Thoughts on Thinking

I recently read a book called My Stroke of Insight about a woman neuroscientist who had a stroke at age 37. She lost most of her functioning of the aspects of her brain that stem from the left side of her brain. That meant that the stuff we usually think of as academic thought and abilities, including speaking and reading, were lost to her. The amazing thing is the book was actually written by the woman who had the stroke.

She regained much of her lost functioning through hard work and retraining her brain to make connections in different ways. The part of her story that intrigued me the most was how she learned to appreciate the functioning of her right hemisphere of her brain. She believes that the right hemisphere contains the abilities of compassion and peace. I could use a little more peacefulness in my life. And, maybe I could use more compassion, too, especially compassion for myself about myself.

The left hemisphere of our brains is responsible for judgment and calculations. I am very good at judging myself, probably too good leaving me without the compassion for myself that I could use to live a happier and less self-critical life. I think I spend much of my waking moments being judgmental and critical of others and myself. I think I’m going to try to spend more time using my right brain by getting in touch with the present moment in time . . . what am I feeling at given moments in time.

One exercise suggested in the book was to just notice sensations in my body. For instance, when a cat is sitting on me, notice the pressure and weight on my lap without judging whether it’s good or bad. It just is. I’m going to try to make conscious decisions to retrain my brain to be more compassionate toward myself. I can do this by consciously choosing to think happy thoughts and not dwell on negative thoughts.

In My Stroke of Insight it talks about certain sensations having a 90-second physiological cause. An example they gave was for anger. There’s a release of chemicals that effects the way I feel for 90-seconds. At the end of that time, I can choose to allow the circuits in my brain continue being angry or I can choose to let the anger go and feel peace and compassion. I think this will take some practice, but I’m going to try.