Your Hidden Superpower for Making New Year’s Resolutions Stick
The nervous system’s role in habit change and adaptability
A new year comes with new goals and new challenges.
We love that for you.
And your brain loves it even more!
Your nervous system thrives on novelty.
New input, new patterns, and new information give the brain what it needs to rewire, adapt, and grow.
This is how the brain is built.
So… if change is so good for the brain—why does it feel so hard?
It’s Not You… It’s Your Nervous System
Left alone, the nervous system defaults to what it already knows. Not because it’s lazy, but because repetition is efficient.
Without fresh input, the brain preserves existing patterns—even when those patterns aren’t serving you.
This is why change can feel frustratingly difficult, even when you really want it.
Think about how difficult it can feel to update your routine, even in simple ways, like taking a supplement at a certain time or waking up 30 minutes earlier.
This isn’t so much a motivation problem as it is a nervous system pattern.
Novel Year, Novel Stimuli
You can want change all day long, but without the right neural input, the system resists it.
Fresh neural input encourages new connections.
New connections support new behaviors, habits, and healing patterns.
Willpower can start change.
Biology is what sustains it.
Fuel for Transformation
Movement and sensory input from the spine are some of the richest sources of information the brain receives.
Your brain is constantly listening to your body, and your spine is one of its loudest messengers.
So while your adjustment may feel like part of your routine, neurologically it’s the opposite. Each adjustment provides fresh input—a novel stimulus that interrupts old patterns and feeds the brain information it hasn’t processed before.
That interruption is how the nervous system avoids getting stuck in repetition. Instead, the brain is invited to update, adapt, and grow.
Regular care isn’t “maintenance.”
It’s fuel for transformation.
Fresh neural input → new neural connections→ new behaviors, habits, and healing patterns
Fresh neural input → new neural connections→ new behaviors, habits, and healing patterns
Your brain needs the right environment to support the change you’re trying to create.
Adjustments create that environment.
When you get adjusted, think about it like this:
You’re fueling your brain with fresh information so the rest of your life gets easier to change.
You’re actively building neurological momentum—not just hoping for it.
With chiropractic, it’s new year, new nervous system.
What will you do with it?
The Neuroscience Behind This:
Kleim JA, Jones TA.
Principles of experience-dependent neural plasticity: implications for rehabilitation after brain damage.
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 2008.
Nithianantharajah J, Hannan AJ.
Enriched environments, experience-dependent plasticity and disorders of the nervous system.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2006.
Shumway-Cook A, Woollacott MH.
Motor Control: Translating Research into Clinical Practice.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Graziano MS.
The organization of behavioral repertoire in motor cortex.
Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2006.
Haavik H, Murphy B.
The role of spinal manipulation in addressing disordered sensorimotor integration and altered motor control.
Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology. 2012.
Lelic D et al.
Spinal manipulation alters central processing of dual somatosensory input.
Journal of Neurophysiology. 2016.
Haavik H et al.
Chiropractic spinal manipulation impacts brain function: a systematic review.
Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology. 2017.