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In this world where the intellect is prized, and the right side of the brain seems to be crowded out by logic, we are lucky to have the tools that we do, such as EFT, TAT, Reiki, Meditation & Focusing, to swing things a little more in favour of the right side of the brain. When I recently saw the 18 minute video (available to view without charge) of Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who spoke about the experience of watching the affects of a stroke on her, it really got me thinking how it is that these tools are so useful.
Jill spoke about how when the left side of her brain shut down in the minutes and hours following the stroke, the feeling of separation and logic so familiar to that side of the brain receded, and allowed the expansive feeling of belonging and being connected to all, that the right side of the brain knows, to come to a fore. She concluded her passionate presentation with an urge for all of us to make the choice to live more from the right side of the brain.
Reflecting on her presentation later that day, I realised how powerful a metaphor Jill had shared with those of us walking the path of self healing. We live in a world dominated by the left brain, and yet the left brain is simply not equipped to heal most of our physical and emotional issues, if any. If we could heal based on logic and reasoning alone, none of the fabulous tools available for self healing today would ever have emerged. Their strength, both individually and collectively, lies in their ability to help us to tap into the right side of the brain, where I believe all true healing occurs.
And yet it’s still so tempting for a lot of us to analyse and try to reason our way out of our issues! We think if we can only figure it out, we’ll be free from the emotional highs and lows we are experiencing, and live happier lives. I feel that the key to our healing lies in the times that we make the choice that Jill was talking about – making the choice to maximise the times where we are living out of the right side of our brain, and allow that part of our brain to resolve our issues based on it’s own wisdom.
I’ve had a couple of wonderful experiences of this recently in my own healing journey. Travelling through my home country of New Zealand over the last couple of months, I’ve noticed a couple of issues creep in. Trying to “figure them out” netted no change at all, so I sat down to do some TAT to see if I could get to the bottom of what was going on. As I went through the TAT, I became aware of a part of me that I had previously been completely oblivious to, a part that was trying to protect me, based on assumptions left over from an experience so long ago, that I thought was no longer affecting me. I was incredulous to hear that part’s message, to realise that a part of me was still frozen in time, and to experience the integration that followed the TAT session. I would never have figured it out logically, it would simply never have occurred to the left side of my brain that the issue I had was in any way connected to something that I thought I had resolved long ago. I gave thanks for the power of TAT to help me to get out of my own road, and allow my right brain to go to work.
A month later, during a Focusing session with my new Focusing Partner, I saw this in action again. I was feeling overwhelmed about my inability to shift a long term pattern, one that the logical side of my brain has been ready to trade in for some time, but seems to lack the ability to figure out how! As I Focused, and went into the felt sense that developed in my stomach, I asked the felt sense what it needed. All of a sudden I saw an image of a little plant in a pot, badly wilted with the flower drooping right over. I just knew that the plant represented a part of me that I hadn’t given any energy to for a long time, if ever, and I felt such sadness. My left brain immediately kicked in and demanded to know how the little plant could possibly be saved. I took a breath, put my hand back on the felt sense, and just allowed whatever needed to form the space to do so. The little plant revealed that all it needed was a little water to keep it going, that no great measures or heroic efforts were required, simply a little water, and the energy that went with delivering it. Logically the issue was still as big and impossible to resolve as before, but I had had that shift that all Focusers come to know, that shift that suddenly meant I was no longer in the place of disempowerment that I was, and had instead felt an undeniable forward movement. I smiled and gave thanks for the power of Focusing to help me to get out of my own road, and allow my right brain to go to work.
It is my belief that meditation, Reiki, EFT, TAT & Focusing, and many other methods of the same genre, all assist us to get out of our own way, to move aside the logical left brain, to allow a window into the creative and wise right brain. However none of these methods are any use to us, without what Jill Bolte Taylor spoke so eloquently about – we need to make the choice to live more out of the right side of the brain. So if you are tempted to spend more time trying to figure it all out, remember that involving both sides of the brain will actually enable you to do that far more effectively. All the tools mentioned on the SelfHeal4Me website can help you do this, once you’ve made the all important decision to honour the right side of your brain.