I routinely over-analyze things everything in fact. It’s tiring yes but for the longest time I accepted it is part of being me. I’m predominantly left-brained. I don’t think of it so much as a scientific definition but a function of personality. There’s nothing inherently bad about being a left-brained person but I think that’s what can make it all the more insidious. The left brain is ultimately logical. It analyzes thinks linearly organizes and processes information.
I love my left brain but I think it’s high time we take a break from each other. Truth is we’ve been together for so long I don’t know myself without it. I need to let loose and take in the sights of this great big world I’ve heard so much about. But let me be frank about my intentions: When I say I want to go out and explore the world— really experience things— that’s really code for “become more right-brained.” It’s so attractive with all its creativity intuition and holistic thinking. So sue me. It’s my brain and I want to use it all.
I’m not going to sever all contact. (Fun fact for your left brain: the surgery that separates the two halves of the brain is known as a corpus callosotomy.) The left brain is a huge part of my life so it would be quite silly and destructive to try to rid myself of it entirely. I do not wish to be lobotomized but liberated.
I feel bound by chains the left brain has forged and each link is an item with a bullet point. By the very act of recording things on paper something is lost. I understand the irony that I am only expressing these things with the help of the language processing of my left brain but it cannot impugn the heart of my message. For it is heart for which I so desperately pine.
When Italy finally unified it was not under the sole leadership of the strategist Cavour known colloquially as “The Head.” No without Mazzini “The Heart” of the movement unification would have been impossible. That heart the visionary’s vision of things unseen is the work of the right brain— that is a gift too great to squander. Of course Italian unification was accomplished not by co-regents but a triumvirate. We cannot forget Garibaldi “The Sword.” In him we should always remember that both head and heart must be expressed outwardly. It is not so much the sword that should be remembered but the hand on the hilt. For what good is thinking if it never leaves the mind?
Thinking on the right can be a wonderful spontaneous thing. Thoughts seem to materialize from a hitherto unknown outer darkness. They come racing up from the frontier. Small pinpricks of light zooming toward the eyes become blazing orbs of energy. All that color the dance of electricity on the surface of the sphere the deep hum of pure thought— an otherworldly experience.
Unbounded by time the right brain allows a glimpse at eternity. We can see in the words of Led Zeppelin “What is and what never could be.” What a gift— there is endless possibility bounteous inspiration muses out the wazoo. When inside the right brain it’s as if we are rushing forward at terminal velocity and paradoxically standing still at the same moment.
The flurry of the left brain is not so; it is marked by endless chatter. Yes the chatter may be very insightful. But it tends to hammer down hammer down hammer down onto the anvil of the known. Just the facts. Constantly acquiring analyzing organizing and storing new observations. Over and over and over again.
So if you’re in what feels like a mental loop rehashing the events of the day or projecting endlessly forward the expectations of the future just stop it. Take one deep breath and follow it up with a few more. It usually takes at least five to clear away the fog but don’t count. That’s the left brain sneaking in again.
Think: what are you really doing right now? Don’t merely observe stating this or that about what you happen to see. Shut up and really feel what’s around you. The textures the scents the sounds— absorb them all. You may be inspired to change them. Re-evaluate and really listen again. How can you not help but be amazed?