Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life

by Jill Bolte Taylor

Overview

The New York Times best-selling author of My Stroke of Insight blends neuroanatomy with psychology to show how we can short-circuit emotional reactivity and find our way to peace.

For half a century we have been trained to believe that our right brain hemisphere is our emotional brain, while our left brain houses our rational thinking. Now neuroscience shows that it's not that simple: in fact, our emotional limbic tissue is evenly divided between our two hemispheres. Consequently, each hemisphere has both an emotional brain and a thinking brain. In this groundbreaking new book, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor presents these four distinct modules of cells as four characters that make up who we are: Character 1, Left Thinking; Character 2, Left Emotion; Character 3, Right Emotion; and Character 4, Right Thinking.

Everything we think, feel, or do is dependent upon brain cells to perform that function. Since each of the Four Characters stems from specific groups of cells that feel unique inside of our body, they each display particular skills, feel specific emotions, or think distinctive thoughts. In Whole Brain Living, Dr. Taylor shows us how to get acquainted with our own Four Characters, observe how they show up in our daily life, and learn to identify and relate to them in others as well. And she introduces a practice called the Brain Huddle—a tool for bringing our Four Characters into conversation with one another so we can tap their respective strengths and choose which one to embody in any situation.

The more we become familiar with each of the characters in ourselves and others, the more power we gain over our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, and our lives. Indeed, we discover that we have the power to choose who and how we want to be in every moment. And when our Four Characters work together and balance one another as a whole brain, we gain a radical new road map to deep inner peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401961985
Publisher:	Hay House Inc.
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist. In 1996 she experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain causing her to lose the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Her memoir, My Stroke of Insight, documenting her experience with stroke and eight-year recovery, spent 63 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list and is still routinely the #1 book about stroke on Amazon.


Dr. Taylor is a dynamic teacher and public speaker who loves educating all age groups, academic levels, as well as corporations about the beauty of our human brain and its ability to recover from trauma. In 2008 she gave the first TED talk that ever went viral on the Internet, which now has over 27 million views. Also in 2008, Dr. Taylor was chosen as one of TIME Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World" and was the premiere guest on Oprah Winfrey's "Soul Series" web-cast.

Table of Contents

Preface: Peace Is Just a Thought Away ix

Part I A Brief Look inside Your Brain 1

Chapter 1 My Story and Our Brain 3

Chapter 2 Brain Anatomy and Personality 21

Chapter 3 Our Brain's Team: The Four Characters 31

Part II Your Four Characters 45

Chapter 4 Character 1-Left Brain Thinking 47

Chapter 5 Character 2-Left Brain Emotional 75

Chapter 6 Character 3-Right Brain Emotional 103

Chapter 7 Character 4-Right Brain Thinking 125

Chapter 8 The Brain Huddle: Your Power Tool for Peace 149

Part III The Four Characters in the Wild 173

Chapter 9 Connection to Ourself-Our Four Characters and the Body 175

Chapter 10 Connection with Others-Our Four Characters in Romantic Relationships 191

Chapter 11 Disconnection and Reconnection-Our Four Characters in Addiction and Recovery 205

Chapter 12 The Last 100 Years-Our Four Characters and the Influence of Technology 235

Chapter 13 Perfect, Whole, and Beautiful 259

Index 277

Acknowledgments 287

About the Author 289