Oprah's guest today: a brain surgeon who suffered from a stroke that left her without the use of her brain's left hemisphere, leaving her without her memories and her language.
On the morning of December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. As the damaged left side of her brain--the rational, grounded, detail- and time-oriented side--swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the euphoric nirvana 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 Jill was having a stroke, and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely.
Jill was in a world where emotional baggage doesn't exist. Where there is no such thing as loss, for she has never known to have. The only thing she feels is the present, and for her, her present is a very happy one. She has no worries about what has happened and what will happen, and is simply contented with what she has at present. It's such a wonderful thing, to be able to be content just for that moment. People are always worrying, fussing over what has gone and what will come. We all know that worrying about things doesn't make it less painful or less horrible when it does come, but we still can't help but to stress over it. We can make a conscious effort to just be happy for 'now'. When you're in the 'present', then there's no need to worry about the past and the future.
Also, when she was only capable of using her right brain, she was extremely intuitive. She was unable to understand what people were saying, so her thoughts were not clouded by their words. She was able to feel a person's 'energy' just through seeing how they moved or responded to her. When a nurse comes into the ward, she was able to tell if a nurse was really caring or not, depending on if a nurse looked her in the eye, or just through a bit of contact. Jill said that when emotions are all that you are capable of experiencing, then small stuff like that really does help a lot. It is important, not just for nurses, but for anyone to make an effort to make others feel more welcome and valuable. It's difficult enough that they have to go through though times, it makes it much worse if they had to go through it alone.
So what should you do when someone is having a stroke? Well the guest doctor on Oprah (well, not on the person, obviously) said that you should ask a person to smile and raise up both his hands (no, don't give him a high-five. Please! It's hardly the time!). Well the rationale behind it is that the brain controlling your smile and your hands are through different channels, so if he is capable of doing both, it means that most of the brain is still intact (I know, that doesn't sound as reassuring as it's supposed to).
Also, a stroke is definitely an emergency! If someone is having a stroke, dial the emergency number for an ambulance immediately, cause every second counts when the poor guy's brain is bleeding on the inside. Would knowing that make you run a bit faster to the phone? Good.
Today, Jill is convinced that the stroke was the best thing that could have happened to her. It has taught her that the feeling of nirvana is never more than a mere thought away. So, people, step into your right brains today!
Purchace a copy of Jill's book, My Stroke of Insight here.
On the morning of December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. As the damaged left side of her brain--the rational, grounded, detail- and time-oriented side--swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the euphoric nirvana 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 Jill was having a stroke, and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely.
Jill was in a world where emotional baggage doesn't exist. Where there is no such thing as loss, for she has never known to have. The only thing she feels is the present, and for her, her present is a very happy one. She has no worries about what has happened and what will happen, and is simply contented with what she has at present. It's such a wonderful thing, to be able to be content just for that moment. People are always worrying, fussing over what has gone and what will come. We all know that worrying about things doesn't make it less painful or less horrible when it does come, but we still can't help but to stress over it. We can make a conscious effort to just be happy for 'now'. When you're in the 'present', then there's no need to worry about the past and the future.
Also, when she was only capable of using her right brain, she was extremely intuitive. She was unable to understand what people were saying, so her thoughts were not clouded by their words. She was able to feel a person's 'energy' just through seeing how they moved or responded to her. When a nurse comes into the ward, she was able to tell if a nurse was really caring or not, depending on if a nurse looked her in the eye, or just through a bit of contact. Jill said that when emotions are all that you are capable of experiencing, then small stuff like that really does help a lot. It is important, not just for nurses, but for anyone to make an effort to make others feel more welcome and valuable. It's difficult enough that they have to go through though times, it makes it much worse if they had to go through it alone.
So what should you do when someone is having a stroke? Well the guest doctor on Oprah (well, not on the person, obviously) said that you should ask a person to smile and raise up both his hands (no, don't give him a high-five. Please! It's hardly the time!). Well the rationale behind it is that the brain controlling your smile and your hands are through different channels, so if he is capable of doing both, it means that most of the brain is still intact (I know, that doesn't sound as reassuring as it's supposed to).
Also, a stroke is definitely an emergency! If someone is having a stroke, dial the emergency number for an ambulance immediately, cause every second counts when the poor guy's brain is bleeding on the inside. Would knowing that make you run a bit faster to the phone? Good.
Today, Jill is convinced that the stroke was the best thing that could have happened to her. It has taught her that the feeling of nirvana is never more than a mere thought away. So, people, step into your right brains today!
Purchace a copy of Jill's book, My Stroke of Insight here.
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