By Kris Carr on August 10, 2011
For many reasons I am in love with my brain, your brain, the brain. Yet until recently, I’ve known next to nothing about the most phenomenal organ in my body. Thanks to Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, “My Stroke of Insight,” I am on a new mission: Know thy brain. In doing so, I have a hunch that I will come to know myself at a deeper level.
Have you read this book? If not, I highly recommend it. Your brain will thank you, just like mine did. Here’s a nutshell synopsis from Amazon:
“On the morning of December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four brief hours. As the damaged left side of her brain – the rational, grounded, detail- and time-oriented side – swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the euphoric nirvana of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized Jill was having a stroke, and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely. In “My Stroke of Insight,” Taylor shares her unique perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery, and the sense of omniscient understanding she gained from this unusual and inspiring voyage out of the abyss of a wounded brain.”
It took Jill eight years to recover completely. How she did it and what she learned speaks to my healing journey. Not just because I have an incurable stage 4 canser, but because I am terminally human, totally complex, ever evolving, bursting with energy and “insight,” facing new struggles and triumphs just like, oh … 6.94 other billion people on the planet.
When Jill lost her left logical brain, she found her right mind. The side of her brain that sees in pictures, feels at one with the universe and perceives this whole super disco as pure energy.
When I was told that there’s no treatment, no cure and no hope for recovery, I too went into my right mind (though I am very grateful for how logical I remained, it helped me to make a brilliant, integrative, plant-based game plan). But it was my sense of wonder and flow that helped me think beyond science to fully understand energy, cellular integrity and my body’s innate healing wisdom. As I’ve said before, health is not the absence of disease; it’s the presence of vitality. Health is life force. I have it in spades. And here’s why: I’ve learned to protect and heal my energy.
I’m turning 40 in a few weeks. And that number has me thinking about a lot of things. You may have noticed that I’ve been absent lately – ever since we bought and have been renovating our little farm-ette. Mostly, I just decided to take a break … from my computer, from work and from my life as “Kris Carr: the this, that, and the other thing.” I’m back now, and I have to say, my time off was wicked fun. And I feel so totally renewed. I’ve laid off of TV (um, after thoroughly devouring 76 episodes of Battlestar Galactica and getting over my crush on Starbuck), been practicing yoga for 1-2 hrs daily (thank you Elena Brower and Tara Stiles) and have been building a serious EFT practice (thank you Nick Ortner) which has totally blown my mind – pun intended.
I’ve also been mowing, riding tractors, building unicorn pavilions and hunting rainbows – all in a days work.
Basically, I’ve been giving my brain a rest. And it’s been very enlightening.
Here are a few more golden neuron nuggets from lovely Jill:
- Protect my energy. No radio, no TV, no nervous visitors (AKA energy suckers).
- Honor the deep healing power of sleep.
- Trust that I am trying – just not with your skill level or on your schedule.
- Cheer me on. Expect for me to recover completely, even if it takes 20 years.
- Celebrate ALL my little successes. They inspire me.
- Please don’t finish sentences for me or fill in words I can’t find. I need to work my brain.
- Focus on what I can do rather than what I can’t.
- Remember that in the absence of some functions, I have gained new abilities.
- Call in the troops! Create a healing team.
- Love me for who I am today.
I highly recommend Jill’s Ted talk.
I’m also wildly inspired by what Oprah said about Jill during her final episode.
“Dr. Taylor sent me a sign that I have hanging in my makeup room. It says, ‘Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space.’ And I ask the same thing in my home and at my companies. Thank you, Dr. Taylor, for that simple but powerful lesson. All life is energy and we are transmitting it at every moment. We are all beaming little signals like radio frequencies, and the world is responding in kind.”
Both Jill and I agree that our “illnesses” were the best thing that ever happened to us. Canser (spelled wrong, just because I feel like it) and other issues in my tissues have taught me more about livin’ than dying. So let me get to the point of this musing. Give yourself (and your brain) a break. Get out of the logic and into the expansiveness. In the stillness you know exactly what you need to recover. Yes, we are all recovering from something. The sooner you embrace it, the easier it will become.
I sure hope I get to meet Jill someday. I sure hope I get to meet you, too.
Peace and plasticity,
Kris
Photo credit: ALA the American Library Association
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By Guest Blogger on August 5, 2010
“Remember sadness is always temporary. This, too, shall pass.” -Chuck T. Falcon
It has been said that creative persons, such as authors, artists, actors, musicians, performers and poets are more often plagued with the demon of depression than the general population. One of the possible explanations for this is that creative types tend to feel powerful emotions which aid their creative endeavors. In other words, some experts believe that being sensitive to one’s surroundings, including sounds, colors and people’s emotions, has been associated with both creativity and depression. Such hypersensitivity can lead people to worry about things with which other people aren’t typically as concerned, thereby increasing the potential for depression.
If we examine the lives of accomplished artists, we will observe that many battled depression at some point in their lives. A few prominent examples are Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf, William Styron, Anne Sexton, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. If you’ve ever been depressed, you probably understand the sense of helplessness and numbness which accompanies this illness. Sometimes this sense of helplessness drives creative individuals to the drawing or writing pad, but other times, it can be immobilizing.
The life of writer David Foster Wallace offers a more recent example, as he committed suicide secondary to depression. Experts have identified certain characteristics in his writing—such as hypersensitivity, constant rumination, and persistent contemplation—which researchers say can connect creativity with mental illness, especially bipolar disorder and depression. In this case, mental illness does not necessarily cause creativity, but a certain ruminating personality type may contribute to both mental health issues and artistic ability.
Some Theories Linking Depression and Creativity
First, some artists and writers admit to engaging in their craft as a kind of self-therapy for depression. In this way, their efforts to avoid depression may provide an incentive for their creative work that wards off melancholy.
Second, the experience of depression provides subject matter for artistic creations: Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s a Certain Slant of Light” are two examples.
Third, some believe that one cannot truly comprehend or convey the human condition unless one has experienced the highest emotional highs and the lowest lows. Thus, depression provides the existential angst from which great art arises.
Approximately seven percent of the general population is affected by depression or bipolar disorder, and studies have shown that this number tends to be higher among creative types. Bipolar disorder is characterized by episodes of mania and major depression. Typically, someone who is manic depressive tends to swing from excessive highs (mania) to profound hopelessness (depression). In between these episodes, they experience feelings of normalcy. Some people can also have mixed symptoms of both mania and depression simultaneously, while others may have manic symptoms that are more moderate.
In his book “Van Gogh Blues,” Eric Maisel proclaims that virtually one hundred percent of creative people suffer from episodes of depression. He supports this claim by asserting that every creative person came out of the womb ready to interrogate life and determine for herself what life would mean, could mean, and should mean. He believes that depression in creative individuals is thought of as a crisis caused by chronic, persistent uneasiness, irritation, anger, and sadness about the facts of existence and life’s apparent lack of meaning. In fact, those who try to understand the reason for their own existence will most likely be more prone to depression.
Kay Redfield Jamison, a foremost expert on bipolar disorder who has also suffered from the disease since childhood, believes that most artistic geniuses are manic depressive. Jamison is the author of “Touched with Fire” and a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her book makes a powerful link between depression and creativity.
When a writer is depressed, he or she may turn to their craft to ease the pain. The writing process can help the creative person make sense of their lives and validate what they are feeling. Writing brings us face-to-face with reality. The act of moving the pen across the page or the fingers on the keyboard can be meditative and calming. Expressing feelings helps to give meaning to life, which is helpful for us all!
Personally, I have found writing to be very therapeutic during tumultuous periods in my life. Writing my own recent memoir/self-help book, “Healing with Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey,” proved to me that in times of depression, it is very helpful to try to be creative. Pick up a notebook and just start writing!
If you haven’t tried this before, here are ten things to keep in mind:
1. Find a quiet, uninterrupted time and place to write.
2. Choose an inspiring notebook and pen.
3. Create a centering ritual (light a candle, meditate, play music, stretch).
4. Breathe deeply.
5. Put aside your inner critic.
6. Date your entry.
7. Begin by writing your feelings and sensations.
8. Write nonstop for 15-20 minutes.
9. Save what you have written.
10. Write regularly.
Diana Raab is a author of eight books and teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and in various conferences around the country. She frequently writes and speaks about journaling and her most recent memoir is Healing With Words: A Writer’s Breast Cancer Journey (June 2010).
Photo Credit: Derek Gavey
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