometimes I wonder if I really have the guts to pull up yet another set of stakes in an old neural neighborhood where judgment, negativity, and distress hang out and move a few synapses over to forge new paths leading to more a more joyful, accepting, and peaceful place.  But I take heart in my conclusion that with 100 billion brain cells in my head, surely I have not run out of possibilities to connect thoughts in new ways and, once and for all, turn right instead of left and move on from lifelong thought patterns.

I'm not a therapist. I was an English major in college, as you might have guessed from the opening literary reference. So all the usual and customary disclaimers apply here: I do not give advice nor do I offer professional guidance on this site. I'm simply providing a glimpse of my personal experiences and journey with DBT. I like to journal and report, so you can expect regular updates.