“Jargon seems to be the place where the right brain and the left brain meet.” – Wendy Kaminer
I’ve been giving a bit of thought to a conversation I had with a friend the other day. We were discussing the use of the right and left brain in an individual’s day to day activities. It plays such a big part on the type of person you are, whether you are more dominantly right brained, left brained or balanced between the two. With the right brain controling things such as seeing the bigger picture, creative visualization, tactile sensory preference… while the left brain tends to lend it self to individuals more likely to be highly organized, logical, detail oriented, observationally curious… So which side of the brain is more dominant in you?
The conversation I was having with my friend was about finding the balance of the two brains, and consciously using both sides in as many situations as we could. It seems like sometimes I get lazy – going into things under the pretense that I know what I would do or what I would think, thus discarding the necessity to actually think about it and commit actions based on my thought process. By ignoring the process, I lose a bit of myself by not committing my thoughts fully. Situations may seem similar, but the outcome of life is based on a million small decisions all strung together – like a beautiful bead necklace. You can’t unstring one bead without affecting the whole necklace. We wear our necklace as an overt decoration of ourselves, one that people can admire – or not.
I think I am finding out more and more how to balance the output from both sides of my brain. I write notes to myself to keep myself organized. I have lists of things to do to keep me on track. But I am also spontaneous, and love to do things on a whim. I’m a pretty bad consumer when that part of me kicks in… I could be convinced to buy just about anything. I like looking at the bigger picture, seeing the things I see as a whole, but also going over the details with a fine tooth comb. I am particular, but with a broad scope and an open mind. I am more inclined to describe things through a photo than to tell people about it, but I love to write about details and feelings. I like to observe things from afar, but then I like to get up close and wallow in the intricacies that make it up.
To think about thinking may seem couter productive, but isn’t it really the only way to become a conscious thinker…?
To be honest, I find it a difficult thing to be conscious about your thoughts. They are something that just come naturally – sometimes we forget that we have control over our own minds. We can challenge our thoughts with questions, answers, perspectives and theories. We can add a dash of objectivity or subjectivity to spice up the mind stew. We can afford to be wrong in order to find out what’s right. We can open up a world of possibility… one where philosophical journies may be miscontrued as jargon, and where the right answer is that there is no right answer. How liberating is that!