You’ve probably heard that the right and the left sides of your brain process information differently. However, you may not recognize what this really means in your own experience. Did you know that the difference between your left and right brain may be the source of inner conflicts that make you suffer? In this post, we’ll explore the gifts from each side of our brain and how we can integrate the two to realize our greater potential.

To better understand the two hemispheres of our brain, let’s first talk about three major parts of our brain. In the center of the brain, we have the brainstem which is responsible for regulating bodily processes and initiating reactive responses to what is going on around us. On top of the brainstem lies the limbic or “emotional” brain which adds a layer of primary feelings, such as love and fear, and is key to our sense of connection with others and the formation of significant memories. On top of this is the neo-cortex, the seat of our “higher” brain functions, including language, reason, moral judgment, and complex understandings of self and others. The neo-cortex is where we find our brain divided in halves, into left and right hemispheres.

The right hemisphere is intimately linked with our body, our raw emotions, our spatial awareness, our ability to relax, and our sense of meaning, metaphor, and images of self and relationships with others. The right hemisphere understands the “whole” of things and seeks connections and similarities.

The left hemisphere is more detached from direct experience, like an “ivory tower” throne of reason and ideas. The left hemisphere sees in terms of linear, logical, literal chains of cause and effect which it loves to define, label, analyze, and control. It tends to see things as “black and white,” “all or nothing.”

You could say that the left brain is our “digital” mode, while the right brain is “analog.”

O.K. so what does that mean in your everyday life?

One thing is, when you get afraid, you may retreat to the ivory tower of rigid ideas and “black and white” thinking. You may then get defensive because you only are able to see things as “right or wrong,” “us versus them.” You may become disconnected from your ability to see similarities and relationships. It’s as if you are operating with only half your brain, using only the half that sees conflict and difference.

Second, not only can this left-side dominance lead to conflict, it may also deny the balancing qualities of the right side of your brain. The left side wants only measurable and arguable facts and may shutdown the reconciling holistic perspective of right brain thinking. If you ever find yourself locked in defending a rigid position and unable to sense your own deeper feelings or the positions of others, you may be a victim of left-brain dominance.

So, what to do?

To activate your right brain and come back into balance, you can engage in some right brain dominant activities. Most simply, you could go for a walk, feel your feet on the ground, breathe deeply, relax your muscles, take in the natural environment, gaze at the sky and the landscape, and tune-in to your inner felt experience. You could then listen attentively to others and make note of their body language—their posture, their tone of voice, their facial expressions, and how “they feel” to you.

Don’t worry, you won’t lose your rational point of view, you’ll just gain a larger perspective—you’ll regain your whole brain function. You’ll become able not only to reason, but to take in the whole situation, relax yourself, engage with others, and see a variety of alternatives, so you can make more fully informed conscious choices.

You’ve heard it said that we only use a small percentage of our brain capacity. You can regain much of that capacity by engaging the often underused right side of your brain.

Enjoy your practice,

Kevin

Kevin Schoeninger

P.S. This week at Spiritual Growth Monthly we’re exploring three positive steps you can take when you feel like you’re “losing your mind.” Click here to learn more.

Does life seem to happen to you or are you the master of your destiny? What degree of control do you really have about what happens in your life? In this post, we’ll explore what you control, what you don’t, and how to achieve personal mastery.

A powerful perspective has emerged in the past decade that goes something like this: “You can attract into your life whatever you desire.” This statement tends to get people very excited. It gives many people hope that they can change their lives in ways that will make them healthier, wealthier, and happier. It gives people hope that they can attract their soul mate and their dream job. What I love about this statement is that it empowers people to open up to possibilities and do something about them.

Now, as many people have sought to put this statement into practice, there’s been mixed results. For some people imagining what they desire and holding it in their mind has seemed like magic, drawing to them circumstances and events that seem to be the exact fulfillment of what they imagined. For others, imagining what they desire has been an exercise in frustration. It’s brought repeated disappointments as things haven’t worked out as they hoped they would.

Are some people just better at this than others? Do some people have the Midas touch, while others don’t? Is it a matter of practice, or sincerity, or intensity, or . . . Is it because some of us have more inner resistance, doubt, and fear related to what we desire? Or is it simply fate? Perhaps some of us are luckier than the rest?
As I witness what happens in my own life and the lives of my clients, a couple things have become apparent about this whole “manifestation” process. One is this:

Each of us is given specific personal qualities, interests, talents, and resources. We are happiest and most “in the flow” of life’s resources when we acknowledge, develop, and share what we’ve been given. We have the most success and enjoyment when we are in alignment with “who we are” and “what we are here to do.” So job one is to discern our “authentic possibilities.”

Second, on the path of our authentic possibilities, we are asked to face any inner limits, fears, doubts, and past pain that we are holding onto. As we acknowledge, accept, and integrate these “broken” parts of ourselves, we heal and become freer. As a result, life flows more smoothly and abundantly. Our authentic possibilities are paths of healing that are unique to each of us.

So what can you control in your life?

At least two things:

1. What you focus on

2. How you relate to whatever happens

If you choose to focus on your authentic possibilities, so that you grow and share what you have been given, you align with your right path. You may think you want many different things, but only when you discover and commit to your authentic possibilities will you experience yourself flowing with Life’s current and finding the peace, satisfaction, and abundance that comes from that.

Second, if you relate to whatever happens on your authentic path as an opportunity to learn and grow, you’ll free yourself from thinking that something has gone wrong when you meet with challenges. Challenges are opportunities to clear inner resistance, to heal, and realize a deeper grace that is always carrying you along your authentic path.

No matter what happens in life, you can learn to control what you focus on and how you relate to whatever happens.

Enjoy your practice,

Kevin

Kevin Schoeninger

P.S. This week on Spiritual Growth Monthly, we explored two powerful actions to boost your energy and mood. Click here to learn more.

Do moods seem to come over you in a random way? Are your feelings like a rollercoaster that take you up and down? Does it ever happen that one minute you feel one way, then the next minute something happens that makes you feel completely different? Do your moods seem to happen to you or do you have a say in the process? In this week’s post, we’ll explore 3 steps you can take to positively influence how you feel.

No matter what you’re feeling, there’s one step that will add a positive dimension to your experience—being mindful or conscious of it. If what you’re feeling “feels bad” then becoming aware of it is the first step to understanding and shifting the direction of your feeling. If what you are feeling “feels good,” becoming aware of it can accentuate and grow that positive experience.

By mindfulness I mean recognizing and accepting whatever you are experiencing at the moment. Rather than judging your experience as “good” or “bad,” you simply bring it into your awareness, acknowledge it, and seek to understand it. You bring your present experience into your conscious awareness by paying attention to what you are thinking, feeling, and doing right now. This is in contrast to being “lost” in what you are doing.

Mindfulness adds the frontal lobe activity of your higher brain centers to any experience you are having. Your frontal lobes are your “Command and Control Center”—they coordinate and integrate the functioning of the different parts of your body and brain. When you consciously pay attention to something, it activates your frontal lobes.

Applying conscious attention to any experience, instead of simply being swept along by it, adds a layer of awareness, meaning, and control onto whatever you are going through. You gain the ability to understand what you are doing that is making you feel the way that you do. You realize that what you are experiencing is a direct result of what you are doing internally, what you are thinking and feeling. In other words, you see that how you interpret whatever is happening strongly flavors your experience.

Paying attention to “where you are coming from at the moment” is step one to shifting how you feel.

The second step is to realize that wherever you are coming from, whatever you are thinking and feeling, is just one possibility amongst many—and it doesn’t define who you are. Your present experience is just a way of looking at things. It is simply one possible point of view and there are a wide variety of valid perspectives. When you understand that your point of view is one of many alternatives, that insight can free you to look at your choices and choose what will work best for you and those around you.

The third step, then, is to choose how you will think, feel, and act to create the experience you desire. It can be as simple as this: if you want to change how you feel, you can consciously focus on how you want to feel. A great example of this is practicing Inner Smiling. We do this as an integral part of Qigong and Core Energy Meditation practice. It’s really quite simple and amazingly effective, once you get the hang of it.

To practice Inner Smiling, lightly close your eyes, take a couple deep breaths, and put a subtle smile on your lips. Allow the feeling of smiling to relax and soften your jaw, your face, your eyes, your eyebrows, and your forehead. Take a deep in breath and, as you exhale, imagine the feeling of smiling washing like a wave of positive energy down through your whole body. Imagine that every cell in your body is smiling. Soak in that good feeling.

Take a few moments to try that now and notice how you can instantly shift into a positive inner state. The more you practice this, the stronger and more effective it becomes.

I would love to hear your results with the above three steps.

Enjoy your practice!
Kevin

Kevin Schoeninger

P.S. This coming Sunday, January 29th, on Spiritual Growth Monthly, we’ll explore two more secrets to a good mood. Click here to learn more.