Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.
Posted by Barb on September 16th, 2009
Dr Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist that experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain at the age of 37. She provides a us a rare glimpse of her observations as she is experiencing the stroke along with her insights during her eight year recovery period. When she had her stroke and her left brain was rendered non-functioning and quiet, the brain chattered stopped and the normally silenced right brain found its voice. It was life-changing because what she found was that this happens to be where nirvana resides. She thought if she had found nirvana and was still alive, then everyone can find nirvana. She thought, what a stroke of insight this could be in how we lead our lives.
Dr. Talyor starts with a bit of science. I found this very valuable and was able to more deeply appreciate her observations related to her stroke along with the details provided on her recovery. She helps us to better understand how the right and left hemisphere of the brain function. Let me share one of the factoids presented:
- The limbic system functions by placing an effect or emotion on information streaming in through our senses. Our limbic system functions throughout our lifetime, it does not mature. As a result, when our emotional buttons are pushed, we retain the ability to react to incoming stimulation as though we were a two-year-old. It is so easy to get caught up in the wiring of our pre-programmed reactivity (limbic system) that we live our lives cruising along on auto pilot. Here is the catch, although there are certain limbic system (emotional) programs that can be triggered automatically, it takes less than ninety seconds for one of these programs to be triggered, surge through our body and then be completely flushed out of our bloodstream. If you choose to remain with the automatic trigger after 90 seconds, it is truly your choice – you have chosen to let that circuit continue as Dr. Taylor would say.
How interesting is this! I am an advocate of “Choose your attitude”, while you cannot control what happens to you, you can control how you choose to respond. Her explanation of the limbic system resonated with me and our power of choice.
She also states that our minds are highly sophisticated “seek and ye shall find” instruments. We are designed to focus in on whatever we are looking for. I now better understand why visualization and imagery can be so powerful.
In closing, she viewed her stroke as a wonderful gift as it permitted her to pick and choose who and how she wanted to be in this world. She states that by recognizing who is who inside our cranium, we can take a more balanced-brain approach to how we lead our lives. Creating a healthy balance between our two characters enables us the ability to remain cognitively flexible enough to welcome change (right hemisphere) and yet remain concrete enough to stay a path (left hemisphere). We have the power to chose moment by moment who we are.
If this topic is of interest to you, I would recommend watching this 18 minute video, not only is she an excellent writer, she is an engaging presenter. Jill Bolte Taylor video
