Listening
to the Right Brain paper on masonite Laura
Cerwinske, 2014
A HOME RUN FOR PERSONAL GROWTH
Baseball
great David Ortiz was the once-ferocious hitter who could not hit anymore. His
futility grew week after week and left the Boston Red Sox wondering if he would
ever be formidable again. When Ortiz was beyond weary about being unproductive,
he decided it could not hurt him to try to an altogether different approach to
resolving his problem. He decided to play the carefree 12-year-old he once was.
He simply woke up one morning and told himself “to act like a kid and just go
and play baseball, that’s it.” Ortiz stopped taking extra batting practice,
stopped obsessing over videotapes and stopped listening to every tidbit of
advice. Not long afterward, he became a solid hitter again. He is still playing today, years later,
near retirement, but still playing....like a kid.
The
point of this story is to demonstrate the power of the left brain, the side of
our neural anatomy that works analytically, logically, processes everything as
if it were measurable data. Today research has shown that when trying to solve a problem—any type of problem -- it
can be greatly beneficial to go offline, mentally. That is, rather than fixating
on analysis, a more productive approach is to engage the right brain and allow
your thoughts to wander. The result: fear diminishes, new ideas flow,
and your personal growth surges.
The left
brain is the seat of scientific, logical, or linear
thinking which is based on the objective weighing of fact and detail. The left
brain calls on a mode of seeing devoid of imagination, and therefore incapable
of refreshing the conscious mind and anxious body. Right brain thinking, on the
other hand, is nonliteral, nonlogical, instinctual. It draws on the imagination
and is therefore imbued with imagery color, texture, and detail.
Determinations, such as Ortiz’s to return to an “instinctive” way of playing,
are invigorating. They interrupt futile repetition and propel personal growth
by introducing new energy and ideas into stagnant situations.
Creative
writing workshops, such as RADICAL WRITING, allow the hand, work with the right
brain to allow your fingers rather than your head to do your thinking. The
result is an immediate intimacy with your thoughts in a safe, supportive
creative environment. By writing out feelings in the free and exaggerated way
RADICAL WRITING teaches your become fluently self-expressive. The writing
stimulates awareness and thereby perpetuates personal growth. This act of
writing purely for self-expression alchemizes your mental activity and provides
fuel for liberation, creativity, transformation, and healing.
Right-brain
writing, which is to say creative writing, provides direct access to the
imagination. As it expands your awareness, your instincts grow keener. You
relax in making choices and decisions. You breathe easier. RADICAL WRITING
makes creative writing as fluid as a reflex. RADICAL WRITING makes personal
growth effortless. RADICAL WRITING holds up to you a forgiving mirror in which,
like David Ortiz, you can go out again and play.
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