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Seven ways You're already Using Your "Right Brain" - and Probably Don't even Realize It

Backing your car, catching a baseball, shooting a basket, lining up that picture on the wall, decorating your home, singing in the shower, (or just plain singing for that matter), daydreaming, tossing a candy wrapper in the waste basket, matching clothes...and that' just for starters.

What do all of these have in common? It's this: they involve spatial reckoning. They make you ask questions like these: "How far a way is it? How high? How fast is this moving towards me, away from me, is this note higher or lower than that one? Does this pink blouse go with those lime-green slacks?" And you do these simple things all the time in some form, don't you?

(You don't think about it in the way you reason through a question - that is, you don't literally ask yourself "How fast did that batter just smack that baseball at me, the shortstop?" You don't even use words. You just do it. They involve calculations and judgements that are non-verbal, non- rational, non-"Left-Brained". In fact the verbal, linear, rational "Left" side of the brain just throws up it's hands and in effect says "this is beyond me".)

And the biggest clue that you've slipped in to your "Right Brain" is that you probably weren't even talking - more than likely, if you think about it, something made you quit talking, in mid-sentence. You left the words just floating off in mid-air...

Hints you're already a master
using your "right" brain

What we're looking for here are hints you already use your "Right Brain" - some may appear so trivial they're hardly worth mentioning. But all point to the fact that things you already do, and take for granted, show you're a master at them, and, that these are actually the same functions and abilities you tap when you draw, whether you draw or not.

Why learn how to do that? Because once you master this, once you're aware you can go from "left-brain" to "right-brain" and back again to "left" modes, (or go from language modes to distance and space modes) - that you can switch back and forth between them at will, that's when you've put your foot in the same room as the one you need to be in to draw. I'll say that again: once you know you can control these shifts, you can learn to draw. And I think that's pretty exciting.

Examples

1) Driving your car. Ever notice how you have to stop talking when you're backing into a tight parking spot? Or picture this: you're on the highway, you're talking to your husband or wife or friend, yelling at the kids, and you realize you got to get 2 lanes over to exit. You flip up the blinker, look over your shoulder, judge instantly how much space there is between you and that big Suburban. You give just the right touch of gas to squeeze by, jump over 2 lanes and get to your exit. Whew! You might even remember what you were talking about - depending on your urgency. ('Course, in LA you skip all those steps and just turn.)

In retrospect can you recall the moment you stopped talking? When you literally couldn't talk? Think further and recall how it "felt" in your body to judge the distance between you and the Suburban. You didn't have to reason your way through it, you didn't say "well if he's closing the gap at 65 mph, and I'm only going 60 mph, and there's 25 feet between us, and I'm moving in to the right lane at 4 feet per second..." Heck no. You knew it in a split second. I'll bet you can even recall a sudden flash, or a picture or a sensation that you knew you could squeeze by and make your exit.

Nothing miraculous right? (Though it is pretty miraculous when you think about it: "Oh it was just something I did" you say). You're tapping the part of your brain that judges distance and space, - one or more of the five skills you use while drawing. And these are very different skills than language skills

Hint: Here's the thing to look for and practice: developing an awareness that something "shifted" in your brain. "What the heck does that mean?" We're looking for simple clues that your brain is at work on all sorts of levels and modes, that it's shifting back and forth between those modes - all the time. Some involve talking, some involve physical sensations, other involve gauging distances, sound, etc. If we can identify those moments in time right around where you make those shifts, then I'll have done my job for today.

2) While listening to music. Try this little test. While you've got the radio on, listen to the singer. Sing along with it. (Try this with a song you know and like - it'll make this experiment even easier.) Pick out 3 or 4 words. Listen to the "pitch" of those 3 or 4 words (that is how high or low the note the word is sung.)

Ask yourself this: "are the notes going up or down compared to the one before it?" You may have to rewind your CD or tape five or six times before you can decide.

Now, once you've got the notes memorized, (if you know the song this'll be even easier), hum the melody again - this time without the words. Not too tough right?

One last run through this: Now just think about the notes - don't hum them or make any sound with your voice. Listen to the notes in your head - and try to talk at the same time.

Observe how you have to either quit thinking of the music or you feel a little irritated that you can't do both at the same time (or you're irritated at me for asking you to do such a redundant, "da" thing - like asking someone to clap their hands and put their hands in the pocket at the same time. It's more subtle than that, and it's my fault I'm not explaining it as clear as it could be. But that's the crux of it: this is something you experience in the moment, you have to get past words.)

When you're imagining the music, or the melody, that's when you're literally in different regions of your brain. Why? Language and music tap different parts of your brain.

Why do you feel irritated? I get irritated because I think I should be able to do two such simple things at the same time. Others explain it as a fuss the "dominant 'left' side of the brain" throws when it doesn't have full control.

If you play an instrument (like guitar or piano where your mouth is free) and you're just learning a song, try to talk while you're playing it - even professional musicians have a tough time with this one unless they have the song so well memorized it's like driving a car and talking at the same time.

The point of all this isn't to decide which side of your brain you're using, but to become aware that there are different sensibilities and skills you already possess that you can and do jump in and out of moment to moment.

5 Skills | Your Artistic History | 7 ways

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