{"id":2309,"date":"2010-07-27T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html"},"modified":"2010-07-27T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T10:00:00","slug":"jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html","title":{"rendered":"Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many of you may have seen the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html\">Ted video by Jill Bolte Taylor<\/a>, the neuroanatomist and spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center who survived a stroke in 1996, at age 37, to describe the shifts in her brain that took place as part of her recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Fascinating stuff. And very useful and inspiring to not only those recovering from neurological disorders, but also psychological ones.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"446\" height=\"326\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/JillBolteTaylor_2008-medium.flv&amp;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/JillBolteTaylor-2008.embed_thumbnail.jpg&amp;vw=432&amp;vh=240&amp;ap=0&amp;ti=229&amp;introDuration=15330&amp;adDuration=4000&amp;postAdDuration=830&amp;adKeys=talk=jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight;year=2008;theme=how_the_mind_works;theme=medicine_without_borders;theme=master_storytellers;theme=top_10_tedtalks;event=TED2008;&amp;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" pluginspace=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" width=\"446\" height=\"326\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" flashvars=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/JillBolteTaylor_2008-medium.flv&amp;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/JillBolteTaylor-2008.embed_thumbnail.jpg&amp;vw=432&amp;vh=240&amp;ap=0&amp;ti=229&amp;introDuration=15330&amp;adDuration=4000&amp;postAdDuration=830&amp;adKeys=talk=jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight;year=2008;theme=how_the_mind_works;theme=medicine_without_borders;theme=master_storytellers;theme=top_10_tedtalks;event=TED2008;\"><\/object><\/p>\n<p>I had the privilege of meeting Taylor and attending her workshop at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nami.org\">NAMI National Convention in DC<\/a>. This woman knows her stuff and is a powerful communicator. I couldn&#8217;t scribble fast enough to get it all down on paper. <\/p>\n<p>First she described the right brain (the buddha):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nonverbal<\/li>\n<li>Thinks in pictures<\/li>\n<li>Kinesthetic<\/li>\n<li>Present moment<\/li>\n<li>Holistic thinking<\/li>\n<li>Seek similarities<\/li>\n<li>Perceives energy<\/li>\n<li>Compassionate<\/li>\n<li>Noncontroversial<\/li>\n<li>Time lost in the flow<\/li>\n<li>Joy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Then she explains the left brain (corporate America):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thinks in language<\/li>\n<li>Details<\/li>\n<li>Linear\/sequential<\/li>\n<li>Past\/future<\/li>\n<li>Seeks differences<\/li>\n<li>Critical analysis<\/li>\n<li>Judges right\/wrong<\/li>\n<li>Competitive<\/li>\n<li>Confrontational<\/li>\n<li>On the clock<\/li>\n<li>Stress<\/li>\n<li>Sense of urgency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The left brain,&#8221; Taylor explained, &#8220;would rather be right than happy. The right would much rather be happy than right.&#8221;<\/p>\n<form mt:asset-id=\"16415\" class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ht_Bolte-Taylor-0487_080623_mn.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/ht_Bolte-Taylor-0487_080623_mn.jpg\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;\" \/><\/form>\n<p>Where this gets interesting for a person such as myself, living with bipolar disorder, is that there are significant differences in the brain of people with serious mental illness and those without.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We process information differently. <\/p>\n<p>In the first days after her stroke, the scientist could only use the right brain, which is how she discovered all the gifts of that part of our information-processing center. During her recovery, she tenaciously kept the faculties of her right brain to be more serene and at peace in a left-brain kind of world. <\/p>\n<p>Here are her <b>10 Recommendations for Recovery<\/b>:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Honor the healing power of sleep.<\/li>\n<li>Treat me like I will recover completely.<\/li>\n<li>Challenge my brain systems immediately.<\/li>\n<li>Love me for who I am now.<\/li>\n<li>Help me define my priorities for energy use.<\/li>\n<li>Focus on my ability, not on my diability.<\/li>\n<li>Give my brain years to recover.<\/li>\n<li>Divide every task into smaller action steps.<\/li>\n<li>I am NOT stupid. I am wounded. Repeat that for me!<\/li>\n<li>Come close to me, do not be afraid of me.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Among her final &#8220;strokes of insight&#8221; were these:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can choose to observe and interact with your &#8220;peanut gallery&#8221; (what I would refer to as &#8220;the little man&#8221; or the annoying storyteller in my brain).<\/li>\n<li>Tend the garden of your mind. I can take total responsibility for what thoughts and emotions grow in my mind.<\/li>\n<li>Be your own cheerleader. You are your own life force. You are comprised of 50 trillion molecular geniuses. You can chose to focus your mind with a conscious intention to cheer on your 50 trillion molecular geniuses or energy centers.<\/li>\n<li>You are in charge of your brain and your recovery, in command of all the reconnections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i>*&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beyondblue1\">Click here to <b>subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thereseborchard\">click here to follow Therese on <b>Twitter<\/b><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/community.beliefnet.com\/beyond_blue\">click here to join <b>Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many of you may have seen the Ted video by Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroanatomist and spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center who survived a stroke in 1996, at age 37, to describe the shifts in her brain that took place as part of her recovery. Fascinating stuff. And very useful and inspiring&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many of you may have seen the Ted video by Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroanatomist and spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center who survived a stroke in 1996, at age 37, to describe the shifts in her brain that took place as part of her recovery. 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And very useful and inspiring&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2010-07-27T10:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/imgs\/ht_Bolte-Taylor-0487_080623_mn.jpg"}],"author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html","name":"Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/imgs\/ht_Bolte-Taylor-0487_080623_mn.jpg","datePublished":"2010-07-27T10:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-27T10:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/imgs\/ht_Bolte-Taylor-0487_080623_mn.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/imgs\/ht_Bolte-Taylor-0487_080623_mn.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/07\/jill-bolte-taylor-a-stroke-of.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. 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