Ready for a mindset shift?
There is no such thing as being a left or a right-brained person.
We were born with both sides of the brain to use both sides of the brain.
In contemporary western society – specifically the business sector – we tend to favor our left brain’s analytical, logical, focused thinking.
Society has conditioned us to identify and favor one side of the brain, so we identify with either being left or right brain and tend to use only one side. We say things like, “Oh, I’m just not a creative person.” or “I’m not a numbers person.”
What if you could have both?
Luckily, you can!
Favoring one side of the brain creates limitation and mental imbalance characterized by migraines, stress, brain fogginess, memory lapse, anxiety and a limited and narrow capacity for thinking and functioning.
To simplify:
It appears to be common knowledge that the right side of the brain is creative and language-based and the left brain is logic and analytics based. In reality, both sides of the brain handle both analytic and creative elements. It’s just that one side of the brain is more specialized for a certain type of action. [10]
There is an interesting phenomenon that happens when you take on a certain task. One side of your brain will take on the task even if it’s not specialized for the task, and your brain will not switch over to the other side of the brain, even if the task is better suited. It will just take the task and run with it. You could be using the less suited side of your brain or missing out on entire regions of your brain when functioning and thinking. [9]
When you don’t use one side of the brain, your brain defaults to what it’s used to and the parts that don’t get used atrophy. This creates a narrow-minded view of the world, limited thinking capacity and neurological imbalance. It’s like trying to draw a picture using word processing software instead of Photoshop or an image editing software. It’s just not the best tool for the job.
We are going to explore how to achieve brain synchronization, strengthen the parts of the brain that don’t get used as often, create new neurological connections in the brain, and balance your central nervous system for a great deal of physical, mental, and emotional benefits.
“This relative shift in hemispheric dominance (from left-brain dominance to whole-brain dominance) may result in therapeutic effects which are likely to enhance mind-body integration and overall improvements in physical and emotional health. Because of a reduction in cognitive activities during moments of whole brain synchrony, it is believed that negative thinking, self-punitive thoughts and excessive worrying are apt to slow down and consequently a reduction in cognitive anxiety is experienced.”
[Carrington, 1977; Sadigh,1991; Schwartz, Davidson, & Goleman, 1978. https://altered-states.net/barry/newsletter459/]
You have two sides of the brain so why not use both to your advantage? Why not use them together to achieve powerful results of increased focus, super learning and enhanced creativity.
You can do this through brain synchronization.
“[Synchronization] Coherence is one mathematical method that can be used to determine if two or more sensors, or brain regions, have similar neuronal oscillatory activity with each other.” or thus in sync with each other.
[https://npepjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40810-015-0015-7]
The oscillatory activity of wavelengths is detected with an Electroencephalography (EEG) or Magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine and then analyzed with several types of mathematical algorithms.
Being able to combine or connect each part of the brain’s specialty is like bringing together a team of experts, all in your brain.
Brain coherence creates homeostasis in your central nervous system and allows for more flexibility in thinking. You are able to draw upon the strengths of your brain in both the analytical and creative sense, increased peacefulness and clarity of mind, increased sports performance, memory, health, emotional stability, focus, less stress, better sleep, allowance for super learning and more energy. [2]
Brain synchronization also reduces migraines, fogginess, and memory lapses and helps build clarity, concise thinking, and help recover maximum functionality.
So you’re probably thinking, “YES! Let’s do this! How do we begin?”
“It doesn’t seem feasible for the hemispheres to fully share information or to operate in a fully unified fashion. Moreover, in a lot of cases, keeping things separate is (literally!) the smarter way for the hemispheres to function. Dividing up tasks and allowing the hemispheres to work semi-independently and take different approaches to the same problem seems to be a good strategy for the brain … just as it often is in partnerships between people.”
Kara D. Federmeier, cognitive neuroscientist [http://sequencewiz.org/2014/08/13/integrating-right-and-left-brain/]
In order to survive, our brains evolved the ability to focus simultaneously on two things at a given time. The left brain is designed to focus on what you give your attention to – a more narrow, detail and time-oriented design – while the right brain stays available to focus on all the dangers and what if’s – a broader and spacial oriented design. [10]
This is designed to keep you alive, in case you’re minding your own business, observing some cool stuff and an unexpected danger comes your way. Or in nature – while you’re hunting and potentially being hunted.
Pretty awesome right?
So usually, that’s how it works, although there are some specialized tasks that benefit from using both sides of the brain and various regions of the brain in communication.
Sometimes you want your brain hemispheres to function independently and sometimes you want them to synchronize. When is the best time to maximize brain synchronization?
“The striatum learns very simple things really quickly, and then its output trains the prefrontal cortex to gradually pick up on the bigger picture,” Miller says. “The striatum learns the pieces of the puzzle, and then the prefrontal cortex puts the pieces of the puzzle together.”
– Dr. Jeffrey Miller [http://news.mit.edu/2014/synchronized-brain-waves-enable-rapid-learning-0612 ]
Neuroimaging brain studies have found that there are specific regions of the brain that are specialized at processing certain types of information. There is also evidence that shows that separate specialized parts of the brain communicate with each other in order to combine their specialties and increase the effectiveness of thought.
Each region is designed to specialize in a specific task and when tasks require various specialties, the brain is designed to communicate through neurons firing to each other on the same frequency – thus brain synchronization.
“C. Maxwell Cade, in his research concerning the mind and its states of awareness, concluded that peak mental functioning is associated with bilateral hemispheric synchrony.”
[https://altered-states.net/barry/newsletter459/]
The left and right hemispheres of our brain are physically separate. The deep groove that separates them is called the longitudinal fissure. There is a band that connects them called the corpus callosum (see image below). The corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers that connects our brain hemispheres, is the bridge or communication center between the two hemispheres.
Studies have shown the corpus callosum is thicker in ambidextrous people and people who meditate.
Studies have shown ambidextrous people (Being ambidextrous technically means equal with both hands) to be better able to read people, see both sides of an issue, and recall details of an event and their context. Better integration and balance of the brain hemispheres allows a better kind of thinking.[2]
A 2012 UCLA School of Medicine study found that the “corpus callosum,” the grand central station-like cable of nerves cross-linking the brain hemispheres, was remarkably stronger, thicker, and more well connected in meditation practitioners.
Dominantly using only one side of your brain, causes shrinkage in the areas of your brain that are not being used, such as the corpus callosum.
Just like building muscles with exercise, you will strengthen and build your corpus callosum with use to be able to more easily communicate between your brain hemispheres.
It has been shown that brainwave synchronization likely precedes the changes in synapses, or connections between neurons, believed to underlie learning and long-term memory formation.
Through the brain’s neuroplasticity, it’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. [3] Over time you can rewire and reform it use it’s maximum potential.
“If you can change your thoughts from moment to moment, you can’t be doing it by constantly making new connections and breaking them apart in your brain. Plasticity doesn’t happen on that kind of time scale.”
“There’s got to be some way of dynamically establishing circuits to correspond to the thoughts we’re having in this moment, and then if we change our minds a moment later, those circuits break apart somehow. We think synchronized brain waves may be the way the brain does it.”
– Miller, member of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
[http://news.mit.edu/2014/synchronized-brain-waves-enable-rapid-learning-0612]
There are several ways that brain synchronization can be achieved.
One of the most effective ways to create left and right brain synchronization is meditation. Meditation balances your left and right brain hemispheres and strengthens your corpus callosum. [8]
“During meditation, the grand central station-like cable of nerves connecting your two brain hemispheres, the corpus callosum — becomes deeply stimulated, much like a joggers legs on a long run.”
[https://eocinstitute.org/meditation/whole_brain_synchronization/]
The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. Using both sides of your body uses and strengthens both sides of the brain improving coordination.
You can also focus on crossing the midline of your body by touching one side of your body to the other, such as your left hand on your right knee. When doing so, your brain sends signals from one hemisphere to the other.
This technique has been used by yogis throughout history to purify the nadis or energy channels in the body. The nasal cycle has been scientifically shown to be linked to the opposite hemispheric dominance.
When your right nostril is dominant, the EEG (electroencephalogram) measured activity in the brain is greater in the left hemisphere of your brain – and vice versa. When the nostril dominance switches, so does the activity of the brain hemisphere.
Follow along with Adriene in the video below to learn how to do Nadi Shodhana.
If you are normally someone who is logical and analytical, try a free-thinking approach or ideology outside of your normal routine and vice versa. Use your non-dominant hand for activities such as brushing your teeth or eating.
The left brain is better suited for familiar movements, while the right brain is better suited for new ones. Variation in movement activates both sides of your brain.
One of the easiest ways to sync the left and right hemispheres of your brain is through binaural beats. This involves delivering sound waves of sightly different frequencies through headphones into each each to produce brainwave entrainment that follows the difference in hertz between each frequency.
So if one ear is hearing 100 HZ and the other is hearing 107 HZ, there is a difference of 7 HZ and your brain will entrain (or follow) the frequency of 7 HZ, thus falling into theta brainwave frequency. Read more about brainwave frequencies here.
“Brainwave entrainment, also referred to as brainwave synchronization and neural entrainment, refers to the capacity of the brain to naturally synchronize its brainwave frequencies with the rhythm of periodic external stimuli, most commonly auditory, visual, or tactile.”
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwave_entrainment]
Basically, the brain will begin to sync with the same vibrations it is exposed to.
“By entraining brainwaves with binaural beats using headphones, it is possible to float the brain in this state of hemispheric synchronization for prolonged periods. Each time we do this, it is like exercising a new brain function, which makes the brain more able to engage this function as it’s normal repertoire of behavior,”
“Using sound in these ways, it is possible to make profound changes in brainwave patterns and states of consciousness, observable on brainwave mapping equipment (EEG), as well as positive changes in the body, measurable with blood tests, bio-feedback equipment and other sophisticated procedures. We are also able to influence the core balance and functioning of the brain and central nervous system as a whole.”
– Dr. Jeffrey Thompson. Founder/ Director of The Center for Neuroacoustic Research in Carlsbad, California [https://scientificsounds.com/index.php/library/neuroacoustics-the-healing-power-of-sound]
Our brains are usually in the beta brainwave frequency of alertness and concentration, so it’s good to entrain your brain back to alpha, theta or delta frequencies, promoting relaxation while syncing your brain hemispheres. To read more about brainwave frequencies, click here.
Hemi-Sync technology is specifically designed to achieve brain synchronization and induce various desired states of consciousness such as deep relaxation or focused attention. [5]
You can also find various videos on brain synchronization by searching online for “brain synchronization binaural beats”.
Various studies have been done on the effects of music on the brain. Listening to music lights up the large-scale neural networks of the brain associated with emotion (limbic system), listening, motor (movement) skills and creativity.
Playing music is unique because it engages the right brain, through focus on the melody in music. The left hemisphere is responsible for the understanding of musical structure and motor skills when playing the instrument.
Listening to music and playing instruments strengthens the various areas of the brain and their connections and improves the amount of neural response to stimuli for increased coordination and sensitivity. [6, 16, 17]
Good question.
You can tell when you feel clarity of mind, when you feel “in the zone”, awesome ideas are flowing and you feel present and vibrant.
You can also tell by the positive outlook you have on life and the feeling of being unstoppable.
You can also tell by your coordination ability. When you’re playing the guitar smoothly and flawlessly or making shots while playing sports.
You get the idea.
Remember, just like exercise, over time you will strengthen the various regions of the brain responsible for synchronization and facilitate information transfer, optimal thinking, coordination and memory, a balanced neural system and a positive outlook on life.
Not bad huh? You’ll feel like you have superpowers.
Just don’t let it go to your head haha. 😛
References:
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