Pandemic Lesson #5 – Left Brain Vs. Right Brain: Achieving Balance with Questions

For a healthy mentagility, I always thought that one must create a good sense of balance between the creative “right brain” and the more logical “left brain.”  Just to ensure we are on the same page, what do I mean when I say “right” brain or “left” brain? I found a good and concise explanation here:

People described as left-brain thinkers are told that they have strong math and logic skills. Those who are described as right-brain thinkers, on the other hand, are told that their talents are more on the creative side of things.

So, a healthy mentagility creates a balance between both sides of the same brain, right?  This may be difficult to achieve because we may lean on one particular area more than the other without even realizing the effects of long-term “single brain” reliance.  (That’s a term I just made up for our discussion.) For example, if one is a scientist, they may favor more left-brain style of thinking and be less apt to be creative.  Or, an artist may conversely lean on their more creative left-brain and may have difficulty in more left-brain type of tasks.  This dependence may cause an issue with a lack of balance between the two and create a tendency to find our life’s purpose in our “comfortable” environments.   I wondered, however, does the tendency to lean towards one particular brain section stifle the other?  What is the impact of the reliance of a more favorable behavior and does this reliance have any consequence? And, more importantly, isn’t life about the reliance – or resilience – of both brains – and the achievement of some sort of integration between the two brains?

What I found out was a bit startling…and, well, not quite a surprise…for there is no difference in the brain which would support the “left” brain being more logical or the “right” brain being more creative.  While the jury may still be out in this debate pending further scientific discoveries as our assessment technology improves, this link from a blog called LiveScience actually has the most concise description:

Generally speaking, the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, according to the website The Brain from Top to Bottom,  which was written and developed by Bruno Dubuc, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal. Things get more complicated for vision: Nerves from the left sides of both eyes connect to the left side of the brain, and nerves from the right sides of both eyes connect to the right side of the brain.

Note: I’ve left the link in the quote as this will take you to https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/, a site within McGill University, a public research university, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  They have a ton of cool data if you are interested.

I began to wonder why the myth of “left” and “right” brain continues to perpetuate in modern culture, and have determined that the myth does two things: It allows someone who is more logical or creative to be okay with that label and, thus, okay within their own sense of self.  If I’m labeled as more left-brain, then my overly developed sense of logic and the need for facts (or my lack of creativity) would be okay, almost seen as expected – and accepted.  If I’m more artistic or creative (or I lack a more logical approach to living), that would also be okay as I’d be labeled more “right” brain.  Or, eccentric. Secondly, having a label on our traits creates a sense of sameness between people who have similar traits, or the basis for what we generally refer to as ‘society’.  Once again, the label is used to sort us into a set of characteristics that many of us use almost mindlessly to categorize the individual human into a known “box” or the label creates a familiarity that may (or may not) apply.  This sorting is a type of mental shortcut in our humanity.

You may wonder, then, what is the harm of the label?  It helps like people find their same type, no? Do you remember the “Bee” video from Blind Melon where the little girl struggles to find similar to unique self?  (I so loved that video as did many others for we all saw ourselves in that little girl. I know that I sure did.) Labels do create opportunities to find others who share our same “stuff” – values, ideals, hobbies, thinking – anything.  I think that may be a natural part of belonging to a society, the struggle to fit in.  The problem with trying to fit in is that you may dishonor a part of yourself in the process.

In our struggle to fit in, or our struggle to find our place in this world, we can willingly lose a piece of ourselves if it doesn’t fit the desired label – whether you created that label or the label was created by society for you.  If you are a scientist who loves to paint flowers with watercolors, this may not fit in with your vision of who you are or think you should be.  The compartmentalization label of yourself as a “left brain” type actually could stifle this creative aspect of you,  and may cause you harm in that this type of thinking doesn’t allow you to achieve that sense of balance we all desire in life.  (I also think that someone who studies science needs to have balance so that they don’t assume their work fits a criteria and they miss the telling “outlier” information.) I’m in a very “left brain” profession and, in order to be successful, I put my full focus on working on that part of my mind, believing that to be a “thing.”  This extreme focus was borne of a need to survive.  However, this inadvertently resulted in my lack of attention to my more creative side.  Today, after working for 35 years in my profession, I feel really unfulfilled in my professional achievements. (Wow, who thought that could happen? I wonder if that is why some people really like or really hate their jobs?) By not owning my desire to be creative and write, I felt a personal vertigo where one side of my brain felt almost overly developed.   My job has an aspect of technical writing to it and my attention to this resulted in a type of mental burning out when thinking of creative writing as a hobby.  I’m only able to be more creative now because I no longer write technically as much as I used to.

I’ve written extensively about labeling, and how false externally-facing labels can skew our thinking about what is a fact.  These labels can also cause one to overreact in a mellow situation because the (conscious or unconscious) label affixed a meaning for us as an individual, and we now carry this meaning in similar appearing situations.  Critical thinking pays attention to facts, sources of facts, and possible motivation in how the information is shared.  Many of our internal labels of ourselves are unconscious and may be based on information that was not seen with our impartial eye but with an unknown bias.   Of late, I have begun to routinely question my emotions as part of the Work which helps us to separate our thoughts from our feelings to align them into the correct way of thinking.  (This helped me to address my feelings of isolation during the Pandemic.)

Take, for example, a recent personal experience with a sick dog.  In COVID-19 America, animal hospitals still do not allow people inside with their pets.  We had to rush our dog, Toby, to an unfamiliar emergency clinic 30 miles away at 1AM due to bladder blockage; this is a life-threatening situation for our Toby.  (He is a bladder-stone forming Dalmatian.) While sitting in the car, praying our elderly dog was in the best of care, my husband and I began to discuss real possibilities of needing euthanizing our beloved dog because he could not survive another surgery.  Understandably, we became extremely emotional at the prospect of not seeing him thrive.  At almost 13 years of age, we weren’t sure he could survive the ordeal we knew was coming: surgery.  The dread in our car was heavy with the humidity of the night.  All I wanted to do was get out of our car and pace.  We both were very upset until I began using The Work to achieve some mental “leveling” (my term) for myself.  (In any extreme situation, The Work naturally helps me to deal with my emotions in a more productive way.)  I recognized that I was upset over a possibility which had not yet happened – and may never happen. I expressed this to my husband, and said that we are getting upset over something that may never happen, at least that evening.  He agreed and we sat in low conversation with longer intervals of silence and lost in our own personal thoughts.  The mood lightened a bit and we relaxed in our silence for the radio was just too jarring for our mindsets in the early morning hours.  At 3AM, we got the news that Toby would be coming home and that his blockage was cleared…for now.  If we had continued along the line of thinking that our beloved animal was at the end of his life, how different the wait would have been, and how much negative energy would have been created by this thinking misstep? Also, if I’m already thinking this, am I in the correct frame of mind to help my pet?

This realization that “left” brain and”right” brain is not a factual thing doesn’t change the label I’ve created for myself.  Labels take time to remove because we could build up an identity supportive of the label, or we have new “facts” based on an old premise.  I’ve watched entire television shows and listened to multiple podcasts where the entertainment is of the mistaken label that caused a false premise and the hilarity that ensued.  However, this situation is also happening outside of our obvious entertainment and into the news reporting.  Just because someone said something – or wrote it down like in this blog post – doesn’t make it fact.  (This is why I include links to my points.) There is still a bias inherent because I am human, living a life different from yours, and my experiences shape MY world view which is why “sourcing” information is EXTREMELY important in a healthy mentagility.   If one doesn’t know the source of the information, how can one examine said source for factual evidence? Questioning doesn’t mean you agree.  It means that you are taking the time to formulate YOUR opinion, based on your life experience, viewpoint, and the facts as you know them.  Or, you are being human.  Just like when I was looking for data on the differences between left and right brain, and how to obtain greater balance between the two – my original focus for this topic.  One has to listen and understand the answers to the questions we all ask – sometimes without even knowing we are asking.  Asking questions really helps one to understand the perspective and label bias of the other person, too.  And, a person’s refusal to answer factually to questions is also very telling, both about that person and what that person thinks of you.  Peace.