Get Brainsavvy | Hemispheres

let's get BRAINSAVVY

MINDING WHAT MATTERS

Our brain architecture creates our experience of the world. It matters that our brains are divided—and it helps to understand why if you want to get the most of your mind.

The actual science is inspiring...but it takes some digging to find it. Especially if Google is your starting point. A simple search for brain hemispheres will show hundreds of illustrations listing the functions of the left and right brain. These illustrations are so compelling and easy to grasp. And unfortunately, for the most part, they're false.

Why dig further? Well, your progress depends on it.

THE HOW CONVERSATION

Pop culture illustrations — this function on the left and that on the right — are well-intentioned. They attempt to describe some compelling differences that do show up in the research. But we'll never understand what matters about the research if we put a what conversation where a how conversation belongs.

Neuroscience offers clarity about the hemispheres' different hows. Not their different whats. When it comes to functions, both hemispheres are involved in everything. They don't handle different things. They do handle things differently—and one is better at seeing opportunities.

PROGRESS IN THE MAKING

The research distinguishes the left and right brain by how they work with new information. New insight is the key to our progress—and it turns out one hemisphere knows how to find it more easily than the other.

At any given moment, your left brain realizes what you know. It uses smaller, more closely networked neurons. Its style is to search and retrieve from its own networks. This is quite helpful when progress can be made from readily available insights. But when progress depends on a new frame of reference, the left brain can network endlessly in search of solutions that it simply cannot find. The experience can be so circular and frustrating that progress can seem impossible. (Sound familiar?)

Your right brain is quite different. At any given moment, it wants to realize what is newly present. It has a larger workspace to do its networking. It's longer and wider in most places than the left, its neurons are larger, and its networks are broader. At every second of the day, the right brain seeks to sense—and indeed help the left brain grasp—any freshly available insight. Always at the ready for heavy lifting on a new idea or solution, it is undaunted by complexity and vastly more equipped for pathfinding.

Wait. If our right brains are so equipped for pathfinding, why do we experience so much stuckness and frustration?

Well, our left brain gets very talkative when we're looking for solutions. Narrative is mostly networked left (80-95% of the time, depending on criteria), so we need other tools to connect with right-brain insights. With the "right" tools, we can reach beyond problem-solving into the "aha" moments we want—with more creative solutions and more effective vision and pathways.

Intrigued? Well, you should be! One hundred percent of clients leave with new insights and report a better experience of progress by coaching. To learn more, schedule a conversation or explore the resources below.