Jumpline MAG_Sum_Fall 2025 - Flipbook - Page 38
38
Rewiring Your Neural Pathways
If you’ve been reading the Jumpline, you know
I’m always bellyaching about the loss of
my handsome son. I worked hard to get
out of the grief pit. That type of loss
wasn’t supposed to happen to me
(well, it happened to him, but I’m
the one bellyaching ‘cause he’s
not here to do it).
I didn’t think I would get better.
Cliff told me it gets easier, just
hold on. I never forgot those words,
Rewiring
Your Neur al
Pathways So
the Groove Is
Routed To A
Happy Place
even though at the time, I didn’t think
it was true, but he had already traveled
to the mind space I was in. I worked hard to improve
and get to the place that other grievers were in: a good
place and a mindset that maximizes family and friendships.
Jack Swerdloff, Ret.
Big changes such as diet, spirituality, and
devotion to family are all examples
rewiring. Of course, addiction and bad
pathways can be created too, but science says that habits and dark places
are neural pathways, and history has
proven they can be rewired. Work
hard! Focus on the good! Maximize!
(www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.
htm)
Try to worry about maximizing!
Per the CDC website: Humans have
got 78.4 years on average to maximize!
Let’s get‘er done!
A big factor in getting it 昀椀gured out was the Your Daughter Can’t
Suffer Twice books I read. A recurring theme was that after
a hard dark event, some people never fully recover. They also
said that your friends and family are also hit by the tragedy, so
why should they lose you too? I get it, but I needed the pain to
go away. So I immersed myself in these survivor stories. I 昀氀ew to
grief camps. I participated in overnight Emmaus groups and retreats. I watched and attended conferences. I read lots of books.
A couple of good ones are shown here.
That combination worked for me! I’m enjoying life. Still occasionally, I get a little heavy, but the DARK place does not show
its ugly face anymore. My neural pathways have been rewired.
The book that particularly helped was The Grieving Brain. According to the author, the pain of loss; of being in a dark place,
is like muscle memory. But you can rewire your brain. Look at
everyone we know that’s created new neural pathways.
According to author Francis O’Connor, the pain of loss, and being in a dark place, is like muscle memory.
You can rewire your brain, and the path of least resistance will 昀氀ow toward your newly created happy places.
Cliff said, “It gets better Jack, just hold on.”
Jack and Cliff Barbic
Summer/Fall 2025 | JUMPLINE Magazine
