Comments on: This Month In O Dec 2008 : Feed Your Right Brain

By: Holiday Joy, Holiday Stress : A Greener Tea

Holiday Joy, Holiday Stress : A Greener Tea — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:41:00 +0000

[...] brutal honesty to see our limitations clearly enough to actually change them. After the article This Month In O December 2008 : Feed Your Right Brain, Holly commented candidly about what she’s learned about coping with stress. I know this [...]

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:26:13 +0000

Christine,

Thanks for the wonderful comments about my blog. I’ve had a chance to look at your blog, and while the focus is on women, much truth and inspiration for men can be gleamed from your blog as well. Thanks for sharing your heart and head with us!

By: Holly Grasse

Holly Grasse — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:48:29 +0000

Hi
Over the past year I have learned a lot about stress and how it has such a negative impact on your body and health. It took a health crisis for me to understand that I wasn’t doing a good job at handleing stress – In fact I was just about to implode with mental turmoil. I thought the reason that my mind was always racing was because i was a very busy person and that others were bothering me too much, or blocking me, or not understanding me. I thought was handling stress because I exercised regularily. I didn’t understand how much mental choas stress was causing me. Then of course things changed. I have had to learn a few very basic things:
1 – have relaxation time every day
2. control your thinking and if your thoughts start to race, use self talk to control it.
3. I get more done now because my mind is calm and can stay on task and complete a task, instead of running all over, frantic, freaking out about being busy, and wasting energy being stressed.
I am a true believer in the evils of stress. If I feel it sneaking in to my mind/thinking I immediately have to stop what I am doing and clear my mind to get back on track of being mentally present and not stressing.

Holly

By: Christine Scaman

Christine Scaman — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:55:00 +0000

Hi, Eric,

The improvement in your drawings is remarkable. I read Edwards’ books years ago and have to make a conscious effort to switch into that way of seeing that is needed to draw, but I still try to do it often. It was such a revelation to me, like there’s a whole world hidden inside the one I usually look at.
I particularly appreciated your articles on shifting from L to R brain – the first one is here

http://vitaljourney.org/2008/11/26/how-do-you-shift-from-left-brain-to-right-brain/

and the second links from there. You got some great responses. I enjoyed Tony’s Think vs. Feel. To put it in the context of what I do each day, it reminded of extracting teeth. You can think about “the root is here” or “the angle for the point of leverage is here” or you can just let your hand figure it out. Getting a needle into the vein of a 17 year old cat is much the same. It’s all feel.

Ann Marie,

Wonderful thoughts. I am by nature a resistor. I contest, I exert, I strive. All it serves to do is tire me out.
I completely agree with you that if you could just decide that you’re fine with whatever is happening, and hope the bad will pass soon, you can watch your life get easier.
If only we could stop fighting with ourselves.

By: Ann Marie

Ann Marie — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:45:21 +0000

“I don’t know if it’s better to fight and resist all the time or accept. Is accepting a type of resignation and a sign that hope has been lost? The nurses on the surgical team in Zimbabwe notice that the Africans are more accepting of what life brings.”

Just a comment from my readings on the above: Life certainly deals out challenges; however, these situations are as they are. It’s our thinking and thoughts about the situation that causes pain.
I believe it is better to yield to and accept the situation; resisting only strengthens it. In the U.S. we have a war on terror, a war on drugs, a war on crime, a war on poverty. These wars have only strengthened or increased poverty, crime, drugs, terror, etc. thanks for letting me comment!

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:57:55 +0000

I’m 55 years old and started taking a class in September that was loosely based on Betty Edwards Drawing on the right side of the Brain principles. There are six of us in the class and dare I say I think we are all over 50. Every one of us are drawing well after just a few short lessons.

Here are my pre-instruction drawings and the latest post that shows our first attempt at drawing with an eraser (highlights and shadows).

http://vitaljourney.org/2008/10/25/learning-to-draw-at-age-54-update-2-preinstruction-drwaings/

http://vitaljourney.org/2008/11/25/learning-to-draw-at-age-54-update-10-shadows-and-highlights/

If you want to get in touch with your Right Brain (R-Mode), consider taking a Betty Edward’s styled class.

ALso read the book referenced in this post A Whole New Brain. Totally awesome!