Whole Brain Living

Book excerpt: The New York Times best-selling author of My Stroke of Insight blends neuroanatomy with psychology to show how we can short-circuit emotional reactivity and find our way to peace. For half a century we have been trained to believe that our right brain hemisphere is our emotional brain, while our left brain houses our rational thinking. Now neuroscience shows that it’s not that simple: in fact, our emotional limbic tissue is evenly divided between our two hemispheres. Consequently, each hemisphere has both an emotional brain and a thinking brain. In this groundbreaking new book, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor—author of the New York Times bestseller My Stroke of Insight—presents these four distinct modules of cells as four characters that make up who we are: Character 1, Left Thinking; Character 2, Left Emotion; Character 3, Right Emotion; and Character 4, Right Thinking. Everything we think, feel, or do is dependent upon brain cells to perform that function. Since each of the Four Characters stems from specific groups of cells that feel unique inside of our body, they each display particular skills, feel specific emotions, or think distinctive thoughts. In Whole Brain Living, available in paperback for the first time, Dr. Taylor blends neuroanatomy with psychology to help us: Get acquainted with our own Four Characters, observe how they show up in our daily life, and learn to identify and relate to them in others as well Apply the wisdom of the Four Characters to every area of life—from work to relationships to health Use a powerful practice called the Brain Huddle—a tool for bringing our Four Characters into conversation with one another—to short-circuit emotional reactivity, tap our characters’ respective strengths, and choose which one to embody in any situation The more we become familiar with each of the characters in ourselves and others, the more power we gain over our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, and our lives. Indeed, we discover that we have the power to choose who and how we want to be in every moment. And when our Four Characters work together and balance one another as a whole brain, we gain a radical new road map to deep inner peace.