Left Brain vs Right Brain - And How It’s Helpful to Integrate the Two

What is left/right brain?
They are two ends of a spectrum which relates to how people make decisions in life:

LEFT BRAIN CHARACTERISTICS

• Logical
• Analytical
• Fact-based
• Scientifically minded
• Meticulous planners
• Like to know how things work

RIGHT BRAIN CHARACTERISTICS

• Emotionally motivated
• Creative
• “Go with the flow”
• Intuitive
• Artistic
• Holistic

Why is this important to know?
Becoming entrenched at one particular end of this spectrum can often lead to stress and other problems:

OVERLY LEFT BRAINED PROBLEMS

• Neglect their emotions and how a certain situation makes them feel
• Too focused on their model of reality in their heads, rather than how reality actually is
• Get caught up in every little detail and therefore miss the bigger picture perspective/meaning
• Will not do something on the spur of the moment that they may actually find fun, if it doesn’t fit in with their “plan”
• Will do things that they think they “should” do rather than what would actually make them happy
• Find it hard to relate to other people and what they are feeling
• Lack of emotional control and need for information to make decisions can lead to anxiety if they feel they don’t have enough

OVERLY RIGHT BRAINED PROBLEMS

• Lack of planning can lead to problems in certain situations
• Can become overly emotionally involved in other people’s problems as they are so receptive to them
• Because they live almost exclusively out of emotions, they can often neglect to understand why something happens the way it does
• Can feel lost or powerless in this predominantly left-brained western-world
• Don’t often look ahead to see where a situation might take them can get them into avoidable trouble
• Neglecting to analyze how well/badly things have gone in the past, leads to similar mistakes being made in the future

What is the solution?
Well if you look closely at the two tables above, you will notice that the problems that the left brainers have, would be helped by adopting the traits from the right brainers and vica versa. So, the predominantly left brained and right brained individuals could actually learn something from each other, finding a healthy balance of the two that leads to a happier and more fulfilling life as a result:

OVERLY LEFT BRAINED TIPS

• Start to become more emotionally aware
• Try meditation or yoga to start to build this awareness of yourself at a mental/emotional level then use it to choose what makes you happy
• Listen to what makes you feel good, rather than what you think you “should” be doing
• Listen to others and try to imagine how they are feeling, rather than how you would feel in their situation

OVERLY RIGHT BRAINED TIPS

• Look at your life and ask yourself what you are not happy with and how you could change that in the future by making different decisions to what you have been
• Ask yourself why more often when something doesn’t work out as you would hope
• Analyze your emotions more often, especially the ones that are more overwhelming and ask why they are there, and how you could resolve them

These are not going to be overnight fixes, but more of a framework for looking at your life and making it easier to see where you can make positive changes. It can be scary for the left brainers who are trying to “go with the flow” a little more and just enjoy themselves rather than trying to “achieve” or always work something out; and likewise, it can be boring or daunting for the right brainers to begin to analyze their lives in more detail, uncovering emotions that they may be uncomfortable with. So I encourage you to seek help with those types of issues if you feel them come up for you.

But if you are experiencing any stress or negativity in your life at the moment, and anything in this post has resonated with you I encourage you to see if you can apply some of these principles to help improve your situation. Speaking from experience, I can say that I used to live from very much a left brained perspective in the past, and by embracing some of the right brained traits have managed to create a much more fertile, growth-oriented environment for myself.

Best wishes

Jack