A Brain Left Without A Right Is No Brain Of Mine
The events of 2020 have been one for the record books. Do any of these behaviors sound familiar to how the majority of our society has reacted to the situations of 2020?
Loss of the broader picture
Information replaces knowledge
Loss of concepts of skill and judgment
Loss of the sense of uniqueness
Quantity the only criterion
Rationality is replacing reasonableness
Failure of common sense
Systems designed to maximize utility
Loss of social cohesion
Depersonalization
Paranoia and lack of trust
Government need for total control
Anger and aggression
The passive victim
Spectators rather than actors
I recently watched a very interesting online lecture by psychiatrist Dr. Iain McGilchrist. The talk was based on his most recent book, “The Master and His Emissary.” To summarize, the lecture was about how the modern world has become overly fixated and controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. All of the above behaviors are accentuated by a brain that is excessively governed only through its left hemisphere neurophysiology.
The cerebrum makes up the largest aspect of our brain. It contains the most evolved portion of the brain, the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is often considered the seat of intelligence: attention, perception, awareness, thought, memory, language, and consciousness are all associated with the cerebral cortex. Motor control and sensory interpretation are also under the control of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is separated into two parts: the left and right hemispheres.
While each hemisphere is not entirely compartmentalized in function, each hemisphere is attuned for certain neurotransmitters, emotions and Nerve System responses.
The left hemisphere drives for answers while the right hemisphere searches for questions. The left hemisphere is often associated with logic and reason while the right hemisphere is linked to creativity and imagination.
How did our society become so left-brain dominant? We have created an overly-stressed and inactive culture that “over-feeds” into the normal physiology of the left hemisphere of the brain. The brain, like all other aspects of us, needs balance. Our culture, and our brains by association, have become tilted.
In the brain, there are two main neurotransmitters that regulate the balance between the right and left hemispheres. In the right hemisphere, serotonin is the major regulator. Serotonin associates with many different functions and feelings. Emotionally, it is linked to feelings of appreciation, affirmation and adoration for others.
Functionally, it is linked with the Parasympathetic comfort response. The Parasympathetic response is a part of the Autonomic Nerve System. The Autonomic Nerve System controls organ function that is outside of our conscious attention.
When our body gears up to eat, digest, rest and heal, the Parasympathetic division of our Nerve System releases higher doses of serotonin. This is why the Parasympathetic division is often called the “rest and digest” or “meal and heal” aspect of the Nerve System. The Parasympathetic branch responds to comfort and ease.
In the brain’s left hemisphere, dopamine is the main regulating neurotransmitter. Like serotonin, dopamine associates with a plethora of emotions and operations of the body. Self-reward and motivation is often linked with dopamine from an emotional standpoint.
It is also released in higher doses when the Sympathetic stress response engages. The Sympathetic branch is another member of the Autonomic Nerve System. When we are threatened, either physically or emotionally, the Sympathetic stress response helps provide a short-term solution to combat the situation.
For example, if you are hiking the Appalachian trail and a bear crosses your path, your brain will release dopamine along with other hormones to gear itself up to either fight off the bear or run like heck away from it. Physical stress often initiates what is called a “fight or flight” action.
If we are in situations that make us feel isolated, anxious or uneasy, dopamine releases in an attempt to help motivate us to search for connection and safety. This is called the “tend and befriend” action of the Sympathetic stress response.
When in proper balance, emotions and functions of the brain hemispheres and Autonomic nerve responses can act in harmony and express healthy action. For more information on this topic, check out my other blog, “Life Occurs at the Intersection of Chaos and Order.”
Dissonance and imbalance occurs when we “over-feed” one division or hemisphere of the Nerve System. When we “over-feed” certain aspects of our Nerve System we are actually over-stimulating and over-activating that section. For more information on this topic, check out my other blog, “Life Occurs at the Intersection of Chaos and Order.”
When one section overstimulates, the counter-balancing section becomes under-used and inhibited. Excessively activating one brain hemisphere can actually cause your head to have a chronic tilt up on the side that is overstimulated.
If you are constantly activating left hemisphere emotions and the release of dopamine, the right hemisphere becomes unactivated and serotonin represses. Also, if you are repeatedly drawn into a Sympathetic stress response without resolution, that chronic state of stress will also create a positive feedback loop of dopamine release.
The receptors of the brain and body that accept dopamine will eventually become desensitized to it over time and require more and more dopamine to “feed” their need. But the brain and body can only create so much dopamine at one time. The tank starts to run empty.
So when the brain or body can’t get their “fix” of dopamine, a withdrawal reaction can occur. You can start to feel unmotivated, depressed, anxious and insecure more easily. Which only triggers your brain and body to want to produce more dopamine. Which it can’t release enough of, which makes you more unmotivated, depressed, anxious and insecure. The slippery slope of a downward spiral.
Along with the over-activation of the left hemisphere and Sympathetic stress response, the audio-visual portions of our brain are being overstimulated as well. We live in an Audio-Visual dominant world. If we ever lift our own heads away from our smartphones and unplugged the earphones, we might notice the world around us is fixated in an Audio-Visual position.
The temporal lobe associates with audio interpretation and the occipital lobe associates with visual interpretation. Audio-visual input can excite the Sympathetic Nervous System as well as engage flexors muscles. As we know, the Sympathetic branch is linked to the stress response.
The flexor muscles identify with protection and self-preservation. The quintessential flexed position is the fetal position, the form the fetus takes while in the womb. Don’t think the fetal position is just somethings infants do. There are many variations of the fetal position we all take as adults when exposed to an event that scares us, catches us off guard, or forces us to protect ourselves.
What is the solution? The answer is simple in principle, but not necessarily in practice. In short, we need more right brain engagement, less stress and more movement. I know, easier said than done.
Right Brain Engagement
We all need to be emotional members of AAA: Adoration, Appreciation and Affirmation. And these three A’s are not centered on us, but on others. We need to feel appreciation for others, affirmation in others and adoration of others. Feeling these emotions help increase serotonin production in the right hemisphere.
The best way to gain adoration for someone is to learn from them. Find a teacher, mentor, counselor or religious instructor that resonates with you and causes you to think and expand your mind.
To increase appreciation in your life, add the tried and true statements of ‘please’, ‘thank-you’ and ‘you’re welcome’ into your everyday conversations. These statements reinforce the fact that you are not in this alone and you need others and others need you.
While affirmation is often thought of as being ‘self-love’, affirmation requires you to act out (not in) with regards to love. Love in action should never be centered on the self but centered on those around you.
Less Stress
One of the most deceiving aspects of stress is that when you are stressed for a long period of time, you don’t often know you are stressed. When we are in a stressed state, blood and nutrients are shunted away from our frontal cortex, the part of the brain that is associated with consciousness and self-actualization. The more you live in that state of stress, the less conscious you become to it. Chronic stress makes us unconscious robots on a spinning wheel of fear, resentment, rejection and isolation. For more information of this topic, check out my other blog, “Feed Fear, Starve Health.”
In order to de-stress, you need to know what is causing the stress so you can confront it. Stress can be categorized into three subgroups: physical, chemical and emotional. Physical and chemical stress is easier to understand due to their inherent material nature. Emotional stress is more abstract. A bad day at work, a fight with your spouse, the loss of a loved one, or even watching the news all day can be gateway triggers into chronic stress. Evaluating how you manage your career, your relationships, and your time can help you re-orient your choices in life towards a more positive demeanor.
Cutting down on stress allows the Parasympathetic Nerve System to function better. Digestion, healing and higher brain functioning can be optimized.
More Movement
If you are reading this blog, you are probably curled up on a couch with your smartphone or hunched over a computer at work browsing your favorite social media posts (don’t look now, but your boss is right behind you).
Studies have shown that children and young adults can spend anywhere between 6 to 9 hours a day sitting on some type of screened-device. And please don’t think the youth are alone in this. We all fall prey to screen fixation and habitual stagnation. A sedentary lifestyle is often a family affair. There is a strong correlation between a sedentary lifestyle and the prevalence of diabetes and heart disease, in both the young and old alike. What you don’t do can kill you.
We are designed to move. Over half our body is built with locomotion in mind (for more information on this topic, check out my other blog, ”Go Outside and Play: The Importance of Movement”). If we are not engaging that half on a daily basis, atrophy can set in. And atrophy not only of the muscles, ligaments and bones but nerve tissue can also deteriorate as well. So get up and move! Only after you’re done reading my blog of course.
So how does Chiropractic fit into this picture? Chiropractic doesn’t fit into the picture but is the frame in which we observe the picture. Chiropractic can accentuate the artwork we call life by promoting well-being through a healthy Nerve System. A Nerve System working at its greatest potential can turn a careless doddle into a true masterpiece.
- Jarek Esarco, D.C.
Related Blogs:
Feed Fear, Starve Health
Life Occurs at the Intersection of Chaos and Order
Go Outside and Play: The Importance of Movement