In 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor PhD, had a stroke, which she describe in her 2006 book My Stroke of Insight.  As a neuroanatomist (a specialist in the anatomy of the brain), she has a unique ability to explain what happened to her, to describe how she recovered and to give recommendations to those who are connected to people who have had a stroke.

While I  think her book is interesting on that level, I find it even more helpful as a guide to those of us who haven't had a stroke, but are struggling with living a happy, healthy mental life.  She really has written a user's guide to the brain.  A brief summary of her wisdom is difficult, so I highly recommend reading her book.  However, here is a partial summary of her work.  As a context for her recommendations, it is helpful to review how the brain is organized.  We experience ourselves as a unified whole, a "me", but we are the result of two interacting hemispheres in the brain that have very different functions.  The right hemisphere processes independent streams of information simultaneously from each of our senses.  Dr. Taylor states: "Moment by moment, our right mind creates a master collage of what this moment in time looks like, sounds like, tastes like and feels like... Moments are rich with sensations, thoughts, emotions and physiological responses....To the right mind, no time exists other than the present moment, and each moment is vibrant with sensation...To our right mind, the moment of now is timeless and abundant."

Our left hemisphere, however, takes the information from the right hemisphere and sequences it.  The right hemisphere is about the whole, while the left hemisphere is about the detail.  This is where our "brain chatter" is located, which is how we talk to ourselves about ourselves and the world around us.  It is the source of the "ego", which is our definition of who we are:  "our left brain is filled with...ingrained programs of pattern recognition,...predicting what we will feel in the future - based upon our past experience".  The left brain is a storyteller which makes sense of incoming information.  It fills in the details when they are lacking, creating enormous gaps between what we know and what we think we know.  

In addition to other structures, we have a limbic brain, which is where our feelings such as sadness, joy, anger and frustration are experienced.  Although our limbic brain 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 two-year-olds, even when we are adults."

So, based on this information, here are some of what I found to be here most interesting points: the limbic brain can be triggered automatically to experience different feelings.  However, biochemically, these feelings take only ninety seconds or less to surge through our body and be flushed out of our bloodstream.  Any feeling that lasts longer than ninety seconds is there because we have chosen to continue that feeling.  She states that the more you pay attention to what is going on with the limbic system, the more say you have in what you are feeling and thinking. We can make the choice to go back to the present moment, and leave behind negative feelings and thoughts.  Her shorthand for this is to "step to the right" (meaning the right hemisphere).

In addition to limbic brain triggers, she states that our brains tend to develop "loops" or patterns of negative thoughts that become ingrained and easily triggered.  To get out of these negatives loops she offers a number of options, including  telling her brain to "knock it off", giving it specific times of day to worry, and distracting herself with a list of things she would rather think about such as: things that bring her joy, something she would like to accomplish, and something she would like to ponder more deeply.  When caught in a negative thought process she recommends coming back to the present moment to find peace.  She recommends slowing down, breathing deeply and asking yourself: "How does it feel to be here doing this?"  Focusing on the senses, including sight, sound, taste and touch will bring you into the peaceful here and now.  Movement, meditation, yoga all help one get grounded in the here and now which will help you disconnect from negative thoughts and feelings.

Finally, she views her mind as a sacred garden to tend to and she chooses to nurture the circuits that she wants to grow and to prune back the circuits she prefers to live without.  Her stroke wiped out the functioning of her left hemisphere.  She has chosen not to reinforce negative thoughts and feelings that she experienced before the stroke, and she has chosen to try to rebuild her left hemisphere without them. She states: "Your body is the life force power of some fifty trillion molecular geniuses (cells).  You and you alone choose moment by moment who and how you want to be in the world.  I encourage you to pay attention to what is going on in your brain.  Own your power and show up for your life."

All my best, Pat