Jill Bolte Taylor & 5 tips to reframe your own reality

Jill Bolte Taylor used to label herself as a brain scientist.  An unexpected stroke when she was 37 led her to explore deep consciousness and rediscover insight to sustain inner peace. Within four hours, she could no longer walk, talk, read, write, could not recall any of her life or mentally-process information.  Then, over a period of eight years, she experienced a profound journey that resulted in a complete recovery. In her book, she shares 50 tips and things she feels were necessary (and not needed) to heal.

As it happens, her book, My Stroke of Insight, was a festive gift to me from an eighty-four year old friend who has lived his own small strokes.  He inspires me to encourage people to stop asking what may be wrong with them so they move beyond the education that keeps them thinking as they do.  Consider these 5 tips to reframe your own reality;

1) Welcome the opportunity to transcend your normal perceptions.  Illness often has one of two main effects on people--it causes them to focus on the ego mind of the left hemisphere, which continues to believe they are invincible and dramatic incapacity is irrelevant  or, the right hemisphere influences them to completely transform how they think and behave to nurture states of joy. You may experience one, both or neither.

2) Recognize your information processing system creates you external reality.  You choose to divide your moment-by-moment experience into past, present and future based on brain directives that may lie beyond your conscious scope. When you step outside the anticipated limits of time, or find yourself in a state where temporality is gone, then you begin to dissolve self-created boundaries.  How you frame our perception expands.  You redefine processing through more than visual, sensory and pattern association.

3)Realize you can move beyond analytical judgment.   When the left hemisphere is dominant, it distracts the mind from thoughts of peace, serenity, security, intuition and universal inter-connectedness linked to the right hemisphere.  Standard perception and behaviour result from constant exchanges between hemispheres.  People are generally right or left brain dominant. To achieve greater balance requires a decision to raise awareness and shift gears. To move beyond judgment is the path to enlightenment.

4) Consider illness could appear as a form of biological evolution.  In order to evolve into a more highly-oganized form, human genetic material takes advantage of opportunities to adapt and transform.  From a biological view, human beings are like a species-specific mutation of the earths genetic code.  We are related to everything and constantly evolving in ways we do not always anticipate, grasp or readily explain.

5) Consciously evoke your own waves of clarity. Regardless of your own mental or physical state, you can choose to view it as a blessing in disguise.  You can choose to ask questions like, "Who am I?" and What am I doing?"  You can take steps to reconnect with spiritual forces, to better understand your attachments to your body and life as you perceive it.  Choose to move beyond worry and live each moment the best you can.

Comments

[Jenny Mannion]

Hi Liara,
VERY useful post and I, too learned a lot from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Moving more into right brain perceptions does indeed open the world and empower you. The ego-ic brain is always judging and in that limiting power. THANK YOU Liara for your wonderful writings. I have been very inspired by you this last year. I wish you all the best for 2009 and beyond!
Love, Jenny

[Alexys Fairfield]

Hi Liara,
Sounds like a fascinating book. We place so much emphasis on "formal education," that it is no wonder people are still in the dark when it comes to enlightenment. We are not taught. It is a path of self-teaching. There are plenty of tools around us to help us dig deeper into ourselves.

[Liara Covert]

Jenny, your comments are valued. This post encourages people to explore how they feel they contribute to society. Jill put her book "out there" with loving intention to empower people to heal their way. Each person does this according to their own ideas and values. It is not only directed to stroke patients, but also to individuals exploring different kinds of healing. As you point out, learning more about the relationship between right and left brain hemispheres is helpful to anyone who desires to engage in generosity, deepen gratitude and deepen their understanding of love and consciousness. And, there's more!

[Liara Covert]

Alexys, the practice of self-teaching requires initiative and self-directedness. The practice of discipline benefits from developing patience and forebearance. We each redefine mental stability all the time. Meditative concentration is one tool to help us.

[Svasti]

Hi Liara - its taken me a while to figure out that the content on your site isn't missing, its just way down the page! Not sure if you're aware of this issue, but browsing in Firefox, I need to scroll way down before I can see any of your posts!!

Anyways, I wanted to add to this post, because I'm impressed with Jill too. I haven't read her book but I think I'll order it now.

Have you seen this video of Jill talking? Its quite a long video, but well worth watching: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Alot of what she describes is very interesting from a yogic perspective...

[Liara Covert]

Svasti, Firefox does seem to cause that side-effect. I contacted the administrator and let them know.

I'm glad you have decided to get Jill's book. It is fascinating story. Please share your views here after you have read it. Your yoga interests will enable you to appreciate Jill's perspective on new levels. Thanks for the reference to the video.

[Craig J. Phillips MRC, BA]

Hi Liara,
Thank you so very much for visiting Second Chance to Live and for leaving a comment with your kind words of encouragement. You are a tremendous blessing to me. Thank you my friend.

Thank you for telling me about the above article that you wrote Liara. You are a gifted writer. I am encouraged by your essence as you write. Although I have not read her book, I get the sense that you have done a marvelous job synopsizing the important and poignant points that she outlines and shares through out her book.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read your synopsis.
Great work Liara and God bless you my friend.

Happy New Year!!!

Craig

[Liara Covert]

Craig, you set an incredible example. Each person has unconscious beliefs about what is or is not possible. Your life teaches people they have reason to expand their sense of what is possible, to shift the focus of their energy from fear of what is no longer possible to nurturing a love for what is. Great to learn you continue to share wealth of insight.

[Natasha]

Ms Bolte Taylor, by embracing her stroke, has herself demonstrated that choosing to view a state of mind or physicality as a blessing can answer so many questions about who we are and why we are here. I am glad that she has chosen to share those answers with the world.
Thank you Liara!

Much love,
Natasha

[Liara Covert]

Natasha, Jill Bolte Taylor inspires people to rethink how they view the world. Regardless of your conditions, it is possible to reframe where you are and find many new meaningful aspects to your life. We each redefine health and well-being in our hearts and minds.

When Jill is asked when it was she made a full and complete recovery, she admits she never has or wants to. What she means by this is that her process of recovery has enabled her to see parts of herself she did not like and wished to change. Rather than revert back to who she was exactly, she has reflected, revised and improved upon her own perception of her authentic self.This is part of her journey to authenticity. We all travel back to our own.

[Hilary]

Hi Liara .. I read the book last summer .. and it is certainly eye opening .. the point I picked up ..is that your body knows what it needs to recover .. ie sleep mainly, short burst of wakefulness - no stress; then as she wanted to stay awake a bit more .. she did .. and stimulus was not important -until she was ready.

Robert McCrum "My Year Off" (aged 42) was Editor-in-Chief at Faber & Faber .. is similar .. with some emphasis on the journal of his new wife .. I heard the radio play first and took notes, then bought the book ..

He was in the Acute Brain Injury unit of University College Hospital - a separate unit .. specialising in CJD etc .. this was where my Ma was .. we were so lucky .. & lucky they appreciated her intelligence .. so they stablized her & allowed her to have a PEG fitted .. so she has been able to live on: & I've been able to have this wonderful journey with her ....

.. and learn so much & meet so many wonderful people on the way .. including a young 21 year old American girl .. who has made and is continuing to make a good recovery .. and a 26 year old French girl .. who unfortuantely died later on.

Both enlightening books ... well worth a read anyway .. I encourage all to purchase ..

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters

[Liara Covert]

Hilary, personal stories often have a healing quality about them. These suggestions are great food for thought for readers here. It is reassuring to know that one is never alone, regardless of one's peceived plight. Other human beings have experienced similar situations and other human bengs are sharing parallel experiences right now. When you realize outer purpose eventually fades because of impermanence, you recoennct differently with inner purpose. How long you have in human terms does not matter. As you become more conscious of your present reality, you unexpectedly gain insight into what matters and it is not what you think. Love and compassion reign. When relatives experience health setbacks and you open your heart to share the journey, you reconnect with the inner self and heal wounds you were not consciously aware of before. This is the power of being in the moment.

[Hilary]

Hi Liara .. thank you so much for replying .. I did have wounds that needing healing and areas of life that needed to be told by my mother - not huge amounts, but just an understanding of each other - that we'd never really had before.

I'd love to ask more .. and occasionally I've tried .. but I don't want her to have negativity or sadness on my behalf .. it's one of the things that is no longer there after the strokes.

Thanks for being so interactive .. I have so much to learn ..

All the best for tomorrow for you!
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters

[Hilary]

Hi Liara .. relative to my post of 24 July (Positive Letters) where I highlight Jill Bolte Taylor's story via the TED videos .. and other books, and thoughts via the TED links that interest me ..

It's an interesting area ..

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters