Do you know if you are right brained or left brained?
Have you ever sat there and thought about how you see the world, and perhaps how other people can be very different in the world than you...?
Do you find yourself often daydreaming that you lose track of time... or do you often find yourself obsessing over the details in life?
These are just a few differences between right brain and left brain characteristics. Do you ever find that you are just not on the same page as someone else? They are completely driving you nuts. It can be so frustrating! Why can't they just do it your way or see what you are getting at or understand what you are saying?
Chances are that other person is operating from a very different place than you are and they see the world differently. There is no right or wrong. It is just simply how it is. The more we understand about ourselves and how we operate in the world, allows us to gain a greater understanding of others and have compassions towards how they operate in this world too! After all, communication is not about us and how we operate, and what we think but so much more.
So understanding the left brain and right brain characteristics is in important step to understanding ourselves a little bit deeper and other people as well. After all, if you are left brained, then you wouldn't innately understand how a right brained person operates would you? So it's time to learn...
As you go through these lists, keep in mind that most people are a combination of varying degrees of left and right brain dominance.
LEFT BRAIN
Verbal, linguistic, focus on words, symbols, numbers
Analytical, led by logic
Process ideas sequentially
Uses words rather than mind photos
Remembers names rather than faces
Detail-oriented, highly organized
Follows rules without questioning
Good at keeping track of time
Strong at spelling and math
Enjoy observing
Plan ahead
Likely to read instructions before trying
Listen to “what” is being said
Rarely use gestures when talking
Believed to not be naturally creative
RIGHT BRAIN
Visual, focus on images, patterns
Intuitive, emotional
Process ideas simultaneously
Remember faces than names
Spatial - sees the whole picture first then the details
Can be disorganized
Operates through reasoning, needs to know why
No sense of time
May struggle with expression through words and spelling
Kinesthetic - feelers
Trouble prioritizing = often late
Unlikely to read instructions before trying
Listen to “how” something is being said
Talks with hands
Naturally creative
Interested in finding out your dominant hemisphere? Take this short quiz
An interesting fact is that although researchers have scanned thousands of brains from poets to mathematicians in an effort to show some scientific difference between the left brained people and the right brained, time and time again, similar brain activity is shown in both hemispheres in even the most opposite of thinkers. This leads me to question... is left brained vs right brained a physical characteristic that can be measured? Or could it be something deeper? Does it go beyond the left and right brain? Maybe it's more of a divide between the conscious and subconscious rather than the physical left and right brain? After all, the defining characteristics of a left brained person are quite similar to someone who is operating in a conscious beta wavelength state, whereas a right brained person when operating out of their "right brain" is more aligned with someone who has dipped down into the alpha and theta states, (Read more about Brain wave states) otherwise known as the subconscious.
Furthermore, the right brain is the first to develop and is the means through which mothers are able to communicate to the fetus. The subconscious is also the first to develop and up until the age of 2-3 years old kids operate fully in a subconscious state. Apparently the left brain isn't developed until later when kids start to understand language and learn how to speak... again which is around the age that the conscious mind begins to form.
So by now maybe you have gained some insight into yourself, whether, you are more right brained or more left brained or even balanced, or maybe you have gained some insight insight into others around you.... And maybe you are happy with your results, but maybe you have found out that you are way to dominant on one side or the other and would like to be more balanced between your right and left hemispheres. Don't worry all is not lost, anyone can find more balance! Woohoo!
You can work to train your brain to have more balance... as if both sides could work together in harmony, adjusting as appropriate and guiding you as necessary. Just as if you were left handed you could learn to play sports with your right. And when we operate from a more balanced state between the left and right brain, we are able to gain more clarity and perspective in life, express ourselves more fully, understand others more completely, and live a more balanced life.
Ways to balance right brain dominance:
1. Become more analytical and sharp through planning and writing. Make those posts and tweets work for you and for developing your grammar and spelling. Or invite your friends over for a good ol game of scrabble (my fave!).
2. Logic activities such as sudoku, crosswords, math quizzes or chess.
3. Create systems. Write lists, make plans, use a diary.
4. Learn something new such as a language, skill or activity
5. Read, read and read some more.
Ways to balance left brain dominance:
1. Develop photographic memory through astute observation. Take a few minutes to take in all the details around you, then close your eyes and picture it in your mind. Repeat as often as you can, until you get a detailed image, or feeling or sensation, then move onto the next.
2. Unlock your creativity - drawing, doodling, and memory games.
3. Take up the arts - dance, act, sing, move your body creatively. No one needs to watch. It doesn't need to look pretty, just put on your favorite tunes and shake what your mama gave ya!
4. Visualize a strategy and then implement it. You want a nicer house, car, job promotion? Lay with your eyes closed and think it, feel it, visualize it, create it in your minds eye. If you keep it up, you might just be surprised when it actually happens.
Ways to balance both the right and left hemisphere:
1. Juggling! Need both hemispheres working together for this one.
2. Use your opposite hand for various tasks throughout the day, such as writing, opening a jar, brushing your teeth, etc.
As always I hope you find this post insightful. And I wish you the best in all your brain balancing endeavours.
References
Hypnotherapy Training Student Manual by the Horizon Centre School of Hypnotherapy, Left and Right Brain p. 38
Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, Right brain/left brain, right? https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/right-brainleft-brain-right-2017082512222
E Times, Tricks to activate both sides of the brain. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/Tricks-to-activate-both-sides-of-brain/articleshow/13441531.cms
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