Attaining Balance Between The Two Halves Of The Brain

: By Barbara Heider-Rauter

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We feel good when both the rational and emotional parts of our brain interact perfectly and are in balance. Things to do with our feelings and emotions are dealt with by the right side, while the left side handles analytical thinking.

This situation is reversed in the body, however, where the left side is related to our feelings and female energy, and is controlled by the right half of the brain, while the right side of the body is subject to male, rational energy and is controlled by the left half of the brain. Throughout our lives, one side of the brain is more dominant than the other.

In the West, where the emphasis is on learning, theory and use of the intellect, the education system often places greater emphasis on the stimulation of the left side of the brain. There is frequently little opportunity to put the right side of our brain to use in any positive or useful way, and indeed we may often fear our emotions. On the whole, we have not learned to accept our feelings as something useful or we fail to give them the appropriate attention.

The Effects of Neglecting Right-Brain Development

Feelings can be seen as an expression of weakness and so the focus tends to be on over-developing the left, rational, materialistic side of our brains. In most countries the school system tends to promote this one-sided development strategy, and is proud of the fact. The neglect of the right side of the brain in education makes itself felt in unwelcome and detrimental ways, resulting in emotional coldness or indifference.

Similarly, accepting no responsibility for the well-being of our fellow human beings or feeling little or no empathy for the other creatures on this planet are also consequences of this one-sided focus on the brain. Fear of our emotions and suppressing the side of us that feels are also indicative of a strong emphasis being placed on the rational half of the brain.

Many people are insecure as far as their feelings are concerned; they no longer know what or how they feel as they have never learned to rely on what they feel within themselves or to trust in the truth of these feelings. In fact, most of us have had the opposite experience – learning that it is painful and also undesirable to delve too deeply into our feelings. Many people in Western society, where the focus is on success, made a decision in childhood to ignore their feelings rather than trust in them.

Our Conditioning: Rational, Material And Selfish

We have been conditioned to approach life in a certain way, rationally, materialistically and selfishly, with the goals of performance, success and speed. The school system did not have – and still doesn’t have – much interest in the creative forms of expression of the right half of the brain.

In some countries, just a few ‘alternative’ schools, some offering certificates not recognised by governing bodies, focus on a holistic education, recognising the infinite capacities of human beings and offering a balanced education that promotes the development of both sides of the brain. People who fail to develop their emotive, creative right brain hemisphere are more easily led, sometimes believing that the material world is all there is.

If we are conditioned only to recognise materialism, competition and mutual exploitation, the result is that we are more inclined to follow the herd. A personality that is too strongly aligned towards the left side of the brain leads to corruption, dishonesty, resentment, envy, hatred, fear and manipulation.

Achieving Wholeness and Balance

If we could achieve wholeness and if both halves of the brain could be used in balance, there would be no more division and the dream of oneness through the acceptance of opposites could be realised on Earth. We would understand that the Earth looks after us all equally and that there is no sense in behaving arrogantly or manipulatively, as the only people we hurt by doing so are ourselves.

By emphasising competition and the material side of life, we separate ourselves from the You that surrounds us, thereby standing in the way of our awakening and our path to enlightenment.

Bringing the two sides of the brain into harmony requires both work and patience. You may have placed such a strong emphasis on the left side of your brain for many years that it will take some time to awaken the right side, the emotive, creative half of the brain from its Rip van Winkle-like slumber.

Left and Right Brain: Working Together

It is also important that the two halves of the brain can begin to work together and are allowed to be involved in expressing our lives and happiness. From now on, grant logic and emotion permission to work in tandem and take part in a mutual exchange of experiences and wisdom.

Give yourself time to learn to trust your feelings and the creative expression of your life again. Let your judgemental attitude towards yourself and your progress (an attitude that stems from the left, rational half of the brain) slowly fade away to leave a loving and understanding approach to life in its wake. Never stop training the right half of your brain. Learn to trust the fact that your creative inspiration can also be useful.

Our Brain: Ingenuity HQ and Ally

Our brains can do so much more than we have been taught. To a large extent, our inventiveness and creative powers are due to the interplay between the two sides of our brain. Our completeness and health depend on their balanced co-existence, which is equally true for our brains. The heart centre we would like to use more actively and the heart voice we would like to hear more clearly are similarly connected to the right hemisphere of our brain, where the potential for recognising and expressing our emotions is located.

Our brains are both our ingenuity HQ and ally – if we can learn to use them to their full capacity, rather than just a part of them. When both sides of our brain are working in tandem, we will be able to enjoy the full expression of our lives.

The Infinity Symbol As A Healing Tool

The infinity symbol is used in a wide range of therapies to bring the two sides of our brains into balance. There are various ways in which we can help to activate our left and right brain, such as music specifically composed to balance the two halves, available in any well-stocked music store, but one of the most effective is the infinity symbol. The most common types of therapy for harmonising the brain that can incorporate work with the infinity symbol are kinesiology and Brain Gym ®.

The various exercises that engage the vibrational frequency of the infinity symbol are used in particular with children challenged by a range of learning difficulties or impaired concentration. Balancing the the two halves of the brain helps produce better coordination between thinking and feeling.

For the two halves to work well together, it is important to get used to making movements that cross the centre of our bodies. The link between the left and right halves of the brain is encouraged through such physical exercises.

Harmony Between Left and Right (Brain)

Once we learn to bring the two sides of our brains into harmony and to use both equally, we will have a far wider range of ways of expressing ourselves, enabling us to live life to the full. When our logical and emotional sides work in harmony, we feel well mentally and physically; we make wise decisions and feel powerful, competent and full of life. We are more at ease socially and in our everyday lives. We are more empathetic, not just with ourselves but with all other living creatures, and we become more resilient and better able to protect ourselves from life’s intrusions.

With the two halves of the brain in balance, we recognise when it is important to say ‘yes’, but equally learn when it is necessary to say ‘no’, striking a better balance with our innate desire to help others. We also feel more in control and stronger in terms of our self-esteem and our positive assertiveness. We are able to make the most of our cognitive abilities, learning faster and more easily, and we are better able to retain what we have learned. We develop a greater ability to concentrate and boost our memory.

Using Both Right and Left Brain in Tandem

If we want to develop a healthy society for the future, we need to move away from an emphasis and focus upon just one side of the brain towards a new equilibrium and the freedom to use both sides in tandem once more. It is not a difficult concept but patience is needed to implement the change and put it into practice in our daily life, and in every moment of it.

Distancing ourselves from a society with an exaggerated emphasis on performance is not easy, and our vanity, a trait seated in the left half of our brains, has received some thorough training over the last few decades.

Exercise: Combining the two halves of the brain

Stand up straight. Allow your left hand to hang down beside your body in a relaxed way, and work with your right hand only. With the thumb pointing upwards, describe a large sideways figure-of-eight in the air in front of you with your right hand, making sure the crossing point of the two loops is in the centre of your body, at heart level. The two loops should be balanced and the same size. Extend your right hand as far to the left and right as you can without straining and keep your torso straight. Keeping your head still, follow the movement with your eyes. Now swap hands and carry out the same exercise with your left hand. Repeat the exercise for a couple of minutes, alternating hands.

Exercise: Nose and ear

Using the fingers of your left hand, gently take hold of the tip of your nose while gently gripping your left ear with the fingers of your right hand; your right arm will be crossed over your left arm. Now simultaneously take your hands from the tip of your nose and your ear and swap the fingers of your right hand onto your nose and the fingers of your left hand onto your right ear. As you swap, your hands will describe a gentle sideways figure-of-eight in front of your face. This exercise is good for your coordination and for improving the balance between the left and right sides of your brain. It will also help make you calmer and more centred. Once you can do the exercise accurately and well, try closing your eyes for a more meditative experience, and synchronise the hand movements with your breath. You will notice how your ability to concentrate increases.

Exercise: Elephant’s trunk

Touch the tip of your nose with the fingers of your left hand. Now pass your right hand through the loop formed by your left arm. Extend your right arm through the hole and describe a figure-of-eight in the air with your right hand. Follow the movement with your eyes. After a couple of minutes, swap hands, touching the tip of your nose with the fingers of your right hand and using your left arm to draw the symbol in the air.

Tip: This is also an excellent exercise for children.

Tapping Into Our Infinite Creative Potential

These exercises, which can be carried out in succession, provide a better way into the infinite creative potential within us, of which most of us use only a tiny fraction. It is not a question of being unwilling to use our creative potential, but rather that no one has ever shown us how to get the two sides of our brain working in unison, like a well-oiled machine.

The infinity symbol offers endless possibilities to help us find a new direction for our whole being.

Copyright 2018 by Barbara Heider-Rauter. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, EarthDancer,
an imprint of Inner Traditions. www.innertraditions.com.

Article Source

The Power of the Infinity Symbol: Working with the Lemniscate for Ultimate Harmony and Balance
by Barbara Heider-Rauter

In this accessible, hands-on guide, Barbara Heider-Rauter explores the spiritual world of the infinity symbol in a personal and practical way, allowing each of us to benefit from its positive influence for balance and harmony in ourselves, our relationships, and the wider world. She details simple exercises to reconnect the two halves of the brain, the analytical and the emotional, and she teaches how to use simple visualisation, physical exercises, and directed drawing of the symbol to achieve practical results in our daily lives. Beautifully illustrated in full color.

Click here for more info and/or to order this paperback book (in English) or purchase the Kindle edition (in English).

About the Author

Barbara Heider-Rauter is a qualified educator and therapist with many years’ experience. One of the leading aura-soma experts in the world, she leads meditation evenings, seminars for personal development, and spiritual journeys. For more than 15 years, she has run a specialist spiritual shop in Salzburg, where seekers can meet kindred spirits.