This week I had the amazing opportunity to sit in on a lecture by neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. She experience a major stroke that took nearly 8 years to recover from. She incorporated into her speech about how "whole brain living" is much more beneficial to our overall well-being. It really got me thinking. Does society push us to be "whole-brain" thinkers? In many aspects, I believe society limits our opportunity to have well-rounded brains. Okay, so what am I talking about?

The brain is split into two hemispheres. Anyone who has taken a basic anatomy class should be aware of this, but what is less known is that each half is responsible for different pieces of our life. The left side tends to be the more logical and analytical side. This is associated with organization, timeliness, mathematics, and rationale. The right rise of the brain is the more creative and expressive side. This is associated with art, expression, and emotion.

People are born being more right-brained or left-brained and I am sure by looking at these two images, you can decipher which one fits more with your personality and lifestyle.

So now that we have that covered, back to the "whole brain" thing. How many people do you know that are an equal balance between the two brain portions? Most of the people that I know strong left OR right brained individuals. I would also say that most of the people I know are left-brained individuals. As a society, we are trained from a very young age to be left-brained because it is viewed as more valuable and our right-brain is quieted.

Today, creativity doesn't "pay out" as much as analytical and objective thinking. We live in a world where routine, punctuality, and organization are stressed. In 3rd grade we were forced to write in a planner every day. Even if we did not have homework, we had to go through each subject and write something down. Oftentimes, the more creative (right-brained) kids in my class missed points because they did not see the purpose in this. Me, as a more left-brained individual thought that this made sense. At a young age, right-brained individuals are shoved down the left-brain path. Teachers, parents, and peers stress the importance of having a target or direction. We begin thinking like that so early in life that many people who were probably more right-brained end up being left-brained. They may have to work harder to be organized and punctual, but it is now how they process the world. There are very few right-brained individuals who stay strong throughout the organized and standardized portions of school and work.

Society also tends to undervalue the more right-brained degrees which could be art, music, or dance. Big companies and society have been pushing for jobs involved in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Wells Fargo recently released a campaign promoting financial wellness that did not show much support in majors around the arts. The take from the arts community was that Wells Fargo was insinuating that people in certain arts majors wouldn't be financially stable.

I find this ironic. Big corporations are looking for punctual, busy, hardworking, organized individuals that can also spark a little bit of creativity in their workforce. Unfortunately, we are usually so focused on the one dominant part of our brain, that we forget to use the other half. If you don't use it, you tend to lose it since your brain isn't stimulating those receptors.

So this brings me back to the "whole brain living" thing I was talking about earlier. I used to be somewhat artistic. I wasn't good enough for it to be a career path, but I did spend a lot of time drawing and painting as a way to relax and have fun. As I got older, that was something that kept getting pushed to the bottom of my list. It wasn't something that was considered important in my day-to-day functioning. Now, I am not entirely sure I could draw much of anything outside of a stick figure. Because I didn't use that side of my brain, I have lost a lot of that talent I had worked for. The brain is like a muscle that can get out of shape in some areas if it isn't used. After hearing about "whole brain living," I realized that I had succumbed to the general left-brain living of society. I realized that if I utilized the other half of my brain, I would probably be less stressed out and I would be a more well-rounded individual in general. Today I am picking up a couple different artist pencils and a new sketch book. It may not be the prettiest start, but I'm are if I can wake up my creative right-brain, who knows how things may progress.