At the end of this here post , I asked the rather pointed question: “Who do you choose to be?”
In a book called, My Stroke of Insight , neuroscientist, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, further bolsters the case that biology is not necessarily destiny and that, indeed, we have the ability to decide who we are. In fact, she maintains, we’re able to consciously direct our own evolution.
Years ago, Dr. Taylor suffered a massive stroke that left the left hemisphere of her brain in shambles. Forced to rely on the right hemisphere only, she had an epiphany. It became abundantly clear to her that “our right mind focuses on our similarities, the present moment…and the bigger picture of how we are all connected,” she states in this piece , while the left brain “tends to be our source of bigotry, prejudice, and fear or hate of the unfamiliar.” Most importantly, she’s convinced it’s in our power to emphasize one over the other.
I highly recommend you watch her TED talk (embedded in the article) to get the full impact of her insights. It’s pretty riveting, I promise.
The good news is that Taylor is convinced that we, as a species, are becoming more balanced. She trusts that “we can create an age where we stop relating to the world skewed through our left-brain values as individuals focused on profit, personal gain, power, prestige, authority, advantage, and the material goods money can buy. “
I sure as heck hope so. But it ain’t gonna be easy. I came up with the following thought for a doctrine I’ve been developing for a while. It pretty much encapsulates my feelings about tapping into the right frame of mind.
“The highest path is the hardest road but it’s the only way.”
