The last six months, I've gotten Oprah magazines because of some random free offer. This month there was an interesting article about how to awaken the side of the brain that is not used often.
So in an effort to shake my brain I wrote an entire letter backwards to a friend. After the first few sentences it was pretty easy. The recipient, in order to read the letter, will have to hold it up to the mirror. Sounds like fun huh?
Here are quotes from that article (i actually ended up copying most of it because I thought it was good)...
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Read on and maybe you will be inspired.
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"...Historically, most brain science came from studying people whose brains had been damaged. Depending on the injury's location, these patients had varying disabilities: If you lost one brain section, you might be unable to do long division; wipe out another patch, and your lace-tatting days were over. The famous Phineas Gage had an iron rod rammed all the way through his head, permanently losing the ability to be nice. One can hardly blame him.
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People with left-hemisphere brain injuries may have trouble thinking analytically or making rational decisions. Many with damage to the right hemisphere, on the other hand, can stil pass their SATs but become unable to connect parts into a meaningful whole. Oliver Sacks wrote about such a patient in 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.'. This gentleman saw perfectly but could identify what he saw only by guessing. If you showed him a rose, he might say' "Well, it's red on top, green and prickly below, and it smells nice....Is it a flower?" One day, while looking for his hat to put on, he reached for his wife instead, perhaps thinking: It is familiar, and it goes with me everywhere....Is it my hat? I'm sure this was awful for his poor wife, though it could have been worse (Well, it's the size of a small house and it needs cleaning....Is it my garage?)
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In his book 'The Talent Code' Daniel Coyle describes how the brain reacts when a person develops a new skill. Performing an action involves firing an electrical signal through a neural pathway; each time this happens, it thickens the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve fibers like the rubber coating on electrical wires. The thicker the myelin sheath around a neural pathway, the more easily and effectively we use it. Heavily myelinated pathways equal mad skills.
Throughout your education, you myelinated the left-brain pathways for thinking logically. You were prepared for predictability and order, not today's constant flood of innovation and change. Now you need to build up myelin sheaths around new skill circuits, located in your right hemisphere. To do this, you need something Coyle calls deep practice.
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Deep practice is the same no matter what the skill. First visualize an ability you'd like to acquire-swimming like Dara Torres, painting like Grandma Moses, handling iron rods like Uncle Phineas. The try to replicate that behavior. Initially, you'll fail. That's good; failure is an essential element of deep practice. Next analyze your errors, noting exactly where your performance didn't match your ideal. Now try again. You'll still probably fail (remember that is a good thing), but in Samuel Beckett's words, you'll "fail better".
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Examples of people engaged in deep practice are everywhere. Think of American Idol contestants improving their singing, or Tiger Woods perfecting his gold swing. I once saw a television interviewer present Toni Morrison with the original manuscript of one of her masterpieces. Morrison became slightly distracted, running critical eyes across the page, wanting to make changes. She clearly can't stop deep practicing. That is why she won the Nobel Prize.
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Here are some tricks you can deep practice to buff up your right hemisphere.
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#1. Sign your name every which way.
Here is one exercise. Sign your name. Done?
Okay, now things get gnarly sign again, but this time' do it in mirror writing-right to left, rather than left to right (just moving your hand backward fires the right brain hemisphere). Got that? Now sign upside down. Repeat this until you can sign in all directions. Good luck"...
So in an effort to shake my brain I wrote an entire letter backwards to a friend. After the first few sentences it was pretty easy. The recipient, in order to read the letter, will have to hold it up to the mirror. Sounds like fun huh?
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"...#2. Have a bilateral conversation.
For this exercise, take a pencil in your right hand (even if you're left handed) and write the question: "How's it going?" The switch to your left hand, and write whatever pops up. Your nondominant hand's writing will be shaky-that's okay. The important thing isn't tidiness: it's noticing that your twin hemispheres have different personalities.
The right side of the brain, which controls the left hand, will say things you don't know that you know. It serializes in assessing your physical and mental feelings, and it often offers solutions. "Take a nap," your right hemisphere might say' or "Just do what feels right; we'll be fine." You'll find there's a little Zen master in that left hand of yours (not surprisingly left-handed people are disproportionately represented in creative professions).
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#3. Learn new moves.
You need your right hemisphere to move in an unfamiliar way, whether you're learning a complicated dance step or holding a new yoga posture.
Try this: Walk a few steps, noticing how your arms swing opposite your legs. Now walk with your right arm and right foot going forward simultaneously, then the left hand and left foot. Is this difficult? No? Then do it backward, with your eyes closed-any variation that's initially hard but ultimately learnable. You'll master a new skill, sure; more important, you'll build your overall right brain facility.
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#3. Toss in the kitchen sink.
Time to push your newly awakened right hemisphere into useful service. Think of a problem that's had you stumped for a while; your preschooler won't nap, you can't make yourself exercise, you need to cut expenses without sacrificing quality of life. With this challenge in your mind, read a few paragraphs in several totally unrelated books. Then relax. Play with your cat, wash the dishes, watch the neighbors through binoculars. Think of the problem periodically, then drop it again.
This process encourages eureka epiphanies, like those moments in TV dramas where the brilliant doctor or sleuth gets the "ping" of insight that solves the case. Your first few ideas may not be perfect-many will be awful-but there are more where they came from. Once you begin encouraging the right brain to churn out solutions, it will do so more and more abundantly...
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...Turning on your right bran is a skill, one that grows steadily stronger the more you work at it. Trigger the sensation of deep practice by mastering any unfamiliar task, feed challenges and stray information into your brain's database, and see new ideas begin to emerge. As they do, you'll move more confidently and productively through an increasing complex world. When I see you out rollerblading, eyes locked in a vacant yet squinty stare, I'll know you're getting the hang of it."
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