The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
My sponsor sent me this link. It's a woman who's a neuro-surgeon or something who actually experienced a stroke and she speaks about her experience and what happened to her when there became a certain separation between her right brain and her left.
It's long - have about 19 minutes to sit and listen, but it's pretty interesting.
My sponsor and I see eye-to-eye on a lot of these sort of things, this is why she felt comfortable sharing it with me.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
I recommend watching it first before reading my following comments - My comments will make more sense that way. ;)
I wrote the following back to my sponsor after watching the clip:
Wow - that was pretty great. I love a lot of the things she said. I laughed when she talked about releasing 37 years of emotional baggage.
It's definitely something to strive towards - living in the right hemisphere.
Being a creative type, I'd like to think I use the right side of my brain more than most would. Especially when I was younger, I think I practically lived in the right side of my brain - always imagining things, absorbing imaginative stuff, creating imaginative stuff.
Since adulthood, though, I've found I've started shifting more towards that left analytical side of my brain.
I wonder if a great deal of us as children lived mostly in the right-hand side of our brains - maybe why a lot of us had fond memories about childhood and as adults wish we had that again right now.
I'm blessed in that I didn't live with active alcoholics through the majority of my childhood, so I was allowed to stay in that right-hand "la la" land she spoke of for quite a long time.
I think a lot of children who grew up with active alcoholics around were tragically forced into that left portion of the brain and forced to start becoming analytical for their own self-preservation.
I'd love to pinpoint in my life where my left-side started taking over my right-side.
My left-side goes on overdrive all too often, now, and my right side kind of sits there like the neglected child waiting for the self-centered adult to stop watching the news and come paint watercolors with them.
I see each side of the brain has a purpose. But I think many of us as we get older start to allow that left side to take over more often than our right. You rarely see adults walking along a sidewalk and then see them start skipping along and grabbing a light post and swinging around it for the sheer pleasure of it. Ohhh no - our left-side tells us "there's no purpose to doing that. you'll look foolish. cease and desist this instant. you could fall and hurt yourself."
Baaah!
No wonder Peter Pan never wanted to grow up.
I have these books called "The Artists Way", and I'm seriously thinking of picking them back up again and starting over with them. They're all about filling our creative wells and nurturing that right-hand side of the brain so we can be free to create without worry.
They're almost a 12 Step program in themselves. I dropped my reading with them over the holiday season, though, and hadn't picked them back up. It's a shame, too, because I was really starting to grab a hold of my really, REALLY creative self again and drift back into that wonderful "la la" land.
Yep, I'm all for nurturing that right-side of my brain. If anything for the reprieve it gives me from my left-brain chatter. Wish there were a button to push, but like you said, it's likely all a bunch of re-learning and re-mapping the paths my neurons take in my head. Can only do that through practice - practice, practice, practice.
WOW! That was an extremely interesting post! We all could use the directional advice of 'lala Land' more than we consciously choose to. Thanks for sharing!
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.
thanks, that was a great site and a moving talk. i am trying to think of when i am using my right brain when i'm using my left. I think that people who use right brain are seen as slackers, immature, overly carefree etc. in our society because we are so constantly drilled about responsibility and RULES>>> So many many rules.
We are told regularly work hard, be responsible, be on time, do it this way, etc. Not much emphasis on have fun, be creative, etc. Even in schools they cut PE, music, art for left brain activities and it is forced upon us from the beginning.
I would rather be seen as a "slacker" and have a life that allows me to spend time with my kids, go to the beach, watch movies, etc. etc. I put a lot of thought into that after I first left my A. I was going back to school to learn to do something that paid more money and in the process realized that I don't need that much more money, what I need is to spend time with my kids, have time to myself, connect with others. I really liked the idea of the universal community, that we are all one as brothers and sisters of the human race. I wish I could grow that connection.
I had little bit of different take on the video--I thought that the speaker was going to take us down a different road. I expected to hear that perhaps those who abuse are chemically trying to get to that right brain. Which could be true. Like Aloha says, who wouldn't want to be Peter Pan? And maybe A's need the chemical to take them there because they don't know how to tap into it without help....
I also picked up that it was a life changing event, as is often the case for anyone who survives a catastrophic illness or accident. The joy of living, being glad to be alive. The realigning of priorities... Seeing things a bit clearer.
