Left-Brain, Right-Brain: Battle for dominance

I always felt creative and secretly wanted to be seen as a creative person, but the scientific evidence to the contrary always made me question myself.

My whole life I have been very right-hand dominant, meaning I am left-brained dominant.

I am organized, logical, precise and detail oriented.

When I type, my words are often spelled wrong. Not because I can’t spell (although that is a problem sometimes), it is because I always strike the letters on the right side of the keyboard first. I only type with about four fingers and my right fingers are much faster getting to the keys than my left.

When you are kids you love to try new things, like writing with your opposite hand. For me,writing with my left-hand was a disaster. I couldn’t even write my name. Everyone laughed at me.

Being right-hand dominant was even more obvious when I would hold my hands side-by-side, palms up, pinkie to pinkie. My right pinkie was string, straight and well developed. My left, was a crooked, shriveled, deformity. It was really gross and I used to love freaking people out by showing them.

But, things have begun to change. Over the last few months I have begun to embrace and explore my creative side. I write every day. I’ve tried painting. I have colored pencils, a rainbow of magic markers and a box of triangle shaped beginner crayons. I have scissors and glue.

I also borrowed some of my husbands old drafting tools and templates to play with. I studied drafting for four-years in high school and even worked as a draftsman for a time in my twenties. My old skills came back to me as I sketched out and and precisely laid out elaborate drawings to remodel our house and landscape the yard.

I’ve really had fun, letting my creative side out, letting her dominant for awhile. But, it’s like letting a genie out of a bottle, she doesn’t want to return.

The change was most obvious to me when I recently bought a special journal to write in left-handed. I decided to journal and answer three questions, ‘What did I learn today?’ “How did I grow today?’ and ‘How did I share today?’ To challenge myself I decided to answer all three question by writing with my left-hand. My thinking was that if I practiced writing left-handed, it would be like lifting weights and I would build my right-brained muscle. And, maybe my handwriting would improve to the point that some day it would be legible some day.

But, a surprising thing happened. I can write with my left hand now. The letters might be a little crooked, but it is very readable and even has it’s own quirkiness to it. Who knew?

Then, I held my hands side-by-side, palms up, pinkie to pinkie. I hadn’t done this in years. To my amazement, my left pinkie, once crooked, shriveled and deformed is looking almost normal. It’s still a little crooked and still a little small, but way stronger than it ever was.

No wonder I have been having such a hard time concentrating lately in the professional, left-brained dominant world I live in every day. My right-brain seems to have decided she’s been quiet long enough. I don’t think she will play the submissive role I’ve held her in any longer. She’s come out to play and she’s not going back.

Now, I’m curious. Who is going to win this battle? Does there have to be a winner? Will the two hemispheres of my brain settle down and find a peaceful coexistence?

…Sounds like a season ending cliff hanger. Kinda of like ‘Who shot JR?’

Thanks for hanging out with me today. Comment or reply below.