Book Review: Stroke of Insight

Imagine

Through divine providence, given an opportunity to under-stand the working and the contours of ones brain

Imagine

Through divine providence, availing of this opportunity, which also happens to be your own professional and career goal. Certainly an opportunity of a life time, isn’t it

Imagine

Documenting, the working of the left and the right brain, from the emotional, to the spiritual and the physiological manifestations as they are worked through the two hemispheres of the brain, during a long, fulfilling eight years of discovery

Imagine

Appreciating the plasticity of the brain: experiencing the functions of the left and right hemisphere, as in living in the moment, recording the development, not as a matter of a theoretical endeavor, but on a quest of self-realization, self-fulfillment and recovery

Imagine

Experiencing the myriad of forces around you: positive and negative. Forces that emanate from the human spirit, the surroundings, the expansiveness of the universe that we are a part of, and hence our appreciation of being part of a larger reality, and yet at the same time, realizing our own infinitesimal existence within this universe. All of this created through the function of the right and the left hemispheres respectively

Imagine

A world of possibilities, where the creative spirit and the analytic spirit of the brain are distinguishable from each other. Where the former, brings peace, tranquility and a sense of centeredness, the later, the analytical portion, engaged in brain chatter, the ego, the self

Imagine

Where one is able to distinguish ones sense of consciousness: from doing to that of being.

Imagine

Having to learn, the basics of day to day functions, like a baby: as if given an opportunity to witness a second birth and growth through childhood

Imagine

Feeling and experiencing physical components of emotion

Imagine

Entering into a world where one explores the left and right hemispheres differences in psychology and personality, not in terms of the functional a-symmetry

Imagine

Tying all of this experience, on how we choose to respond, react and think of how we conduct our lives, by under-standing some fundamental truths about our brain is structures, particularly as it relates to the left and the right hemisphere, and the consequences it holds for taming negative emotions: anger, hate

Imagine

That such in-sights came from the experience of a stroke survivor (left side of the brain was affected), who tended to the garden of her mind for eight years in recovery, and for eight years she toiled to write a book, that helps us under-stand on a fundamental level, the relationship of the right and the left brain, from concepts of being, to ego, to mindfulness, to peace, to changing our perspectives, un-learning what we have learned to achieve that sense of presence and peace. Importantly, how she regains functions of her left brain

The book is, 'My Stroke of Insight', by Jill Bolte Taylor. The work carries a lot of significance for me, not because that it was a stroke that claimed my father’s life, or that my wife suffered a stroke early this year: it has helped me under-stand, appreciate the resiliency of the human spirit, the brain and the un-tapped mechanisms in our mind that if properly schooled and engaged with, can help one bring aspects of those brain functions back to life.

The book is meant for the lay person: the function of the brain as it pertains to the left and the right hemisphere are duly mentioned, with enough repetition that after reading the book, one comes out with a very basic under-standing of where, how sections of the brain conduct them-selves. It is a work that indeed is a tribute to the an argument for 'Design in Nature'.

Lastly, I will mention, that the author/survivor, lists the needs of one who is challenged through a brain injury. To under-stand it as a mental illness, and for those who care about you, to observe certain adab, certain etiquettes, which are principally guided by ethical and spiritual perspectives.

I would encourage every-one to read this work, which flows rather naturally.

Even reading it from the back to the beginning will avail of some brilliant insights. After reading the work, I would be hard pressed to decide if I wanted to give up my brain after the termination of my life in this world, to the Harvard Brain Bank, where further research is conducted. At the juncture when this book was written, the bank received less than 40 brains a year