January 20, 2014

When Two Sides Collide...Mayhem Follows

The other day I was reading about the intricacies of the human brain; you know the left and right brain phenomena that dictate just the kind of person that you are or how you process information.  I’ve always believed myself to be in the right frame of mind and turns out that is exactly where I am. It’s fascinating stuff, or data I should say.

Julie Zuehlke, Ph.D., writes in her book “Words For Sale”, that the brain isn’t one piece with organized pockets of information available at will.  The left brain and right brain, she says, do separate things and at times can even interfere with each other.

Well that explains everything to me.  How many times have you found yourself arguing with yourself about something?  Or doing something that seems completely against your “better judgment”?  That is merely your two brain hemispheres conflicting with one other.  It’s enough of a storm to produce a whopper of a headache at times I should think.

But anyway, the psychologist goes on to say that the left brain, or the verbal side, is the talkative sort that provides factual and technical information.

The right brain, on the other hand, is the creative side.  It’s what allows us to have originality and creativity.  It’s where all the ideas are hatched and stored.

But in order to function as a whole, the brain needs a left and right side working in tandem.  While the left brain applies logic, stores details and accumulates facts, the right side makes sense of all of that information and allows us to express individuality and find new ways of look at things.

So now I think I understand it.  I know why I can get emerged in a project that I lose track of time and space completely.  And why I tend to drown in mire when faced with factual data. It’s good to know there’s scientific backing to help explain this situation.

Bottom line is we need both types of thinkers:  left and right.  And all I can strive for is to quell those arguments inside my own brain when right and left sides collide.