Negative emotions like anger, fear and sadness can be hard to know what to do with... We don't want to project them out onto other people all the time, but we can't ignore them either or they will find their own way to escape....

Until we express them or confront them somehow they have a real hold over us and can really pull us down into fear and depression. A great way to get our power back is to have fun with the emotion, expressing it over-dramatically until its hard not to laugh at it and ourselves...

This is a fun and healthy way to let emotions out in short bursts, and to see the funny side :)

Most of us in our society are left-brain dominant. As a test to see how dominant your left half is, try to say only the COLOR of the following words:

 

How did you go? If the left brain is dominant it will try to overrule the right brain by reading the word instead of allowing you to focus solely on its color. And yes, left-brainers, I am aware of the spelling mistake! :P

Similar to the yin-yang symbol, the hemispheres of the brain represent opposing forces of energy, yet each also contains the other within it. Both sides of the brain are being used when we do any task, be it creative (right-brain) or analytical (left-brain), but how the task is approached and carried out is influenced by which side of the brain is dominating at the time. Ultimately, we perform best when we use the whole brain in balance - a brain using both sides of itself equally and in harmony will succeed in utilizing its full potential. Einstein and Leonardo DaVinci are famous examples of whole brain thinkers.

 Although a simplistic explanation, here are some of the general characteristics or 'personalities' of the different hemispheres. (Importantly, although the two hemispheres can be seen to represent masculine and feminine energies, this does not refer to males and females - men and women both use the right and left sides of their brains, and have masculine and feminine energies within them.)

The LEFT BRAIN =  masculine energy = controls the right side of the body and is adept at language, facts, science, math, strategies, details, following formulas and carrying out instructions. It thinks hierarchically and dualistically, it likes to label and categorise things to understand them. Apparently, the left brain is responsible for the body's movement towards the right, so when we read from left-to-right our left brain is being activated.

The left brain gives us our concept of time, analysing the past and planning for the future. This makes the left brain very outcome-oriented.

While we chose our words with the left brain, we chose our tone of voice with our right brain because we process our emotions with the right side.

The RIGHT BRAIN = feminine energy = controls the left half of the body. Engages with the experience of the present moment, guided by feelings, intuition, imagination and subjective thinking. Creative, impulsive, emotional, thoughtful, and appreciates the beauty of form, movement and sound. It is also representative of the heart because of its ability to comprehend empathy, compassion and to see the bigger picture.

The left brain has gotten a bad rap lately as we come to terms with the destructive nature of our logical-yet-insane patriarchal (left-brain dominant) society; its easy to paint the picture of a stern left-brain 'school teacher' character holding a whip and ruining all the child-like right-brain's fun. But it is the imbalance that is the problem and not the left-brain itself. Without our left-brain we would be in big trouble, unable to speak or read or even have an idea of ourselves as individuals, seperate from the objects around us. 

Jill Bolte-Taylor explains in this amazing talk what it feels like when the left-brain shuts down (due to a stroke) and the right-brain takes over:

How to Achieve a Balance:

By achieving the balance of our right-left hemispheres, we can end the war of the opposing energies within our own minds. Masculine and feminine can work together in unison. We can be creative and imaginative, and realistic and practical at the same time... glory be.

There are larger lifestyle changes that can help us to maintain this balance, like choosing activities that will stimulate our brains in new ways - for example if you are an accountant, try playing an instrument or dancing in your spare time. Or if you are a visual artist, try learning a new language to stretch your mind. Both sides of the brain work on a use-it-or-lose-it basis.

A more immediate way to balance our brains is through Alternate Nostril Breathing. Its been discovered that as our brain hemispheres alternate their influence, so does which nostril we are breathing through! If the left-brain is dominating, our right nostril will be doing most of our breathing and vice versa. We tend to switch back and forth between the two unconsciously around 10 times a day. We can bring an immediate balance our brain hemispheres through the practice of conscious alternate nostril breathing.   

As you breathe imagine the breath coming in one nostril, up and over the bridge of your nose, and out the other nostril. Here's how its done:

How do you react when someone wrongs you? Some people will yell, scream and rage, I will usually disappear off in a huffy cloud of self-righteousness and refuse to speak to them (I'm quite passive-aggressive sometimes). Everyone has their preferred form of sweet revenge!

But who are we really punishing? Harboring anger and resentment is actually damaging our own spirits and even physical health, not theirs! Darn it!

Of course there are some things that we can never forgive and we certainly don't have to. But most of the day-to-day grudges we have with people are really best let go of - because they are only hurting us and holding us back from being our true, open-hearted and loving selves.

This exercise really helps me to forgive others and myself, by recognizing that we all hurt each other at times, no matter how hard we want to avoid it... its just one of the less-cool side effects of being a human. None of us can escape being hurt or hurting others sometimes. But to forgive is to stop the hurt right now in this moment, a beautiful thing to experience...


How its Done:

Firstly identify someone who you are having trouble forgiving and what exactly they have done to upset you. Say in your heart, "I'm ready to forgive you."

Then remember a situation in which you hurt someone you loved in the past and you still feel bad about it. Say in your heart, "I'm ready to forgive myself too."

Cycling back and forth between forgiving your enemy for their mistakes and then forgiving yourself for your own past mistakes is the secret to this formula so keep repeating it until you feel a real shift in your heart. It can bring up some painful emotion at first but I always find myself eventually smiling and feeling a tonne of sympathy for the whole human race and our human condition!

It really works for me, I hope it works for you too... please let me know!

Our screen-oriented culture is training our eyes to work largely in foveal vision; focused directly ahead, in tunnel-vision. This becomes a problem because we literally lose track of the bigger-picture, becoming disproportionately anxious and concerned over the small details that have preoccupied our minds.

Peripheral vision is about watching what’s happening at the edges – the periphery – of your field of vision, and has been proven to have powerful calming and mind-enhancing effects.

Emotional Coach Andy Smith explains,
 "While the value of peripheral vision seems to have been largely forgotten in modern society, it has a long track record in older cultures. Shamanic cultural traditions such as Hawaiian Huna used peripheral vision as a way into altered states. Martial arts encourage peripheral vision as a means to relaxed alertness. Carlos Castaneda’s books on Mexican shamanism refer to peripheral vision as a way of ‘stopping the world’: shutting down the internal dialogue or ‘inventory’ with which, Castaneda maintains, we create our everyday consensus reality."

This exercise will refresh tired screen-eyes and uses the power of our peripheral vision to balance perception, calm stress and anxiety, and enhance awareness.

Try it out and feel the interesting effect it has... :)