Monday 16 February 2015

" Most Important, I had to be willing to try. The try is everything. The try is me saying to my brain, hey, I value this connection and I want it to happen. I may have to try, try and try again without results for a thousand times before I get even an incling of a result, but if I don't try, it may never happen " . Be Inspired By Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor' s Amazing Courage






Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist who experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996. On the afternoon of this rare form of stroke (AVM), she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. It took eight years for Dr. Jill to completely recover all of her physical function and thinking ability.

 I'm reading her book  My Stroke of Insight  at the moment and it's a wonderful read plus reading it confirms much of what I have learnt and experienced through many years of studying my own mind. It confirms the value of training our brains.

" Neurons either thrive when connected in circuit with other neurons, or they die when they sit in isoation without stimulation. "
 This knowledge is really useful to those of us who want to 'train' our brains , using this information we can focus our attention on developing and connecting neurons that empower us while  'starving ' neuron connections which deplete us.
As Jill worked to retrain her brain and her rational ' left brain hemisphere ' began to function she noticed that her judgements and blaming began to reemerge, she decided not to feed these aspects of her thinking and to focus more on positive aspects of thought. This she did successfully confirming that it is possible to take charge of our ' thinking ' by rewiring our brains.
I wish that I could give everyone a copy of her inspiring book but at least I can give you a link to her speaking about her experience on at this TED Talk   Jill Bolte Taylor





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