Remember “The Odd Couple”? Felix Unger was a neat, organized, rather gloomy Gus who shared his apartment with Oscar Madison — a happy-go-lucky, fun-loving mess. Well, these two personalities exist in all of us, and it’s due to our innate physiology. Jill Bolte Taylor learned this first-hand as she recovered from a hemorrhage in the left side of her brain. As an expert in brain physiology, she was fascinated at the experience of living nearly full-time in her right brain as her left brain was literally “re-activated” piece by piece over the next eight years. This is the story she relates in her book, “My Stroke of Insight”.
At first, Jill thought her story would be useful only to stroke victims, helping them to recover lost abilities with a roadmap to follow. But she soon realized that the real lesson is that we ALL have the ability to change our minds, literally. Neurons that are ignored (i.e. not stimulated regularly) will eventually die or acquire a new role. By being consistent in what we allow our mind to think about, we slowly change the way we process our sensory inputs and our emotions. We can actually “re-wire” the connections in our brains to make it respond the way that we want.
As you have probably heard, our brain (cerebral cortex) is composed of two distinct hemispheres — the left and the right. Although many have discussed the differences in the ways our two hemispheres process information, Jill discovered for herself the differences in the personalities of the two sides. The left brain is the site of our ego and, for most people, the majority of our identity. Being the site of language and communication with the outer world, the left tracks changes over time and plans our future while re-playing our past. The left can process many details simultaneously and works at a fast pace. Like Felix Unger, it is very organized and practical.
The right brain is the site of our sense of peace and joy; it makes us aware of our intimate connection with all that is. It is more in touch with our body and our emotions and is only concerned with the present moment. It operates at the pace of our body rhythms — our heart rates and our breathing. Some people have labeled it our “higher consciousness” or our “heart consciousness”. Like Oscar Madison, it is fun-loving and not concerned about tomorrow.
Einstein said, “I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.” Jill Taylor was able to become who she wanted to be because she was forced by her stroke to give up what she was. After her recovery, she was grateful for this opportunity. She summarizes our own opportunity: “I learned the hard way that my ability to be in the world is completely dependent on the integrity of my neurocircuitry. Cell by beautiful cell, circuit by neurocircuit, the consciousness I experience within my brain is the collective awareness established by those marvelous little entities as they weave together the web I call my mind. Thanks to their neural plasticity, their ability to shift and change their connections with other cells, you and I walk the earth with the ability to be flexible in our thinking, adaptable to our environment, and capable of choosing who and how we want to be in the world. Fortunately, how we choose to be today is not predetermined by how we were yesterday.”
This book is a wonderful story of how our brain physiology develops and the choices we have to make this marvelous organ work to make our lives an abundant and joyful experience. When the ancient sage said to “Know Yourself”, I think understanding how your brain works is what he meant. Reading this book is an excellent start.