The Dangers Of A Left Hemisphere Dominant Brain

We have become a very left hemisphere (brain) dominant society. That does not mean we have become more rational - just the opposite. In understanding how the two hemispheres of our brain are always involved in the same tasks but in very different ways, we can learn to use both hemispheres of our brain and see the whole picture more clearly.

Transcript

It's something really important that we do need to understand how the two hemispheres of our brain work together and that when they're not working together and as I'm going to help to help us to see that we have become very left hemisphere dominant,

Why this is so dangerous for our society and it's so dangerous for us as individuals and then at the end also bring just some tools out,

Some things that you can do that are really easy,

Really enjoyable to help balance out the two hemispheres of our brain.

So I want to start with the parable from Dr.

Ian Miguel-Crest's book,

The Divided Brain,

The Master and the Emissary.

So it starts out with a spiritual master who is ruling this town and everything is going great in the town.

It's flourishing,

Everything's working,

Everyone's happy but as the town grows the master starts to realize that it would probably be better for him to step back a little bit and have someone come in and do the kind of day-to-day functions and just report back to him what's going on so he can keep that big picture perspective on what's happening.

So he hires an emissary to do the day-to-day tasks and to report back and for a while this is going really well.

Everything is going great in the town,

Everyone's very happy but then after a while the emissary starts thinking,

What do I need the master for?

I'm the one here doing all the work,

I don't need him.

So he stops reporting back to the master,

He does a little coup and he takes over and it doesn't take long before things start falling apart in the town and people start leaving and eventually there's no town left anymore.

So in the parable the master is meant to represent the right hemisphere of our brain because the right hemisphere is very big picture oriented.

It really wants to look and connect all the dots,

It sees things as very fluid and sees how one thing can affect the other things so it has this bigger picture perspective.

And the emissary is representative of the left hemisphere of the brain and it's much more narrowly focused and it's much more kind of manipulative,

Controlling,

Grasping,

Kind of more get your hands dirty,

Kind of getting in there involved.

And so the myth is that the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere,

Or the left hemisphere is about language and the right hemisphere is about creativity.

But the research would tell us that in fact they are both involved in the same task.

It's how they attend to those tasks that's different.

And the example that he uses in the book is when a bird is reaching for,

You know,

They reach out with their talon and they're trying to pick a little piece of seed,

A little piece of food,

They're having to use their left hemisphere to really narrow their focus to be able to differentiate between the pebbles and the rocks and the dirt and to really pick that piece of seed up.

But then the right hemisphere is very much concerned with everything else that's happening to make sure that he doesn't turn into someone's prey.

So the left hemisphere,

Very narrow,

The right hemisphere,

Very big picture.

And with language,

While language,

Speech is in the left hemisphere of our brain,

It's the right hemisphere that gives meaning,

Gives context to language.

It's the right hemisphere that gets the punchline and the joke.

It's the right hemisphere that understands the meaning in poetry.

It's the right hemisphere that understands when your partner through gritted teeth tells you that they're totally fine,

That says,

No,

They're not.

So your right hemisphere gives context and meaning to this,

But we need both hemispheres of the brain to have a complete picture.

And as the warning in the parable goes,

The master understood that he needed the emissary.

He knew that they were both needed,

But the emissary didn't think he needed,

Excuse me,

Didn't think he needed the master.

And as Dr.

Miguel Cress says about the left hemisphere,

It's not just that it doesn't know what it doesn't know.

It doesn't want to know.

The left hemisphere will dig its own grave until it is buried itself.

And this is the danger for us because we can clearly see how we have been manipulating the world,

Trying to control the world,

Trying to grasp and make the world what we want it without any thought for the consequences.

That we extract oil and minerals and metals without any thought for the consequences.

Wipe out forests,

Rainforests,

Nary a thought.

What could this mean for the future?

The toxins all over the crops of the food that we eat,

Without questioning,

Could that possibly be unhealthy for us?

And how we,

With technology,

It's so left hemisphere focused,

Drawing our attention into our little phones,

Our little screens.

I get the irony here,

We're on a screen,

But we're bringing light to this.

And how it brings our attention to social media,

Imagining that this is what our world is now.

Spending time here at the exclusion of real friendships,

Seeing people in person,

Having that connection,

That meaning of having all of our attention on games or our attention on every time we need help with customer service,

We have to dial and is it this,

Is it that?

It's not that,

It's something more nuanced.

Left hemisphere is very black and white.

You've got to fit within this mold.

So frustrating when we have a problem that's very nuanced.

We can't speak to someone.

It's all very left hemisphere drawing our attention in very narrowly.

And in our politics,

We're more divided than ever before.

And on both sides,

With all of the news sources that we have available today,

We both go to our own sides to read news that keeps confirming views that we're already on board with.

Because again,

I don't want to know what the other side is.

I don't want to know the bigger picture.

Left hemisphere is right.

It's very narrow.

So we think that we're acting really rationally.

We think that this is all logical.

But then if we look at the consequences,

The planet is dying.

It's unhealthy at the very least.

Our society is unhealthy.

We are unhealthy physically,

Mentally,

Emotionally.

This is the result of all of our actions of being a left hemisphere dominant society.

And we have believed that we can manipulate and control the world and accumulate enough material wealth to be happy.

And yet we are less happy than generations before us that had less.

And so while it may seem like I am bashing the left hemisphere,

We still need the left hemisphere.

What I'm showing is what happens when the left hemisphere is not held in check,

When it has no parental supervision,

When it becomes the master.

That we need to flip these roles back.

We need the right hemisphere to take its rightful position as the master.

That's better for us.

And all the things that we can do,

They're simple things.

They're easy things.

They're very much aligned with our spiritual path in order to activate the right brain so that we bring more balance into the two hemispheres.

So that we still have the left hemisphere.

We don't want to get rid of it.

We need it.

But we need that bigger picture perspective as well.

So one of the things that we can do is listen to music.

Not a particularly unpleasant thing to do.

Don't listen to music while we're doing the dishes,

While we're cleaning the house,

While we're doing something.

I mean,

You can still do that.

But just sit and listen to music and let the music really come in.

And it opens something inside of us.

It really opens up the world.

Music has the potential to do that.

Dancing also has the potential.

So dancing with music.

I do it all the time.

I've said this for years.

Sue who was coming to my classes years ago down here,

We would always dance before we meditated.

Dancing is a wonderful way to activate the right hemisphere of our brain.

To read poetry.

Another wonderful way to activate the right hemisphere.

And I know for myself,

I used to think for the longest time I didn't like poetry.

Because there's certain poets that I don't quite get.

And that's okay because I have found a lot of poets that I really do get.

And so find the poets that work for you.

Because they say things in a way that language,

Again,

You know,

We have that left hemisphere part of language,

We need the right hemisphere that opens something up that we couldn't say in a straightforward way.

Like poetry is the music of language.

And it really points us right into where we want to go.

So more poetry.

Comedy.

Laugh.

Right?

Sophie knows I love putting on,

I've given her I think a playlist of comedians before.

Just put on some comedy.

Jim Gaffigan,

Nate Barghese,

Like some good fun comedy,

Right?

Just laugh for a while.

Right,

Gets that right hemisphere going.

Meditate.

That gets our right hemisphere going.

Because the left hemisphere,

Right?

Well we said it's language.

It's not all language.

We need the right hemisphere too.

But it's speech.

And it's that chatter.

So we definitely want to quiet that down.

Meditation quiets that down.

Mindfulness quiets that down.

Looking in nature activates the right hemisphere and also does quiet down that chatter.

Looking up activates the right hemisphere.

Looking up at the sky,

Looking up at the stars.

Whenever we're having a problem,

Real or imagined,

Most are imagined,

We are narrowly focusing our attention down.

Right?

Oh my little problem,

My little world.

What's going on?

But when you look up at the sky,

You look up at the stars at night,

It puts everything in perspective.

And that's what the right hemisphere does for us.

It puts things in perspective.

The left hemisphere is,

It just,

You know,

It runs around frantic,

Panicked about the things it shouldn't be frantic and panicked about.

And then ignores the things that it should be frantic and panicked about.

So the more that we can do things to rebalance these parts of our brain,

It's super important.

Asking ourselves the question,

Am I aware?

Talk about opening up,

You know,

Broadening your field of attention,

Your field of awareness.

Right?

Who am I?

Like really opening it up.

So the more that we can open it up,

The better perspective we can have.

We still have the left hemisphere to do the things that we need to do.

We still need to manipulate.

And when I say manipulate the world,

Like we need to do things,

You know,

We need to control,

There's certain things we need to grasp,

There's things we need to do.

Great.

Make sure it's the servant,

Not the master.

Keep the big picture perspective.

Do things to balance it out because our society is so left hemisphere dominant and we cannot deny the fact that what our society,

The influence that it has on us with the different kinds of thoughts,

The energy,

The emotions,

You know,

We,

We just cannot help but let it be come into us.

So the more that we can do things to activate the right hemisphere so that we have balance,

Then this will change our individual responses.

And the way we change the world is through individual responses.

Don't wait for our political leaders.

That's never going to happen.

We've got to do it one person at a time.

You know,

We've got to be the change that we want to see.

And this is a really amazing way for us to get more balance in our own lives as individuals,

But also to have it affect our society as a whole.

Thank you.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you. Wonderful information that is so needed and timely and timeless.

Can't agree more. Now I acknowledge my inner wisdom. For some things you suggest I was already doing

This is great information. I have been told I am very right brained & I feel happy & fulfilled with my music, creative hobbies, & love for nature. Now I have a clear picture of both sides of the brain. Thank you.

Some good info. Please consider using a lower tone bell at the beginning for people like me that have a noise sensitivity. (tinnitus and hyperacusis) 🙏

Such an amazing talk such wisdom many thanks again Meredith 🙏