If you have been anywhere near me in the last couple of weeks, you have heard me talk/freak out/obsess over my latest read.
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD has me completely and totally in awe. If you haven’t yet read it, it’s the harrowing account of Dr. Taylor, a Harvard-trained Brain scientist/Neuroanatomist, who at the young age of 37 has a complete brain hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain; a stroke.
Because this is her life’s work, she not only recounts the story from the inside out but she can make meaning of her experience in a very nuanced and specific way and holy cow, I was riveted!
Essentially, in the course of 4 hours one morning, she observed as the left hemisphere of her brain went offline. Thankfully, she survived and even though I was reading the book SHE wrote, I still found myself gripped at every turn!
The left hemisphere of our brains is home to language, talking, motor skills, linear and sequential thinking, our sense of past and future, our egos or our “I AM” sensibility – basically, how we relate to the external world. Once that went offline, she was left with only the direction of her right hemisphere. Here lives energy, compassion, big picture sensibilities, presence, consciousness, WE, bliss.
Of all the captivating moments in this book and why I find it so compelling in my own life, my work with my clients and desperately wanting to share it with you is her understanding and response to how she healed . . . and in her words, after 8 years of recovery, is now better than ever.
Through her injury, she could only operate from her right hemisphere so her healing was completely dependent upon energy, of which she was extremely highly attuned. When the energy coming toward her was abrupt, abrasive, cold, clinical and inattentive, she would retreat and her healing would slow or cease entirely. That meant when harried doctors would come in and poke and prod, when they used loud voices, when the lights were bright, when they talked over and around her, and when they didn’t believe in her recovery, she would recoil.
BUT, when she was met with warmth, tenderness, hope, softness, belief, presence and the like, she began to surface again. Safeguarding herself and surrounding herself with this energy was how she healed.
She can talk about this as only a neuroanatomist could, and through the lens of biology and anatomy and it is truly fascinating. Most of us likely do not have her specialized knowledge in this field yet what Dr. Taylor is putting into concept is something I think we can all sense intuitively: Compassion matters.
We live in a left-hemisphere dominated culture. Our daily lives and our experience of the world in which we live are often busy, harried and frenetic. According to our left hemispheres, this is how we think we need to be in order to survive . . . and certainly to succeed.
We tend to override our own intuition and our perception of the energy around us and certainly and most importantly, within us. And when we direct that same frenetic and harsh energy inward; when we become frustrated with ourselves, impatient, short-tempered, and lack belief or hope in our own abilities, it actually impedes the inner peace and healing we all desire. And really, don’t we all want to thrive, not just survive?
As Dr. Taylor says, “My left brain is doing the best job it can with the information it has to work with. I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know.”
When you find yourself frustrated, lacking belief and hope, impatient and looking to external cues for direction, know that you are relying on the left hemisphere of your brain and while it is necessary to operate at times, leaning into your right hemisphere, the home to compassion and your soul is where you actually flourish.
In a nutshell, love on yourself – you’ll get much farther ♥️
From me to you by way of the inspiring Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor with so much love for us all.