More of the mind

I was watching Oprah the other day and she had Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor on her show to share her story with everyone, and it reminded me of what I read in A Whole New Mind. She is a neuroanatomist who specializes in how the brain works and she ended up having a stroke. This caused the entire left side of her brain to "shut down," if you will. When she was explaining how she interpreted different situations and what not, it matched up with what Daniel Pink said in his book. She remained conscious the entire time (it took eight years to recover) and she lost all memory of names, phone numbers, people's relationships to her and a lot of other important factors of a person's life. She said that she didn't understand the little details of most situations, but she could see the larger picture, the whole context. 

I just thought that this was so interesting because she was able to recover and figure her way out of things based solely on using her right hemisphere. 

You should check it out and read more about her story, it is fascinating...

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20080904_tows_stroke/1

A Whole New Mind

Daniel H. Pink's book, A Whole New Mind, was very interesting and intriguing but definitly left me with mixed feelings about his overall theory of left brain thinking vs. right brain thinking. I mentioned this in class yesterday, and I still feel the same way in that he set up the book very well and did a great job of getting people (ie me) excited about what was going to fill the rest of the pages. I was amuzed by his logic and theory and I wanted to know more about it, but when I finished the book I kind of felt jipped in a small way. 

To support his thoery in the first half of the book, and in the rest too I guess, he used great examples and real-life situations that one could step back and see the design, empathy, plyafulness or whatever in it. When I got through the last chapter, I could not help but immediatley be reminded of The Secret. They did the exact same thing, but with different logic and thinking, in presenting their theory as some ground-breaking magic that is going to change the world and everyone's lives forever! But....no. I feel like with both The Secret and A Whole New Mind, facts were presented, and yes, they were very intriguing, but this is all stuff that most logical people already know! A good balance in one's life between a variety of facets is of course going to make a well rounded, "both-brain thinker." 

However, I will applaud Pink in his use of good examples, situations, groups of people, and grabbing the readers attention to begin with. He definitly made his point through the use of these, and I think that he deserves credit for that. I also appreciate his ability to bring these topics to the forefront of things as a way to remind readers (and hopefully much of the world) that there is a shift in thinking, and that all of the "six senses" are things that we as busy-hurry-up-and-get-with-it Americans need to stop, breathe, and think about them and apply them to our lives. We don't give certain aspects of our lives enough credit and we tend to pay attention to little details and small insignificant things rather than looking at the whole picture (left vs. right brain thinking right at your hands!). 

In the beginning of the book I got the impression that Pink is somewhat ignorant just to try and make his point (ie Abundance, Asia, and Automation). Some of the wording that he used was slightly insignificant and almost over-exaggerated, but once I got towards the end I was able to better appreciate his ideas and theory because of his well-thought research and application. 

My favorite part of the book was the "Play" section because I am a firm beleiver in laughter being the best medicine and I think that our country especially does not enjoy it enough. We take things too seriously and fail to laugh at little things, stupid things, and even ourselves. I think it is great that there are laughter groups all over the place that are taking an appreciation for what it's worth. I have never been to a laughing group, and honestly I think they sound very interesting and entertaining at the same time. I bet the people there seem kind of crazy, but they are enjoying one of the best things, in my opinion, that we can do for ourselves: laughing out loud. 

KDUR memebership drive

This week a fundraiser for KDUR is going on. Help out the college-based radio station by giving support through $$ and volunteering. KDUR is a non-commercial radio station that is both student and professionally run-so it sounds great! You can also listen online at KDUR.org for free.

Respnse to Sarah's Post

Wow! I heard about this particular incident, but actually seeing it makes me want to vomit. I completely agree with you and the fact that she doesn't even know the name of, oh I don't know... maybe HER TOWN newspaper is shocking. The idea that she could potentially be a future president (God forbid McCain and her win) is very, very scary.


https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7977599764654882500&postID=5269591015075114215&page=1

Bitch

This is one of my favorite magazines at the moment (besides Elle, star, US and other gossip tabloids...). The essays and articles that contribute to the contents of the magazine include, what Bitch refers to as a "feminist response to pop culture". There are a lot of interesting points of view that do a good job of deconstructing many of the media's messages and biased ideals. 

If you are interested you can check it out at:

http://bitchmagazine.org/

Final Debates

This is the third and final Presidential debate, and this one was definitly interesting. If you haven't already, check it out...

Brain exercises

After looking at the list of 120 things that one can do to improve their brains I noticed how many of these things are done in a normal day, despite the intentions of doing so. For example, showering with your eyes closed. This is something that I do a lot, and I think that lot of people do anyways because a) it is relaxing and b) you don't want to get soap in your eyes! Other things such as mind mapping and being ambidextrious (spelling?) are both ways to improve your brain, and I think that both things are used frequently without even realizing it. I am definitly a list maker so the mind mapping is a given for people like me. And, when you are eating something that requires a fork and a knife people will often times put the fork in their opposite hand than they are used to with the knife in their dominant hand.
Out of all of the things that I could do to improve my brain, I decided to go after #1: puzzles and brainteasers. I really enjoy brainteasers so I thought that this would be perfect. I went down the list of exercises and preformed/played about six of them. Of the ones that I played I really liked the basketball passing one with the gorilla, and the memory one in which a chimpanzee challenged you.
On the first puzzle I counted 28 times that the balls were passed. I also noticed the gorilla and found it annoying and distracting because he/she kept getting in the way. I looked for the answer to the puzzle and could not find it. Did anyone else get a different one??
For the second game I was really challenged. That stupid chimp kept beating me, but the more I played it the closer I got to beating him. I started the game with an average score of 4 and progressively ended with a 7. What can you do? A chimp has better memory skills than me.
These exercises remind me of the "brain gym" exercises that I did in my class, Issues in Women's Health. We were taought similar things and often practiced cross-training to "spice" up the mind and stretching for the memory. Cross-training is very simple and invovles using both sides of your brain example: touching your right elbow with your left knee, touching your left hand with your right foot. Simple.
I find these different exercises and what not to be very interesting, especially since they all SEEM to be simple, when in reality they are real challenges for our brains. You should try the chimp one...
http://games.lumosity.com/chimp.html