How to Train the Right Side of the Brain

Written by Ashley Mackenzie

Explore creativity image by Ivonne Wierink from Fotolia.com

While the left hemisphere of your brain governs logical, sequential tasks, the right hemisphere is creative and emotional. Everyone uses both sides of the brain, but many people tend to use one side more often than the other, out of habit. Even if your left brain is dominant, you can train your right brain to start using it more. This will help you make decisions more intuitively and enhance your imagination.
Skill level: Easy

Instructions
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Tell stories and have conversations with people. These may seem like common tasks, but they work the right side of your brain by tapping into emotion and empathy. As Daniel Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind," explains in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, humans don't relate to one another using graphs and charts; they engage in conversation and relate to each other. Writing a story with emotional impact also trains the right side of the brain.

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Listen to music. The right brain will get a healthy workout processing the melodies and rhythms -- and it's even better if you feel something for the music. Connect to it emotionally and creatively by picturing images or a story related to the music. For instance, education professor Diane Connell at Scholastic website for teachers recommends listening to the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and imagining the astronauts and space.

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Write with your left hand. According to life coach Martha Beck at O, The Oprah Magazine, the creative population has more left-handed people than average, because writing with your left hand fires your right brain. Write a question with your right hand and answer it with your left, without worrying about what you're going to write or the quality of your handwriting.

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Make art. Don't let your logical left brain force you to draw perfect, photograph-quality images. Instead, set your creativity loose to draw fun pictures, even if they don't make sense. Alternatively, bust out the crayons to fill in a colouring book. If you have a website or blog, play around with its design, just for fun.
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Write upside-down and backwards. Beck states that this perks up your right brain, which fires when you do something differently than usual.

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Draw pictures and employ other visuals throughout the day. According to Connell, the right brain prefers visuals over auditory clues and is skilled at visual spatial tasks.

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Walk in unusual ways around your house. For instance, walk backwards while swinging each arm with its nearest leg, instead of alternating. Try it with your eyes closed, Beck recommends. Anything that feels strange and challenging utilises your right brain.

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Let yourself laugh. Pink describes laughing clubs where people gather to laugh for no reason -- even when their left brains tell them they're not being sensical. Laughing in the face of your left brain's logic is a daring way to train your right brain.

Yin and Yang: Right Brain, Left Brain or Balanced Brain?

YIN AND YANG SEPTEMBER 24, 2010 BY: KELLIE GULLO Subscribe

Yin and Yang: Right Brain, Left Brain or Balanced Brain? Credits:

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Memo to left-brainers: Were not all thinking from the same hemisphere. Memo to right-brained thinkers: Ditto. There appear to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres, respectively, and that our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere. - Roger Sperry (1973) We are not all holistic, new age, metaphysical creatures. Nor are we all linear, systematic and research-oriented in our thinking. In the multi-cultural world we live in, and with the vast differences between each individual, a War of the Brains notion has materialized. It is the struggle that the two halves of our mind not only see the world in vastly different ways, but that the left side just doesnt concur with the right sides system of thinking. Alas, our present society tends to agree. The left side is thought to be where we obtain our critical thinking skills, and where we acquire our intellectual, analytical and reasoning skills. The right

side is the part thought to be where we get our subjective, creative and perceptive skills. In other words, the right-sided way of thinking is sometimes considered the part from where our free-spirited, eccentric comrades think. In many ancient Eastern philosophies, Yang refers to the masculine, left-brained energy in everyone and Yin refers to the right-brained, feminine energy, meaning much more than just female/male. Yin-Yang is the Chinese term for the basic polarities of the Universe. Yang is the direction upwards, Yin downwards. Yang is clockwise, Yin counter-clockwise. Yang is firm, challenging and tense, Yin is gentle, compliant and relaxed, etc. When these two are out of balance, things go out of kilter. For any Wall Street Banker, CPA, Computer Scientist, etc., a little legroom for imagination and empathy might be beneficial. For every neoconservationist, environmentalist, artist, etc., consideration towards a more linear way of thinking could be advantageous as well. There are actually three major parts to the human brain: reptile, limbic, and neocortex. When our survival is threatened, then our reptile brain reacts. Our emotions are stored within the limbic system, or the midbrain. We use the neocortex for thinking, forward planning and problem solving. All three parts of the brain are mutually supportive and function together. The neo-cortex is essentially the right and left brain. When either of these parts is too far out of balance - we suffer. The best possible outcome is to have a healthy balance in your thinking. How do we obtain a Balanced-Brain way of thinking? Research findings about the brains language functions show that the functions of one hemisphere of the brain are immediately available to the other, producing a more balanced use of language. Balanced-brain, or whole-brain teaching, emphasizes active learning, in which the learner makes connections that draw from both hemispheres. Its important that we learn how to manage our emotional climate, to reduce our primitive ways of thinking which mostly rears its dreadful head during times of distress. New scientific research shows that we can improve the health and function of our brains with the right mental workouts. In whole-brain learning, imaging is seen as the basis for comprehension. Its important to see both methods of thinking as critical to balancing out our world. So what can you do to incorporate the two halves of your brain? Exercises to stimulate right side of brain:

 To begin with, you can introduce more creative problem-solving tools into your home life and at work. Brainstorming or random picture association to encourage ideas to surface from the right side of the brain. Visualize, draw, poetry and use drama as you develop new ideas, in order to retain this knowledge. Institute any number of right-brain activities, such as team-building exercises, recreation, orsocial lunchtime gatherings. Work with pottery or woodworking, or anything that involves the use of your hands. Use bright colors within your home or office environment add whatever flair fits your fancy. The incorporation of music or movement also stimulates the right side of the brain. And perhaps most importantly, create an environment at work or home where new ideas are accepted and where everyone is encouraged to think outside the box.

Imagination and creativity is the gateway to intuition, experience, the big picture, inspiration, the unknown, living in the moment, spherical thinking and spherical creative development. Exercises to stimulate left side of brain:
Use the Think versus Feel approach. If you need to solve a math problem, obviously, your feelings about it are totally irrelevant. Look for something that must be solved logically and through a defined process. You can also solve crossword puzzles, figure out a difficult mathematical equation, learn anew language, figure out complicated questions dealing with time or algebra. Also try studying ethics, analyzing various situations and deciding if the action is good or bad. Learn new vocabulary words, organize day trips, attend lectures, map out a schedule to follow for any projects.

Mental fitness and balanced thinking is essential. Older people have been doing crosswords and Bingo for years to keep their brains active. There are many brainboosting products available these days with an assortment of software and

various online sites such as e-mindfitness.com and Lumosity.com that have exercises to train your brain.
Very few are whole-brained and equally proficient at working from both modes of the brain. In general, schools and corporations tend to favor left-brain approach to thinking, while downplaying the right-brain methods, but we are beginning to see a change in the world. Mental fitness isn't just about getting your brain to work faster or to improve memory, but it's about using a far greater proportion of your brain. Training your brain to think balanced and whole can go a long way toward being more mentally fit. And soon, with enough practice, these exercises will help you become more mentally agile. Its a Know-Brainer!