Whole Brain Living in a Left Brain World

What kind of path could we chart if stepped out of our irrational rationality?

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

The topic of our neurology and how it affects our lives has been coming up recently for me. Everywhere I look I’m hearing more about the left brain, or meeting people who speak of the dangers of the left brain outlook. I’ve read psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist and listened to neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor talk about repairing our divided consciousness and how important it is to tap into the better outlook of our right hemisphere.

I’m no neuroscientist but I’ll try to sum up my understanding of the difference (no promises as to accuracy!).

The left brain is the narrator that makes sense of our existence. It defines us by separating us from the rest of the world, and it creates a past and a future to help us plan. The left brain wants to measure, to quantify, to rationalize so we can get things done. The left brain also uses judgement to discern, and only trusts what it believes it knows.

The right brain on the other hand lives in the eternity of the present moment. It is connected to everything and everyone in the universe, and is a source of immense joy and creativity. It is entirely spontaneous.

While our right brain sounds good on its own, if we didn’t have the left, we wouldn’t survive long in these human forms. Perhaps we might delight in a butterfly so much that we follow it right off a cliff (or our impaired motor skills might mean we couldn’t move at all). Certainly we would have no individual identity.

Clearly we need both our left and right hemispheres. And when we are nourished by the experience of the right brain - its connection with the universe, its childish fascination and delight, its gratitude for life - our left brains can write symphonies, plant gardens, tie our shoes and make dinner at the end of the day.

I feel the world many of us are closely connected to today is the left brain’s world. While not all cultures run this way (indigenous cultures or religious communities being exemptions), the society I’m familiar with - modern North American society - seems to run according to left brain principles. This society values what can be measured, and the measurement system our left brains have devised are economic ones that categorize things in a very specific way that neglects so much. This society notices, broadcasts and absorbs stories of past, future and elsewhere. Its news agencies and governments don’t live fluidly with the present moment, they are solidly fixated on analysis, punditry, judgement and condemnation, and prevented from easy motion by rigid structures and institutions.

For all of us who want to be part of a greater unity, who value what cannot be measured, and who are more interested in reality than narratives, it can be challenging to find our place in this left brain world. But it’s eminently possible.

It is only our left brains that find problems with the way the world is. As soon as we feel pain about the world around us, we are seeing the world through the judgement of our left brain. As soon as we define an enemy, we are living through the left brain’s belief in separation. And as soon as we believe a narrative of any sort we are being woven into the story-telling world of the left brain.

By noticing our own left brain tendencies, and deliberately keeping the channels open to our right brains, we allow our right brain consciousness to spread into the left brain world around us. Every time we choose to stay in the world of our own experience rather than getting sucked into a story narrative we can do nothing about, we keep connected to what’s real. Every time we feel the sunlight and wind, care for friends and family, savour fresh food, dance in the streets or sing in the shower, we experience our right brain’s world. It is only our left brain that devalues those things in favour of gnashing our teeth and agonizing over painful problems in our lives or in the world.

In consciously remaining open to the experience of both hemispheres, we allow ourselves to use the immense abilities of our incredible left brain to make real in our own lives the beautiful worlds our right brains know already exists.

So there’s no need to fight the outside, left brain or not. Once we rejoin the parts of ourselves we are disconnected from, the whole world changes. And we’ll only know what awaits us once we truly open our eyes - the left and the right one.

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Thanks for reading! For those of you wondering why my posts are not so frequent lately, here are a couple of updates:

Update #1: I’ve been jumping from section to section in the book I told you about previously (and shared the preview and the introduction of). Next up will be Part 1, section 1, about the role of language in shaping our view of reality. It’s taking awhile because I’m working on several sections at once. So I may write another essay or two before I’m ready to share the book again. Stay tuned!

Update #2: I’ve restarted my Emotional Coaching practice where I help clients move forward through painful areas of their lives using a technique called The Work by Byron Katie. To find out more about that you can subscribe to my client newsletter here.