An Exercise to Balance Your Brain's Two Hemispheres

I recall reading in your book that attention isn't elective cognition yes I I didn't go together understand the importance of attention when I first discovered that it was different in the two hemispheres I thought what gosh that is interesting and it would be I thought what wasn't even looking for it I just happened to be very interested in attention at one point so I read all the material I could they clearly emerged that there was a difference in the way the two hemispheres attended and from that of course many many things followed it at the time being rather used to the normals of a cognitivist way of thinking I just thought of attention as another function of the brain you know this is the trouble with the machine model actually because a machine can't attend a machine can be set a problem but it can't dispose its attention because attention is the way in which you dispose your consciousness towards the world consciousness is always towards or of something consciousness come not have a a goal or a name or an object or a concern so the way in which you dispose your consciousness towards the world is what we call attention if I dispose my consciousness in a bay narrow way which breaks up to the field of reality into small disks which then appear to be fragments which the brain then has to assemble in order to understand then you see a different world from the world that you see if the way you dispose your consciousness is maximally broad rather as in certain kinds of meditative practice in which you try to just take in as much as possible of what are getting all around you without forming any judgments upon it in others not setting the talkative part of the mind basically the left conscious cognition not setting that going and that in in the Buddhist tradition is known as monkey mind because it's jabbering it is all over the place stealing that enables want to see more what is also fascinating is that there is an exercise which I have done and which I like very much which is to try to dispose your consciousness in a highly focused way and a highly broadened and extended way at the same time and of course that would be that is exactly why we have to have this as you can't possibly do that with one hemisphere because one arising centre of consciousness can only dispose one way that's why we have to so that we can dispose them did assess if you do you feel that such an exercise might be a way of balancing the hemispheres it is really I mean in terms of EEG electrophysiological record it is a way in which one can correct the usual slight preponderance of left hemisphere over right and equalize it and in many meditative practices it particularly engages the right hemisphere and the experienced meditators there are findings both functional findings about how the right hemisphere is functioning in such subjects but also anatomical findings at certain areas of the right hemisphere that are particularly important for it become enlarged or thicker than they would otherwise be so it certainly is a matter of engaging the right hemisphere and also the left the place of role I remember doing it a meditative exercise and you know Aikido actually many years ago and the you'd start off by centering just below the navel right Dan Tien I think the Chinese go in on a very small point yeah as you can imagine and then bitbucket this appointment in large right and encompass you and then encompass everything on the universe and that you know see you go from one yes it's just expanding this out so it may be made that was a similar thing you

Channel: Dr Iain McGilchrist

Views: 12,859

Keywords: the master and his emissary, dr iain mcgilchrist, left brain, right brain, neuroscience, psychology, left brain right brain, brain hemispheres, ian mcgilchrist, iain mcgilchrist, left hemisphere, right hemisphere, attention, brain hemispheres functions, balance your brain, brain exercise, channel mcgilchrist

Id: uOXbnr1EIeo

Length: 4min 29sec (269 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 09 2020