Reconciling my Whole (Brain) Self
I’ve been trying to reconcile all the different sides of my multi-hyphenate self. Sometimes they seem to be at odds with each other - the logical, analytical, reasoning aspects, versus the more subjective, big-pictured, intuitive facets.
Seeing that the conflict appears to be a left brain versus right brain issue, I went down a few rabbit holes and concluded that the key to reconciling all parts of me, is to integrate all parts of my brain as a whole. But how did these parts of me came into conflict in the first place?
Society.
Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary, explores how Western society has increasingly favoured the analytical, reductionist perspective of the left brain. E.g. Our mainstream education was shaped by the demands of the Industrial Revolution two centuries ago to produce compliant workers. This shifted generations of people towards a left-brain bias, neglecting the holistic, context-sensitive perspective of the right brain to society’s detriment.
The left brain is supposed to work for the right brain – the one that governs meaning, context and purpose. And yet, we have been conditioned to make masters of our emissaries, allowing one half of ourselves to dominate at the other’s expense. Society has educated the creativity geniuses out of us, instead of integrating whole brain thinking for a better understanding of our world.
Our world is changing at an incredible pace. The existing structures we have grown up with and gotten use to are breaking down and the rules and regulations of old don’t apply anymore. “Sit down, shut up and do what you’re told” – a command that used to illicit fear-based compliance from my younger self, will thankfully be met with incredulity and indifference by my Gen Alpha children. To evolve, require those of us who have been left-brained for so long, to reconnect with right brain thinking.
I thought about the moments during my formative years that taught me to choose left brain dominance. Being told as a child that artists don’t make money, I learned to put down any dreams that were ‘unrealistic’ and devalue the joyful experience of creativity when it doesn’t come with a price tag. When I chose a degree pathway for my undergraduate studies, I picked Graphic Design over Illustration, because I knew agencies hired graphic designers, not artists or illustrators. Later on, I thought about becoming an art therapist, but then got cold feet and chose to do a Master’s degree in advertising and marketing communications, because I thought there would be more job options and therefore, the practical choice.
Don’t get me wrong, my past experiences consisted of joy and rewards along the way. I’m glad to have had the experiences I’ve had, to do the work I did and met the people I’ve met. At the same time, this left brain dominance has led me to repress other parts of me that could have allowed a happier, more holistic version of myself to flourish much sooner, with far less pain in the transformative process.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. As I work on integrating my whole brain to engage with my whole self, I took inspiration from Dr Martha Beck’s open-minded approach to life in the Huberman Lab’s podcast (at 1:24:37), and came up with the framework below to counter the left brain’s tendency to censor the right brain’s creative explorations.
“We can't ever know completely what's true. The whole Baconian method is, accept nothing until it's proven true. Well we can't prove anything true... So I decided that I would accept everything until I'm convinced that it's false…Nothing can be absolutely proven. But I do know what's most useful to me, what makes me healthy.” - Dr Martha Beck
Perhaps some of you might also find it useful to convince your left brains to allow your right brains to do their thing, because hey, look, a flowchart!
