How you think matters

I’ve been reading the book Talk is Not Cheap!: Saving the High Costs of Misunderstandings at Work and Home. The author explains, “Thoughts are not idle.  Make yours work for, not against, you.”

 

What has intrigued me is the discussion of the two halves of the brain and how we can use them. 

 

 

She explains that when it is awake and alert, the left part of my brain tries to protect me by reminding me of messages I got while growing up and outcomes of previous experiences, for example.  

 

But when the logical part of my brain shuts down at night, the right side, the creative part, is always on. And, as it turns out, is very gullible. 

 

So when the right brain is unrestrained by the left, I can dream.  But also I can trick it!  

 

 

Since the left-brain is slow to re-engage after turning off–say right before you fall asleep and as you wake up–you can consider this prime time to influence your thinking.

 

It also turns out that the right part of our brains can’t tell the difference between actually performing an action and just imaging it.

 

 

Using this information, for example, as part of their training athletes will enter a relaxed state (which turns off the left half) and just imagine that they are playing their sport.

 

And when one of my MS callers admitted that she often wakes up in a panic, I suggested she try repeating affirmations or practice visualizations right before bed and again when she first wakes up.

 

In fact I now consider the 30-minutes before I go to sleep and the 30-minutes after I wake up, to be fragile, sacred, potent!

 

 

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