Whole Brain Living:
The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life
“One of the most articulate and persuasive teachers of our generation, (Dr. Jill) has once again brought her deep knowledge of neuroanatomy to bear on how we think, feel, and live our lives. Whole Brain Living illustrates how understanding the relationships between the different parts of our beautiful brains can liberate us to know, experience, and be our best, most authentic selves.”
— Jeffrey D. Rediger, M.D.
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. Ranked #1 on Amazon in the following categories: Stroke, Neuroscience, Neurological Diseases, Nervous System Diseases, and Stress Management.
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. It is common knowledge in the world of neuroscience that our emotional limbic tissue is evenly divided between our two hemispheres, which means that each hemisphere has both an emotional module and a thinking module of cells. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor describes how these four distinct groups of cells underly four distinctive and universal Characters that we each have: Character 1 – Left Thinking; Character 2 – Left Emotion; Character 3 – Right Emotion; and Character 4 – Right Thinking.
Everything we think, feel, or do is completely dependent upon brain cells to perform that function. Since each of our Four Characters stem from a unique group of cells that exhibit very specific skill sets, we can easily train ourselves to recognize which of these Four Characters we are embodying during any moment.
In Whole Brain Living, Dr. Jill introduces us to each of our Four Characters, shows us how to recognize them when they show up in our daily life, and then helps us identify the Four Characters in others so we can create healthier relationships.
Finally, Dr. Jill introduces a practice called the BRAIN Huddle—which is a tool designed to bring our Four Characters into conversation with one another, so we each have the power to choose which character we would like to embody in any situation.
The more we become familiar with each of the Four Characters in ourselves and others, the more power we gain over our thoughts, feelings, relationships, and overall lives. When our Four Characters work together and balance one another as a whole brain, we gain a radical road map to our own deep inner peace. We really do have the power to choose who and how we want to be in every moment – regardless of our external circumstances.