Why most people lose what time abroad gave them

And I know why most people lose what time abroad gave them. I almost did too.

I left Amsterdam for seven months and used Madrid to run the most fun experiment I ever ran on my own brain. New beliefs. New habits. New filters. New people. I was on a high for months.

Then I came home.

And the moment I stepped out of the car, I felt it. My Default Mode Network firing up again. The same one that almost kept me from leaving seven months earlier. Only now it wanted the opposite. To pull me back into the version of me I had outgrown.

Your brain has a model of who you used to be. And it does everything it can to install that version back into you.

But this time, I was prepared. With another idea from behavioural science: the Habit Discontinuity Hypothesis. Bas Verplanken's research shows that big environmental shifts break the automatic link between old cues and old behaviour. Seven months away counts. There appears to be a window after a big change where new habits take hold more readily.

So I challenged my old patterns. I did the work without waiting for motivation, knowing it would be easier than it felt. One week in, I already felt a Madrid and Amsterdam integration. My updated self-concept showing up in how I choose, how I speak, how I move through this city.

This is what neuroplasticity means. Your old pathways do not die. The new ones just get stronger. And you get to choose which ones run the show.

The versions of you that grew abroad do not disappear when you return home. They wait to see if you will keep showing up for them.