Right Brain treasure with a Left Brain guard

Perhaps you've heard something about neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, who was uniquely qualified to understand what was happening to her as she suffered a severe stroke. Jill had a dual interest in the brain, one professional, the second personal: her brother is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Jill had long been active in her advocacy for understanding those will brain disorders, and she found it ironic that she used a videotape of herself speaking for the National Association for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) in her eight-year recovery from her stroke. By watching this tape of herself over and over, Jill taught herself how to be herself again, how to speak, how to gesture, beginning with the blank slate of a newborn. She detailed the experience, and the spiritual discernment it brought to her, in her book My Stroke of Insight.

On those days I struggle to creative freely, fearlessly--indeed, on those days I struggle to create at all--I remember Jill Bolte Taylor and what she taught me. I long for some pathway directly into the right side of my brain.

But the left side of my brain stands guard.

I like to imagine that I hear in my own head the conversation between Left Brain and Right Brain, as Jill described it so eloquently. Because Right Brain speaks in images and symbol, and has no language, no grammar or words, I stretch the truth and give her a voice that is barely a breath.

Left Brain says: You don't have time to be creative today. There's work to be done. Things need doing. We've gotta go.

Right Brain, a wisp of fairy dust, a Tinkerbell firefly barely perceived, whispers: Oh, please, come, open ...come with me . . . There are secrets waiting to be revealed, there are parts of you ...

And Left Brain interrupts, with studied authority: Responsibility calls. There's no time today to go into that fog. Important tasks need attention here. We've gotta go.

This dialogue is Saturn squelching Neptune's call. The truth is, they are both right, we need them both. It's tempting to say they are like the little angel and devil in those old cartoons, perched atop my shoulders, whispering in my ears. But they're not. They both serve.

Jung valued both the conscious and the unconscious as necessary to the functioning of the psyche. Again, we have the tension of the opposites, the need to find some balance, some path we can follow which honors both. And, as Jill Bolte Taylor shows us, we must value the very structure of our physical brain and what it offers us. One side holds the memories, the images, the ability to merge with All, and the other is watchful, protective, always planning, always alert and analyzing the data brought in by our sensing organs.

I have discovered that in my case, the Left Brain works overtime insisting on proper Time Management, and this is as deadly to my arting as the Critic we all recognize so well.

Bless her heart, she's only trying to do her job.

Assignment: Spend 18 minutes with Jill Bolte Taylor as she shares her experience. You'll never think of the two sides of your brain in the same way again. You can find it here.