My Stroke of Insight

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Up to that point, she’d spent most of her life figuring out the workings of the human mind. The stroke made her experience first hand the different traits of the two halves of her brain. Here we will get her personal story, and the resulting wisdom, of suffering a grave blow – and recovering from it. Most of us enjoy the luxury of a well-integrated brain. But, like Taylor, we must realize that our brains are actually complex entities, trying to fulfill a variety of hugely disparate goals. Evolution made the human brain this way, cobbling together lower and higher functions over time, and it shows. Lesson 3: You can opt out of many negative emotions and choose to feel mostly the positive ones instead.

I was teaching anatomy, physiology, and neuroscience, and I had to sit down and relearn the material. I would spend the two days before a lecture mastering that terminology again. It was an enormous workout, but it was a fantastic exercise in pushing my brain to its highest capacity. It was what my brain needed to push it to that level of function, with a ton of sleep in between. Consequently, the author became interested in the way the human brain functions. She embarked upon intense academic training so that she could research the biological grounds for schizophrenia. When recovering from a stroke, it can be useful to break down large tasks into smaller ones. Key Takeaway 1: Health care providers should be more patient-centered in their care. Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were a simple way to overcome anxiety the moment you start to feel it? And wouldn’t it be even more amazing if there were a way to reprogram your brain to experience less anxiety overall?Bert Keizer, a Dutch geriatrician, [3] reviewed the book and described it as "neurosophy", where the author sees brain neurons as the foundation for religious experience.

I think losing our mind is one of the most terrifying concepts for anybody. And the irony of a brain scientist at Harvard who loses her mind and lives to tell the tale — I think it’s just a great story of the human spirit. On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life—all within four hours­—Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.My left brain is doing the best job it can with the information it has to work with. I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know.” When we are being compassionate, we consider another's circumstance with love rather than judgement... To be compassionate is to move into the right here, right now with an open heart consciousness and a willingness to be supportive.”

But in the abstract, this whole two-sides stuff is hard to take seriously. And why does it even matter that our brains have two different sides? To the right mind, no time exists other than the present moment, and each moment is vibrant with sensation. Life or death occurs in the present moment. The experience of joy happens in the present moment. Our perception and experience of connection with something that is greater than ourselves occurs in the present moment. To our right mind, the moment of now is timeless and abundant.” Taylor writes about how she felt uncomfortable during her first hospital stay. She had to deal with policies and practices that were not conducive to healing, which made the experience unpleasant for her. Taylor argues that there should be a more patient-centered approach in hospitals. https://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/keizer_w09.html Keizer, Bert, "Step to the Right", Threepenny Review, Winter 2009.

Taylor first noticed a headache upon waking, but soon found herself descending into an increasingly bizarre psychological state. She became a spectator of her own body which, unsurprisingly, led to trouble in moving around and performing ordinary activities. Most of the different types of cells in our body die and are replaced every few weeks or months. However, neurons, the primary cell of the nervous system, do not multiply (for the most part) after we are born. That means that the majority of the neurons in your brain today are as old as you are. This longevity of the neurons partially accounts for why we feel pretty much the same on the inside at the age of 10 as we do at age 30 or 77.” One of Bolte Taylor's goals with the book, she says, was to reach doctors-to-be while they were still in school, to "influence the way they perceive the ability of the brain to recover." Some neurologists tell stroke patients most recovery occurs within the first six months post-stroke, leaving little hope for further improvement—advice with which Bolte Taylor strongly disagrees.

Our right brain perceives the big picture and recognizes that everything around us, about us, among us and within us is made up of energy particles that are woven together into a universal tapestry. Since everything is connected, there is an intimate relationship between the atomic space around and within me, and the atomic space around and within you - regardless of where we are. On an energetic level, if I think about you, send good vibrations your way, hold you in the light, or pray for you, then I am consciously sending my energy to you with a healing intention. If I meditate over you or lay my hands upon your wound, then I am purposely directing the energy of my being to help you heal.” Rather than debilitating her, the left-sided stroke and resulting brain damage revealed to Taylor the power of the unharmed right side of her brain. As it turns out, it can be an immense source of psychological poise and serenity. Describing the immediate aftermath of your stroke, you’ve called yourself “an infant in a woman’s body.” At that point, what did you think the rest of your life would look like?You know from the beginning of this book that Taylor must have recovered reasonably well from her stroke. After all, she wrote a book! Yet it still feels surprising that anyone could survive, let alone thrive, with such a brain injury. My Stroke Of Insight straddles the line between science and self-help. Between the compact summary of how the human brain works, the gripping tale of Taylor’s life-threatening injury, and the nearly unbelievable description of her remarkable recovery, there’s something in here for everyone. While Taylor does tend to downplay how difficult it can be to tap into our right brain peace of mind, there’s something comforting about the thought that it’s lying in wait. Who would I recommend My Stroke Of Insight summary to? Structurally, your brain has two halves – the left and right hemispheres – which look very similar but have completely different functions.