Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Your Amazing Brain

by Donna L. Watkins

I've read a fascinating book that held a lot more than what the title implies. Not only did it give me a detailed view of how our brain functions, but an amazing appreciation for what it accomplishes and makes of my life. And much of that is based on my own control through my choice of thoughts.

© 2008 Donna L. Watkins - Female Pileated Woodpecker Feeding Her Young

Jill Bolte Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained and published brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of a curious neuroanatomist, she watched her mind completely deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered her mind, brain and body.

In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill shares with us her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the right and left halves of her brain. Having lost the categorizing, organizing, describing, judging and critically analyzing skills of her left brain, along with its language centers and thus ego center, Jill’s consciousness shifted away from normal reality.

In the absence of her left brain’s neural circuitry, her consciousness shifted into present moment thinking whereby she experienced herself “at one with the universe.” That place of peace we reach when we still the brain chatter and tune into God.

Based upon her academic training and personal experience, Jill helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can ‘tend the garden of our minds’ to maximize our quality of life.

It's the essence of spirituality. Our free will of choosing what to think and believe. Choosing who we are by the thoughts we choose to think.

Jill pushes the envelope in our understanding about how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel, and how we react to life’s circumstances. Jill teaches us through her own example how we might more readily exercise our own right hemispheric circuitry with the intention of helping all human beings become more humane. “I believe the more time we spend running our deep inner peace circuitry, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet.”

She has a website with forums for people who want to build a community around the ideas presented in Jill's best-selling book. Various forums are available for people who have experienced stroke or other medical issues first-hand or through a loved one; another forum focuses on techniques for how to achieve a balanced brain; and yet another allows people to share their stories of insight and the life lessons they have learned.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey is a New York Times Bestseller and is published by Viking Penguin Group. It is available in hardcover, audio, and large-print edition. Foreign editions are also available and published in the UK, Germany, Brazil, Holland, and France. Other translations are scheduled to be published in 2009.

Related Articles:
Power To Change Your Mind
Stroke Of Genius On Emotions
Taking Thoughts Captive
Getting Out Of Negative Loops
Fighting The Darkness

Copyright and Reprint Information
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© 2008 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission from TheNatureInUs.com.
Link URL is: http://www.TheNatureInUs.com

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