"One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...
Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist.""
"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career." Jill Bolte Taylor
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
About the speaker:
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. (Click on her name link above for more info about her.) The reason she became a brain scientist is because her brother is schizophrenic.
TED is this amazing gathering of speakers that takes place every year in Monterey. The talks are now online. Here's one about literally blowing your mind that totally blew my mind. Please take the time; it really is an amazing 18:44 minutes.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
Notable speakers on the TED website include Stephen Hawking, Daniel Goleman, Sherwin Nuland, Steven Pinker, Michael Pollan, Jane Goodall, Isabel Allende, BONO, Steven Johnson, Dr. Dean Ornish... 198 speakers on their website to date.
4 comments:
Thank you for sharing, what an amazing story. TED talks are such a wonderful thing!
Thank you for that. Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight is one of the most incredible stories I've heard in a long time. Her TEDTalk video blew my mind wide open to new possibilities. On the one hand, there's what she went through and how she emerged from it. On the other hand, there's what she can teach all of us.
I saw the 4 part Oprah interview on Oprah dot com Soul Series and I did learn a lot from that, but I'd like to find our more of how to do what Dr. Taylor did, without having a stroke of course!
Thin how many of us are living too much in the head, and not the heart. And of course, you can't get more left brain than a Harvard Brain Scientist. Isn't it ironic that she should be the one to have the stroke and transform from the quintessential left brainer into this ""seen the light"" disciple of finding inner peace?
I hope this movement keeps going. Maybe there will be My Stroke of Insight classes where we can practice what Jill Bolte Taylor is preaching.
MY STROKE OF INSIGHT was ranked #5 in all books sold on Amazon today and #1 in Memoirs above even Barbara Walters' memoir. Babs had been promoting her book for months in advance and Dr. Taylor's book was self-published.
Then Oprah recommended it. There's the Power of Now, and then there's the Power of Oprah!!
"My Stroke of Insight" is out in Hardcover now for less than the old paperback edition. Amazon has it for 40% off.
Stacy, thanks for stopping by and leaving such an insight filled comment. I think there are many paths to the same result. Though Jill romanticizes her experience, it came with great struggle and suffering, too. If you are desiring to strengthen the right brain, look for training in meditation, mindfulness, intuition, eastern mind/body programs such as yoga, tai chi, and chi gong, or go into the creative side, ie, Julia Cameron's books on The Artist's Way. Eckhart Tolle's teachings would also be suitable. We each seek our own path toward the wisdom we desire.
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