Our two hemisphere brain is a super computer . . . and across the top of this two part super computer there is a firewire or very fast USB cable. This connection is called the Corpus Callosum: a broad band of nerve fibers.

 

In the early 1970s studies were done on patients who had the Corpus Callosum severed to stop epileptic seizures. These studies showed that each hemisphere has its own function.  In other words, instead of one super computer we actally have two super computers.

 

Studies have shown that Americans, and most people raised in the Western culture, are left brain dominant, while those people raised in the Eastern countries and cultures are right brain dominant. It’s my opinion that the people speaking  Mandarin Chinese as their first language might be the only people with naturally balanced brains. This is because of the Mandarin language, which has five tones for every word. The words are in the left hemisphere and the tones are in the right hemisphere. Obviously the regular use of both hemispheres from early life would have a balancing effect.

An imbalance of the hemispheres affects one’s quality of life in a number of ways. Consider each hemisphere as a TV broadcasting station with a built-in volume control on a scale of one to ten with ten being the loudest. The left brain dominant person’s volume control is on eight and the right hemisphere volume is at three.We can assume that there is some information coming in from the right but it is overridden by the louder information coming in from the left hemisphere.
 

The problem with this is that the left hemisphere is always seeing only a small slice of the pie while the right hemisphere is always seeing or perceiving the whole pie. When you are facing difficult choices/decisions in your life, seeing the whole is always going to give you more choices, more creativity, more joy and create less anxiety in your life.