Moments of great invention often happen “by accident.” But is it an accident? I think they are moments of wonderful communication between the two hemispheres. The moments of thinking outside the box are also such moments.
When you engage in activities, listen carefully. Take time out. The HeartMark is the gesture that allows you to take a minute to breathe and then be mindful of your inner rhythms and thoughts. Take a minute to listen to the communication between the right and left hemisphere. A mature communication allows both sides to be the best that they can be.
The strength of any one hemisphere is not so important as much as the ability of the two hemispheres to communicate. If you are a brilliant artist, but you cannot articulate your art or you cannot run your business, then your hemispheres are not communicating properly. If you are a brilliant mathematician, but you lack the ability to relate to people, then you could use lessons in connecting your hemispheres.
The corpus collosum is the highway that helps the two hemispheres communicate. You can help your corpus collusum with practice.
People who are dominant in one side and try to engage in activities to enhance the other side will not be very successful unless the activities follow specific guidelines that enhance the communication of the hemispheres.
How often do you find yourself saying, “oh, I’m really bad at art?” How often do you shrink away in advance before attempting to solve a problem because you think it might involve some math? When was the last time that you stopped to listen to these hemispheric criticisms? They are caused by one side criticizing the other. What should you do about these criticisms?
If you take time out to listen to the conversation between your hemispheres, than you will be able to nurture each side’s needs. You will grow more mature and whole as a human being. You will develop in areas that you didn’t expect. You will gain new insights as a result, connect more thoughts, and gain new insights once again. You will feel enlightened.
You have to be an active listener. And you have to participate in the conversation. For example: If your left brain is criticizing your right, then you should understand the left brain. It is doing its job. It is expressing itself. Now see if the left can see the benefit of what the right is doing. Now let the right brain continue. To put this in familiar words, you may be hearing this in your head:
“Why did this doodle come out so lame? It doesn’t look real. Why can’t I ever draw anything that looks realistic?”
Your left brain wants something that makes sense. It wants a very logical drawing. But your right brain just wants to have fun, to be free of the left brain. If you hear your brain saying this, then tell your left brain thank you for hoping for something realistic. Then let the left brain come out with a great reason for the illustration that came out. I am sure the logical brain can explain the illustration in a positive light. It might say–the right brain needed some exploration. Or it might say, “I am sleepy and this is relaxing.” Either way, the left then gives the right the opportunity to continue. Your doodle may be half realistic, 1/10th realistic, ..whatever it is is what it should be. Whatever it is, it is a reflection of what your entire body needs at the moment. There is a good positive reason for it. Embrace it.
This simple exercise is just an excerpt of many that are required to reach full maturity. If you continue, your right and left will both function really well like professional tango dancers who know each other’s needs. You will have confidence to know when to start and stop each side. Your right and left will work optimally, balance each other, and know themselves. They’ll know not to go too far… They will be supportive of each other. They will enhance each other. Both will feel very satisfied and fulfilled.
It is important to improve the communication between the hemispheres for many reasons. I can only introduce this topic here.
If you are the boss, you will want your employees to take classes that encourage this Hemispheric Harmony. This will improve the quality of their work.
If I may indulge the right side for a minute, I feel the urge to say that I wrote this blog with 4 people disrupting me without end, making it very tough to hear the conversation in my head. It’s been painfully talked over. It’s probably not my best work. My left brain says that I should erase such a comment and come back and simply edit this blog at a quiet time. However, for the time being, both hemispheres have made peace with my current tendency to go with the flow. I do have hemispheric balance. A few years ago, I would not have allowed such impulsiveness, and rightfully so, because the two sides were not quite as developed. I was mature by standard measures. However, as an artist, I was probably not ripe. The left always won. Today, the hemispheres are at peace. Nah. Actually, I’m still embarrassed about posting this. How about I’ll just edit it as soon as the kids are out of the way?
Well, I proof read. The only part that sounds out of “balance” is the last paragraph. I would normally edit it out. It doesn’t belong. I permit editing out. So pretend that I did. But you wouldn’t know and learn about if I erase all this, so it’s going to stay. My hemispheres were probably under stress from all the noise in the room. I was managing well until the point that I wrote it. Having some quiet time is healthy and necessary even for the best intentioned parent.
No comments yet.