My Stroke of Insight

“Be responsible for the kind of energy you brought to me”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, the writer of the book “My Stroke of Insight” is a scientist specialized in how the brain works. She suffered a stroke when a blood vessel burst in the left side of her brain. She explains that our brain has two sides; the left side concentrate on the details, the right and the wrong. It is responsible for language and logic. While the right side is concerned with the feelings, it helps you to be kind and to see the big picture. It is more visual and it represents your use of intuition.

In her stroke the left side was injured and only the right side was working; she did not remember whom she was and the details that happened in her past life. At the moment of her stroke, she says, “I was an infant in a woman’s body” she has no identification with the external world. Moreover, she did not recognize her mother or whether that person is her doctor or a nurse, she could not communicate with others but instead she was aware of their energy. Dr.Taylor says “I did not know what a mother was much less my mother was,” but when her mother sat beside her and held her like a baby “All I knew was this very loving, kind, generous spirit of a woman who came in, wrapped herself around me and just took ownership of loving me- and that was the new beginning.”

She says that her stroke is a blessing; it gives her an insight how to live the rest of her life in a different way. When she was recovering, as only her right side of the brain is working, she could receive all the energies that different people brought to her at the hospital. When the nurses came in and were talking to her, she did not know what they were saying- as the left side is injured- but she felt that they were lying from their energy. She says, “I was over here happy and you are over there trying to talk to me, and you had to be a really wonderful energy coming towards me in order to be willing to try to understand.”

It was painful for her that she did not have a warm touch from some nurses. As they see many sick people all the time they forget to care for every patient. When she was lying helpless in her bed in the hospital, a smile from a nurse made her felt relaxed. She says, “As opposed to someone who just comes in, deals with the machinery, ignores that there’s even a warm body in the bed,” she adds, “I did not feel safe in that person’s care.”

A nurse has read her a book and says that she now knows how patients feel on their side. She has a different approach towards them and she is now giving that extra human touch. She says, “I think about this story every time I walk into the hospital to start my shift.”

Mostly doctors and nurses who act cold, it’s a defense mechanism so as to protect themselves from any connection with the patient because if he did not survive they will get hurt, may be others do not care as their lack of sympathy.

It’s no excuse “It’s not a matter of having a defense or not,” or Dr.OZ, a well known doctor in America, says, “The right defense is to engage life.”

Taylor’s recovery took eight years; she was able to make full recovery as not all the cells in her brain were damaged, so they were able to rebuild the rest. The main part in her recovery was that she received the treatment as quickly as possible after the stroke.

When you suspects that someone is having a stroke, ask him to do three things at first to examine his/her injury:

• Smile
• Put his/her hands up {while smiling or after}
• Repeat a sentence {to know if he/she can put together words- if he/she understands it}

From this test it can be figured out which side of the brain is injured and how much is it damaged and this test must take place immediately after the injury.

Dr. Taylor says that she experienced the world in a different way through her right brain in which she reached a state of Nirvana [a state of perfect happiness and freedom in which the individual becomes absorbed into the supreme spirit, it is used often in Hinduism]. She says, “I lost my ego. I lost the cells that said, ‘I am’, because that is part of language and so it did not exist anymore.” She adds “what I gained was this incredible knowingness of deep inner peace- an excitement of realizing everything was inner connected- and I lost the boundary of my body. So, I felt that I was enormous, as big as the universe, because I no longer defined that this is where I began and this is where I ended.”

Dr. Taylor says “We let her go. We mourned the death of who I had been. We had to do that so that here I am. If I never get my cognitive mind back, if I was never capable of thinking logically again, I could still have a life. I could still be me, but I couldn’t be held to the criteria of re-achieving that,” she says, “And then we moved forward. And it was like: who am I now? Who is going to emerge from me now?”

In her recovery, she began to remember some of her past memories, of course some were negative ones. She chose to forget those painful memories and focused on her present, peaceful life and inner peace. She says, “Pay attention to what you are thinking, and then decide if those are thoughts that are creating the kind of life you want to create.” She adds, “And if it’s not, then change your thoughts. It’s really that easy.”

She was living with her right hemisphere’s limited consciousness, “I was experiencing bliss and euphoria. I was happy.” She says, “I also lost all my emotional baggage. How’s that feel? That was nice. That was freeing. I imagine what it would be like to just be in the present moment. All I had was the wonder and the splendor and the magnificence of the present moment- and it’s beautiful.”

Her stroke gives her insight; at her recovery her goal was to feel peaceful and to look at this present moment as perfect. She did not know the before or the after, the only thing she was willing for and she had was this moment. Now she makes a choice that the past and the future will not interfere in this moment. She comes in this moment as being perfect in itself and she will enjoy it.

From her experience, she affirms that the patient is in there and it is up to us to come and find him/her. Her stroke is a blessing that teaches her to choose to live life moment by moment.

See all the ways you can stay connected to friends and family.

From Oprah Winfrey Show