RIGHT OR LEFT BRAIN?

Last night my daughter practiced her oral science fair report. (I was audience and timekeeper.)Her project this year looked at right versus left brain dominance in individuals. She wondered if there was a difference between boys and girls as related to right and left brain dominance.

What I found most interesting during this year as I read her literature review, took the written tests myself, looked at my family’s results, and listened to her report was the differences between how right and left brain individuals approach situations. Right brain individuals tend to see the bigger picture. They often have a larger and, perhaps, more creative approach to a challenge. Left brain individuals work well in organizing and completing the details. Practically speaking most challenges would benefit from having both types of individuals involved with the solution. Having right brain individuals involved could yield brainstorming to devise unique solutions; but then left brain individuals can help ensure that all details are ironed out to complete the desired solution.

Yet, there might be challenges in families if most individuals (i.e. parents) function from a left brain mindset and the child functions from a right brain point of view. Is it possible that some parents wouldn’t understand why their child organized using piles instead of putting things away? On the other hand, couldn’t there be an issue if the child needs to know all the planned details in order to feel comfortable and has to deal with right brain parents who say, “Don’t worry about it. It’ll work out.” Sense some of the potential challenge?

When most of my family (and particularly my parents) tested left brain and I was very right brain, I could suddenly understand some of the differences in how we approached tasks. It became clearer why we had diverged in our approaches to certain situations. But with that awareness, also came a lesson. I discovered how to maximize these differences. My mother and I recently took a trip together to Los Angeles. We had a great time. Much of the success came because I let her handle the details. She had maps printed out, directions to museums and information about the museums’ schedules. In my right brain approach, I helped considered what would be fun to do; she made it happen.

Being aware of your strengths and limitations can help you design solutions and help you succeed. It will also help you to identify aspects of the challenge where you may need more assistance. In our Clinic, I’ve worked with our administrative team to have most of our forms put on a shared website. This makes it easy for everyone, but it helps me in particular because I don’t have to organize all my papers. I can just click on a form and it’s right there.  Helps this right brain person stay organized!

Why do I bring this up?  You many need to bring the awareness of your approach to challenges as you work to plan your recovery.

So…

·         Consider how you approach situations in your family. Do your views or ways of considering issues differ from other family members’ approaches? Journal about a recent family event, decision, etc. Did it go smoothly? Were there areas of disagreement or strife? Did any of it seem related to how people approached the situation? Did any arguments take place because you and others approached the situation differently or had different expectations from the day? Any of these differences—whether we operate right brain vs. left; whether we expect recovery to go smoothly or accept that it will have occasional bumps; whether we like everything planned out or prefer some things to be spontaneous, and so on…all of this will affect approaches and family interactions.

·         Consider looking up a right vs. left hemisphere test on the Internet. You and your significant others could answer the questions and see if there are differences between the way you view and approach situations. At a recent conference that I went to, part of discussions included our ideal work environment. The aspects that individuals rated most important were often determined by their personality type, their approach to life, and their right or left brain dominance.

·         Knowing how you approach situations, can you use your strengths to maximize your recovery? Can you look at the “Big Picture” and find areas of triggers? Can you work on details in your plan to ensure that all the tools you need for your recovery are being put in place. You may need a team to help with this, but you can also journal to try to understand any areas where you may need more assistance. If there is a certain time of the day that you struggle, can you brainstorm or work with your team to develop additional tools to help? If you’re bogged down in the details, is there someone that you can brainstorm with to look at the big picture of your recovery? Someone that can help make certain you are including tools to help with all areas--self-care, work and leisure.

·         If there was a conversation or a situation that felt rocky with your family or significant other, would they be willing to journal their view of what happened? Can you compare views to see if maybe you’re approaching situations differently? Maybe you’ll discover that certain situations affect you differently? One may be anxious if things are not planned out completely. The other person might feel hemmed in with too much planning. Won’t that understanding help when you develop future plans?

 

Happy journaling and go Write On!

 

Martha Peaslee Levine, M.D.

               

Comments

[runforjoy]

Thanks! This was really helpful for me! I journalled about it for a while and realized that I myself seem to be right in the middle, having definite right and left brain tendencies. However, these play out differently depending on the side-tendencies of those around me. I come from a family that is extremely right-brained, so around them I seem to be an overly organized and controlling person. They cannot understand why I want to know if we are eating dinner out tonight or going on vacation next weekend. On the other hand, most of my friends consider me spontaneous, creative, and a definite right-brain thinker. Thinking about myself alone and without the influence of others, I see how I prefer to have a rough schedule that includes some planned events and some wiggle room with which to be spontaneous. I feel lost or stifled when the balance goes too far in one direction. I took a brain dominance test online and, interestingly came out as a dead even tie between the sides. I'm curious whether the eating disorder played a role in the development of my brain-side dominance. As a child, I remember being more creative and unstructured, but when the eating disorder began to take hold, I clung more and more to order and control. Now I have let go of a lot of that control, but I also recognize that I desire more control than my family. To maintain recovery right now, I realized that I need both structure to my days and some rules that help me stay on target as well as some free time to be ridiculous and have unplanned fun. I guess I am learning to navigate my "happy medium". Thanks again!

[Satellite Phones Service]

You seem to have got the niche from the root, Awesome work

Regards

[Apex, NC Auto Rapair]

Wonder full writing skills you got mate.

[Answering Service]

Good post. I totally agree with the part about delegating tasks based on what your strong points are. A lot of the time, I'm not detail oriented so it's good when someone else can handle the details.

[treatment of piles]

This is a great article. Wow, so many of these things I never thought of before. I often read posts, even on this site, and I think they are great, but I don’t take the time to leave a comment. I’m going to start leaving more comments for sure.

[health product review]

Experimentation has shown that the two different sides, or hemispheres, of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking. The following table illustrates the differences between left-brain and right-brain thinking:
Left Brain Right Brain
Logical
Sequential

Rational

Analytical

Objective

Looks at parts
Random

Intuitive

Holistic
Synthesizing

Subjective

Looks at wholes

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