Being in my right mind

Last night I finished reading My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. It seems that this woman who had spent her professional life as a neuroanatomist had a stroke that destroyed the functions of the left hemisphere of her brain. Besides being really lucky she was able to get help (she was transported into a state of bliss where she felt everything was perfect just as it was and she couldn't remember words or numbers like 9-1-1), she recovered and wrote a book about her experience.

Fascinating, especially after my most recent ruminations about what remembering and knowing really are. In fact, it was while getting a massage that I mentioned to my therapist about memory and how the brain works, and she told me she was reading this book, which I went right out (afterwards, that is) and bought it.

Taylor really demonstrated to me how necessary both parts of our brain are, and how our brain communicates between the hemispheres. At first, I was all "well, the right brain is where it's at" until I realized this:

One of the most prominent characteristics of our left brain is its ability to weave stories. ... It functions by taking whatever details it has to work with, then weaves them together in the form of a story. Most impressively, our left brain is brilliant in its ability to make stuff up, and fill in the blanks when there are gaps in its factual data (p. 143).

Oh, well, then: if I want to write and create, I need both hemispheres! Dang! Just when I was getting used to thinking I would spend my time cultivating my right brain centers so I could become a creative writer. She mentions, in the chapter entitled Tending the Garden, that "how we choose to be today is not predetermined by how we were yesterday." We can choose to change, grow, evolve, based on our intentions.

Okay, that's where I will focus my day today: seeing my body and my mind as malleable, changeable, and help to evolve the planet, one step at a time, into a more peaceful and loving place. I can do/be that!