Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor on How You Embrace Whole Brain Living EP 336

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

Are you ready to unlock the power of your mind and live a more intentional life? Join me and special guest Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor as we explore the anatomy of choice and the four characters that drive our lives. Discover how you can tap into your rational thinking, emotions, goals, and compassion to create a harmonious and fulfilling life. Dr. Taylor is the author of the Whole Brain Living. Want to learn the 12 philosophies that the most successful people use to create a limitless life? Pre-order John R. Miles’s new book, Passion Struck, releasing on February 6, 2024. Full show notes and resources can be found here:  https://passionstruck.com/dr-jill-bolte-taylor-whole-brain-living/  Embrace Intentional Living: Unlocking the Secrets of Whole Brain Living with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor Join me and Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor in an eye-opening conversation about the power of choice and the four characters that shape our lives. Let Dr. Taylor guide you through the concept of whole-brain living, where rational thinking, emotions, goals, and compassion all come together. This discussion is perfect for individuals seeking personal growth and mindful living. Don't miss out on this opportunity to make intentional choices for a fulfilling life. Brought to you by Netsuite by Oracle. Download NetSuite’s popular KPI Checklist, designed to give you consistently excellent performance at https://www.netsuite.com/passionstruck. Brought to you by Indeed: Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed dot com slash PASSIONSTRUCK. Brought to you by Lifeforce: Join me and thousands of others who have transformed their lives through Lifeforce's proactive and personalized approach to healthcare. Visit MyLifeforce.com today to start your membership and receive an exclusive $200 off. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion 50 to get 50% off plus free shipping!  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! --► Prefer to watch this interview: https://youtu.be/CoMSpgvjf-c  --► Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here: https://youtu.be/QYehiUuX7zs  Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my six simple steps to achieving it - passionstruck.com/5-simple-steps-to-find-your-passion-in-life/ Catch my interview with Dr. Caroline Leaf on Parenting or a Healthy and Confident Mind. Watch the solo episode I did on the topic of Chronic Loneliness: https://youtu.be/aFDRk0kcM40  Want to hear my best interviews from 2023? Check out my interview with Seth Godin on the Song of Significance and my interview with Gretchen Rubin on Life in Five Senses. ===== FOLLOW ON THE SOCIALS ===== * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrmiles.c0m  Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/  Passion Struck is now on the AMFM247 broadcasting network every Monday and Friday from 5–6 PM. Step 1: Go to TuneIn, Apple Music (or any other app, mobile or computer) Step 2: Search for “AMFM247” Network

Coming up next on Passion Struck. I call it the brain huddle because there are these four very specific groups of cells that result in very specific modules of abilities, skill sets. If I'm really four major characters, then getting them on the same page is to me, I truly believe the evolution of humanity. I think this is the ultimate goal,

because that way then we have the ability to use all four skill sets, but to do it in a peaceful way, motivated by the collective whole of what we are of humanity as the value base. So I truly believe that whole brain living is the embodiment of the evolution of humanities. Welcome to PassionStruct. Hi, I'm your host John Armiles and on the show we decipher the secrets,

tips and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. If any new listener great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show, either check it down in Spotify or go to passionstruck.com slash starter packs. In case you missed it, earlier in the week I interviewed Jennifer Perheni Wallace, who

is an award-winning journalist and social commentator who joined me to discuss her encyclable book Never Enough when achievement culture becomes toxic and what we can do about it. I also wanted to say thank you for your ratings and reviews and we just passed an incredible milestone of achieving over 10,000 5 star reviews on Apple Podcasts in the United States. If you love today's episode, we would appreciate you giving it a 5 star review and sharing it with your friends and families because I know we and our guests love to see comments from our listeners. Today we have a truly remarkable guest joining us, who I've wanted to have on the show for a very long time. Dr. Jill Bolt Taylor. On December 10th, 1996, Dr. Taylor, a brilliant brain scientist, trained at Harvard, experienced a life-altering event, a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. At only 37 years old, she suddenly

found herself unable to perform basic functions like walking, talking, or even remembering her own life, but amidst this unimaginable struggle, something truly remarkable happened, as her mind deteriorated, Dr. Taylor gained a profound awareness of two distinct realms within her consciousness. On one hand, there was the logical and analytical left brain, which recognized the stroke and urged her to seek help. There was the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain where she discovered a profound sense of well-being in peace. This extraordinary juxtaposition between the left and right hemispheres opened Dr. Taylor's eyes to a newfound understanding. She realized that by stepping to the right of our left brains, we can experience a realm of pure experience,

free from the inciscent chatter of our thoughts. Her journey of recovery, which spanned eight years, is beautiful and chronicled in her New York Times vessel and book My Stro chatter of our thoughts. Her journey of recovery, which spanned eight years, is beautifully chronicled in her New York Times vessel and book, My Stroke of Insight. Dr. Taylor's experience challenged the conventional wisdom that our emotional and rational minds are confined to separate brain hemispheres. Dr. Lang on the latest neuroscience research she reveals that our emotional limbic tissue

is evenly distributed across both hemispheres, giving rise to an emotional and thinking brain within each hemisphere. This groundbreaking understanding led her to introduce the concept of four distinct characters within us, left-thinking, left-amotion, right-amotion, and right-thinking. In her transformative book, Whole Brain Living, Dr. Taylor guides us on an exploration of these four characters, empowering us to recognize their presence in our daily lives. By identifying which character we embody in any given moment, we gain a deeper understanding of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. But the journey doesn't end there.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor takes us even further teaching us how to identify the four characters and others, equipping us with the invaluable tools to cultivate healthier relationships. She introduces the brain huddle, a powerful practice designed to facilitate conversation among our four characters. Through this practice we can tap into the strengths of each character and consciously choose the one we wish to embody in any situation. Join us as we embark on this enlightening conversation with Dr. Jill Bolt-Haler. An episode I did in parallel with Jennifer Braheany Wallace's episode from earlier in the week, because the two really go hand in hand. Together we'll uncover the hidden treasures within our minds and discover the extraordinary

capacity we possess to choose, whoever we want to be, and how we want to show up in every moment. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am absolutely thrilled and honored to bring Jill Bulti Taylor to Passion Struck. Welcome, Jill. Thank you, John. I'm happy to be with you. I found out about you through my sister and I will talk about her later on, but she

absolutely loved your book that we're going to talk about her later on, but she absolutely loved your book that we're going to talk about in more detail, Whole Brain Living in a little bit, and told me after she had read it, I had to get you on the show because your words were so inspirational for how she could use her whole brain on her journey to try to heal herself from cancer, such an honor to have you here, especially since you've made such a profound impact with her as well and so many others. It was a delight to meet her, so we have her to thank for our connection. Thank you.

I like to start out episodes to give the audience an opportunity to get to know the guest a bit. And I understand that every new year you pick a word or phrase to focus your hopes, dreams and possibilities on for the next 365 days. In 2022, it was follow your spirit without hesitation. What is it for 2023? Patients, the whole follow your spirit without hesitation is you go where you go what you receive But you still have this concept all I have this concept of what I think I want and it's no be patient let Let the universe bring to you what you're supposed to follow your spirit with patience. I

Love that and I have listened to Gary V for years and years. And I remember when he first started, he was all about, it's got to be the hustle. It's got to be the she got to be going out after that. And somewhere along the line, he must have gotten some coaching because his message shifted to patients being one of the most important virtues that we need to have. So I'm glad you bring it up because oftentimes especially in this digital world we live in, we want to rush, rush, and we need to have more patients because things just do not happen overnight as much as we would love them to be that way.

Well, and it's so easy for us to push the river when it's so much easier when you actually go with the flow of what comes your way. And especially this book came out in 21. I didn't, I actually gave it to the world without having a preconceived notion of what I wanted it to be because I had to trust that it will be what it is supposed to be. I need to get out of the way, which means quit pushing upstream and trying to make things happen and work with people who are attracted to the material. So in the long run, I think we are well rewarded for seeing what we attract and then working with the stream as opposed to trying to make something happen.

Which is completely, I'm hearing myself and I know this is completely counter to our traditional societal view. Speaking of patience for those listeners who might have had a surgery, an ailment, maybe a certain condition, or a major event went on in their life where they had to have the patients to see that through. You had to have the patients over an eight-year period to recover from something as a 37-year-old at the time that must have been unbelievable for you to experience. Can you take us back to that moment of your stroke and describe the sensations and thoughts you experienced during that time? Sure. As it was unfolding, it was happening through the eyes of a brain scientist. My area of specialty was how does our brain create our perception of reality?

And I cared about that because I have a brother who's been diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia, and it was clear that biologically, neuroanatomically, he and I are the closest things that exist to one another in the universe, but I was wired to connect what's going on inside of my brain to reality so I could actually make my dreams come true, but my brother was not capable of connecting his desires and interests in an intentional way that allowed him to create a reality that he wanted. And so we had this miss. And so for me, it was like, what am I? How am I created? And so I studied Neuron, Adam, and I cared about emotions and thoughts and behaviors and all that. And then I experienced a hemorrhage in the left half of my brain.

And on the morning of the stroke, through the eyes of a scientist, it was like, ooh, neurological weirdness, attention, interesting curiosity. But in some ways, I was blessed that I could observe myself having this stroke experience where over the course of four hours hours I would not be able to walk talk, read, write, or recall any of my life. But through the eyes of a scientist it was fascinating and I knew I had to get help and I had to be able to activate circuitry that was no longer functioning smoothly. But I was fortunate that I didn't see this experience through the lens of fear.

I observed myself through the eyes of a scientist with curiosity and it was really quite fascinating when I go through this morning process of four hours waffling between my two hemispheres and fascinated by this, which probably deterred the train from me getting help sooner rather than later, because I found it curious instead of just going downstairs

and knocking on a door and saying, I'm having a stroke, I need some help. It was after four hours, I could not walk talk, read right or recall any of my life. And I shifted into simply the present moment experience. And the left hemisphere was now completely offline. And all I had was the right hemisphere, which is this present moment experience. And no past, no future that meant that jibble detail or died that day, that

jibble detailer. And I was starting, no, truly as an infant in a woman's body. And Jill, I was hoping you might be able to go just a little bit more deeply into the differences between the left and the right hemisphere is because some of the listeners may not understand completely what you're talking about. We have these two magnificent hemispheres inside of our head. And the fundamental difference that I gained in having the left hemisphere go completely offline was all I had was the present moment experience. And so the right hemisphere, it's a right here

right now machine. It is bringing information in through our different sensory systems. It is creating a collage of what is right here right now. That's all the data it has to work with. And so it is seen now and it is hearing what is now and it is smelling what is now. And I'm having sensations from my body of the present moment. And in the present moment, there's also no boundaries to where I begin

and where I end because the cells that create a perception of myself as an individual separate from all the energy around me is a group of cells in the primal region of the left hemisphere. So when the left hemisphere went offline, I lost my individuation and what I gained was this experience that I was literally energy ball biggest the a universe connected all that is and No separation in the present and the left hemisphere actually has a group of cells that step out of the Consciousness of the present moment. Wow. What a concept just that concept alone means that we are Bridges across time. We have these cells in our left hemisphere that attach one moment to the next moment to a future moment that doesn't even exist yet.

And that is linear thinking. And in order for our left brain to have linear thinking, that literally means we have the capacity to remember why we put the shoes on that we have on right now this morning because we have memory we have the ability to step out of the present moment. And that's what this left hemisphere does some sense out of our lives as individuals. So we have groups of cells that define me, the boundaries of where I begin and where I end. So I'm separate from the energy of everything else around me. I become an individual.

around me, I become an individual. I have a group of cells that are my ego center that says, I am this person. These are my likes. These are my dislikes. This is my history. This is my hope for the future. So I end up with linearity of thought. And it also has language, the ability to create sound,

dog, dog is a sound. And then a group of cells that places meaning on that sound. And then we can actually through language communicate with others like ourselves who are in the external world. So we're this magnificent combination of these two different ways of perceiving ourselves as individuals as well as a part of a collective whole. I think that's a fascinating explanation. And if I understand it correctly, the vast majority so much to society right now to gravitate towards a feeling that they have to have success, that they have to overachieve, that's leading to things like this phenomenon of perfectionism or even to mental health issues because we're putting so much pressure on ourselves to receive these outer rewards instead of doing the inner work that would lead us towards more happiness and more authenticity. Am I thinking about that correctly?

Yes, absolutely. Just think about it. If I'm in my right hemisphere consciousness, and all I have is the present moment, And I perceive myself as an energy being in relationship to all the energy around me. Then what I value is going to be a part of the collective whole. I'm not going to attack or go after or be jealous of or try to get ahead of other people because they're a part of me. If energetically, there's no boundary between us and we are not a group of individuals who are vying for the next rung on the ladder of hierarchy, then what are we doing? We're supporting one another. We're nurturing. We're

sharing with one another. We're being collaborative. We're helping and loving one another. And what do we want our tax dollars to do? We want our tax dollars to go to helping our fellow man. So that's going to be a different psychological construct. Then if I'm an individual, and it's about me, as soon as my left hemisphere steps out of the perception of I'm a part of everything and I become an individual Then my ego says well me and mine and I want mine to be more because the left hemisphere has this hierarchy and in that hierarchy We're all climbing that ladder and in climbing that ladder we're never at the top of the ladder.

There we always want more and more. So there's a value structure in the left hemisphere that says, but it's about me. I'm the center of the universe. I care about mine. I want to bigger this. I want more of that. And I'm constantly in that competitive mode against others. And it sets us up for this value structure of the me versus they as compared to the value structure of the right hemisphere, which is the we how do we as humanity nurture this planet so that we can benefit where the left hemisphere comes in and says, well, I want mine. And if mine is doing this at the other, it doesn't matter how it's impacting the whole as long as I'm getting my more at a biological level, we have both of these constructs inside of ourselves and our society is skewed to the values of the left and has been for a bill over half a century. Yeah, it's so fascinating. How could listeners themselves develop a greater sense of well-being

by stepping to the right of their left brains? And how would you suggest they take some steps to do so? Of course, awareness and paying attention to what's currently going on inside of your head is utmost importance. What do you value? Why do you value it? Pay attention and you've had so many conversations about intention. What is your intention? And if my intention is to climb that ladder and be in competition with others or I have a vision of perfectionism.

Life is messy, perfectionism is not a natural state of being. So setting ourselves up for failure instead of success. So I think number one comes in of really paying attention but coming aware, but boy, it really boils down to willingness. And we have to be willing to give up what we are in order to become what we will be. That's a famous quote by Einstein and boy, is it the truth? I cannot be what I am right now and expect myself to do the same things and be different, right? I have to be willing to really evaluate the whole picture of who am I, what am I as a biological creature, and what power do I have in picking and choosing who and how I want

to be in the world, and what choices do I have, and I actually have choice. We are going to get deeply into the anatomy of choice here in a few minutes. I wanted to go back to your stroke just for a second because I wanted to understand in your journey of recovery, which ended up taking eight years, what were some of the most profound insights or lessons that you learned about yourself during that time? And how did it change your perspective then on how you have subsequently lived your life? Oh my gosh, I love that question. The biggest lesson that I learned, one of the most important for our conversation here, is that my stuff is my stuff and your stuff is your stuff.

and your stuff is your stuff. Your stuff is not my stuff, which means I am a biological creature and I am this entity and my stuff is my stuff. My circuitry is dependent, the input in my behaviors dependent on my cellular circuitry. And you can, as an external, come to me, and I'll give you a great example. Well, mothers, first of all, we all, we come from a mother.

And I'm a daughter of a mother. And my relationship with my mother was very tight. She was an academic, I was an academic. We spent a lot of time together. We were wonderful friends before the stroke. And she had mother power. And I think, you know, it's the look. It's the finger tapping. It's the biting of the jaw.

It's the mother power, right? The mother power was actually a power that I had given to my mother. And I didn't realize how I just lived in that. And that was a part of our relationship. But boy, after the stroke, it was like, she had no power anymore. And I didn't realize how I just lived in that. And that was a part of our relationship. But boy, after the stroke, it was like, she had no power anymore. Because all of her power, the mother power,

was in my past. And I didn't have my past anymore. So I'm looking at this woman. I didn't know what a mother was, much less whom my mother was. She's trying to play the mother power card on me. And I'm just not responding anymore because my stuff is my stuff. And when I own my stuff, then I choose whether or not I'd let your

stuff have an influence or a power influencing my stuff. So I think that the really the biggest lesson I learned was my stuff is my stuff and your stuff is your stuff. And when I give you that grace, then all of a sudden I'm essentially saying to you, I'm showing up as an individual, as a person, as a whole. And I'm trusting you to be the same. And so I can then interact with you. And there's going to be the same. And so I can then interact with you and there's going to be no emotional manipulation or intimidation or pressure for how I live my life. Now does that mean that I don't want to be positively influenced?

Of course I do. And I was desperately in need of that from my mother, but I actually had a conversation with my mother saying that doesn't work anymore. You and I are going to have a new relationship. And if down the road, I decide I want to give you your mother power back, and I will make that decision because you earned it. Such an interesting observation. And what are some of the other misconceptions or common myths about the brain and its function that you frequently encounter, and how do you address them?

The first one is we only use 10% of our brain. Neurons are very social creatures inside of our head. They build neural networks with other cells. They thrive in communication with others. And actually research has shown that when neurons are deprived of stimulation from other cells, then they die. They just break off their dendrites and curl up in a ball and they die. So they're very much like humans as a neuroanatomist, one who studies the cells in the the circuitry of the brain. That is the model that I used in order to rebuild my own

function. And yes, it took eight years. And again, neurons are in no hurry. We are, but neurons are in no hurry. Just that we're using 10%. No, if it's alive and it's in your head, you're using it. Now, do we know what's going on in there? We actually know quite a bit about what these different cells are doing, but then it gets very complex because it's like everybody is talking to everybody in there influencing everybody. And so then it gets pretty complex. So that's the first myth. The second myth is that the right hemisphere is emotional and the left hemisphere is thinking rational. And that's simply not true. At a neuro anatomical level, we have limbic emotional cells in each of the two hemispheres.

And we have thinking tissue in each of the two hemispheres. So both hemispheres are thinking and feeling. So what's the difference? The fundamental differences again between the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere is I can have experience of the right hemisphere emotion in the present moment. What is the experience? And then I have thinking, connection, big picture, everything as a collective hole in the present moment, where the left hemisphere is going to have emotions that are of my past and of my future. And then it's also going to have thinking of my past and linearity across time for my future. So that's the second biggest one. And then the third biggest one is that by age three were wired up. And that's what we're going to get. And so no, but it is true that during those first three years, a lot of wiring is going

on. And so that's why it's important that we put our children in a little enriched environment, which means we give them variety because we want them to be exposed to different experiences and so they can become familiar with a lot of different things so that they're comfortable in our world with diversity. And this is so important in how we grow up to be adults is we're comfortable, we feel safe in an environment that feels familiar. So expose me to different people who have different skin color, who speak different languages, who eat different foods, and have different old factory experiences offer our children variety so that they're comfortable

because when they're comfortable, then they choose to explore instead of shut down and push away. That's different from me. That doesn't feel safe. So interesting how we hear these things and then believe them to be true. So I'm glad that you were able to clarify some of those myths. One of the things I really think is important is this whole idea of neuroplasticity. And I was hoping that you could discuss its role in the context of your book, Whole Brain Living. Well, first of all, neuroplasticity is the ability of neurons to rearrange in real time which other neurons they're connected to. And neuroplasticity is an ongoing event that happens moment by moment. So even as we're having this conversation and we're thinking about things and we're making

new associations and we're learning new things possibly, that is actually happening because of the underlying construct of these neurons. And many people picture, oh, my brain is there. My neurons are there, the network is there, there's no change. No, if you actually look at a petri dish of neurons can provide different kinds of stimulation, those neurons are reaching out and rearranging their connections in real time. That is how we learn. It's very important for you to ground people on that because

one of the things I think people feel is that they can't change. They're locked into where they're at. And I like to talk about neuroplasticity because we actually have the ability to reshape our thinking and emotional patterns. And so what I was hoping you could do is discuss that through the lens of whole brain living. Super, considering that neuroplasticity is alive and well and going on moment by moment. And the thing about neurons is more you stimulate them, the stronger the networks and circuits become. So this is how we practice something

and then it can become habitual, because that's the way neurons are. Because essentially, let's say I want to learn how to play the piano. And playing the piano is very complex, right? It's taking two hands, the two hands are doing different things. There sounds involved, There's rhythm involved. There's a lot of neurological stimulation that's going on. And in order for me to do that, the more I practice today, then I go away and I leave it alone, and then I come back and I do

it again. Well, I am usually better today than I was yesterday, because now it's rooting in the circuitry of my brain. So what that means is we can choose through what circuits we are running, what we want our brain to become strong at. If I spend a lot of time, for example, being angry, then my anger circuitry inside of the limb, my limbic system, those cells, they got a trigger boom right there.

And that trigger, if I don't get angry very often, my trigger might be very low because I've practiced a mindful awareness of that something that I don't want to be trigger. But if I haven't done that, then you might say something to me and I might automatically trigger and then boom off I go on my anger circuit because I have trained that circuit well. And as you said, I have had people come to me and say, well, Jill, I love it when I'm angry because when I'm angry, I's who you are when you're angry, but in that moment, you've given your power away because now you're moving on automatic reactivity instead of actually choosing who and how you want to be in any moment. And so if people know that they have the power to choose who and how they want to be, then

will they choose that? And right now, mindfulness is a multi-billion dollar market in our world of how do we train ourselves so that we are not running on automatic reactivity, but we actually have tools. And I know you've discussed many of these tools with your audience about how to intentionally live the life you want to live. And I have a lost my left hemisphere and having rebuilt that, I'm a total advocate for the ability of us to pick and choose who and how we want to be in any moment. I love your explanation there because one thing I hope the listeners understand is that we as humans were created to be the ultimate learning machine and it's this neuroplasticity that in many ways allows us to do that. And I'm also glad you brought up choice so many times because I love to talk about the power of choice because it is the key.

I love to talk about the power of choice because it is the key, as you and I talked about before this episode even started, between someone making microchoises every single day, that lead to a life of greatness, or someone making choices that lead to a waterfall of despair. And I am so excited to talk to you about this anatomy of choice, because I think in many ways in your book, you have unlocked these four character types that sit at the heart of how we make these choices, and it's so powerful. So I was hoping you could introduce this anatomy of choice through the concept of the four characters. Perfect. Thank you. And we exist in a world where we are aware that there are different parts of our brain in mindset. Psychologically, I can choose to walk into a room and I can choose whether or not I get happy or whether I get mad.

We're making these unconscious decisions all the time. Let's say your spouse comes home, I was expecting him on time for dinner, commitment blah blah and he ends up being 45 minutes late and he didn't call. Okay, in that moment, I have a choice. I can either braid him and get mad. I can inquire braid him and get mad, I can I can inquire not necessarily kindly or I can blow it all off and say, come on, I'm glad you're here, whatever happened, we'll talk about it later. Let's go. So I have a choice. That was a decision-making moment. And the beauty of the relationships between neurons is that neuron to neuron is a decision-making moment. It's not necessarily reflexive if it can become reflexive. It becomes my natural automated behavior, but we're making decisions all the time.

And so really being willing to pay attention to what decisions am I making and what are my choices. But we exist in a society that says, yes, I can breathe, I can do this, I can do a mantra, I can do a prayer, I can follow these tools that allow me to be different than what my automatic reactivity wants to be. The greatest gift that happened for a neuroanatomist having come major stroke wiped out my left hemisphere was it let me understand and experience for eight years and really more because they didn't have it gone

away is what is my subconscious? What is in my unconscious brain? And as scientists speaks, the only part of our brain that is conscious is the left-thinking, rational thinking portion of our brain. And it is true that is rational thinking. It has linearity across time. I call that character one. We all know that part of our brain. It is our alpha-type personality. It organizes and categorizes and it has language and it defines what is right and what is wrong and what is good and what is bad. It loves it to do list. And most of us can identify that portion of our brain. But that even as if you look, that's the left thinking tissue of our brain. Well, earlier we mentioned what we also have left emotional tissue. What is that left emotional tissue doing? And I call that character two and left emotion is all of my emotions from the past, my memories from the past. It's level to step out of the experience of the present moment,

step into my past and say, whatever's going on in the present moment, have I ever seen this before? And is there a reason for me to push it away and say no? And this is going to be my automated fight flight, flee, play dead, circuitry, based on my experience from the past. This is my pain from the past. And my pain from the past has a very loud voice. And so if something happens, if somebody comes up to me and they use a tone of voice with me, say, for example, and I may have an alert that's not safe, I'm gonna automatically push that away based on my past experience. So the left hemisphere is gonna have that character one

left thinking tissue and character two, all the emotional pain from my past and my fear of the future based on what is happening in the present moment. So my guess is you recognize both of those parts of yourself, John? I sure do. And I encourage people to give these parts

of yourself a name because they're very real parts of who we are. And if I know with these modules of cells, the skill sets they bring me as a human being, and I'm willing to give that character profile a name, the characters like that because it's learn, I can look at my past traumas, my past pains, I can reflect upon those and I can do healing and then I can transform myself from a learned traumatic experience into a present that actually now can heal that tissue so it doesn't have to become a reactive automated trigger for myself again. At a cellular level. So Jill, if an individual lives predominantly in their character too, which as you just discussed is the part that can lead to extreme negative or depressed mindset or

victim mentality, how do you help them unhook from that character in order for them to realize it is a character, but it's not all of them. Right. I think it's easier for me, probably, than the average bear, because at a neuroanatomical level, I'm just looking at the cells. And if I can say this is what this group of cells does, but that's only a quarter of the cells inside of your brain, then what choices do we have? First of all, we need to validate and reflect upon what is that pain? And then explore, okay, first of all, am I safe in the present moment from more of that pain other than the prison of my own mind? And am I willing to explore other ways of perceiving this experience so that I can heal that

so I'm no longer completely vulnerable to reliving that pain over and over again? That is not to say that the pain from the past is not important. It is actually the exact opposite. It is because of our pain and because of this mindset that we have access to our own vulnerability and our own opportunity for growth. And for me, character 2 pain is an opportunity, not a lifestyle. And some people turn this into a lifestyle, but generally there's not a lot of content or peace, and certainly no joy in that. And I think then knowing that I have these other three characters inside of my brain, and I can actually get to know that part of my brain and exercise that, then that tissue becomes stronger, and then I can choose to step into these other mindsets, these other

levels of consciousness of who I am so that I can actually help myself heal and find more productivity in my character one because that's what it values and that's what it wants to do or more creativity or more deep inner peace which we experience in the characters of our right hemisphere. Okay and I think a logical follow-on to that would be, what are some practical techniques or exercises that listeners can use themselves to not only identify, but to intentionally work with their four characters? Well, I think you got to know who your four characters are.

So let's do characters three and four real quickly, and then we'll get to the bigger picture. So characters one left thinking rational brain, character two, the emotional tissue based on a linearity across time. So my pain from my past, my fears of the future, based on familiarity of experience. Character three is going to be the emotion of the present moment. This is actually a group of cells inside of our brain. And this is the amygdala, the hippocampus, the hypothalamus, the singular gyruses, this is tissue inside of that right hemisphere. But it's about the present moment. So if I'm in the present moment and I'm having an experience, what does it feel

like when I have my clothes on my body? Can I feel those? What does it feel like when I dive into the water and I feel the pressure push against my body and I feel the temperature of that water? Am I feeling elation and my feeling disappointment and my thinking in my left hemisphere, oh my god, this feels like a bathtub because the water is so warm. The experience of the present moment, that's what's being processed

in the right here right now, emotional experiential tissue. And with that, there's no right wrong good bad because that's over there in the left hemisphere. So if I'm just in the present moment experience, having an experience, then I'm looking with creativity and open-minded and innovation and entrepreneurialism and it possibilities instead of the right wrong good bad of that left hemisphere. So character three is this very experiential part of who we are, and it's engaged, and it wants to explore and adventure.

And it's, you know, it's a part that we can usually recognize of being in the flow. If I get lost in my art and hours go by or I'm practicing my music and I get lost for hours or I'm doing dance and I'm lost for hours, I'm doing DARREN, and I'm lost for hours. I'm in the experience and I can get to know that part of who I am, that character three. And the character four is the thinking tissue of that right hemisphere. And the thinking tissue is simply the big picture of everything is

what everything is. And it's all connected and interconnected and there's no judgment because that's going on over there and that character one and character two left brain. But in the present moment, I'm opening in the openness, I'm simply filled with this in depth gratitude that I exist at all. And oh my gosh, my life is a wonder. And I, these cells, oh my gosh, I'm not just a single cell, microbe, I'm 50 trillion molecular geniuses packaged together,

some have a vision to see, some have temperature, some have filtering abilities in my digestive tract, I've got muscle cells that move in or wow, this is the awe that I exist at all. And just to know that these are no anatomical groups of cells inside of all our brains, this is the human brain. Then what power do I have to pick and choose in any moment, which of these four characters do I want to be? And so if I've got my little character too,

it's saying I am not happy. I'm a worry ward. I'm always sad. I always see the cup is half empty. I'm pessimistic. Well, is it nice to know that my right hemisphere is in pessimistic at all? It's open to possibility.

It doesn't even care about the conversation. Is it half full or half empty? It wants to worry about what is right here right now? Oh my gosh, what can we go do to have some fun and interesting, which means we can also get into trouble. That's why it does help to have a good left hemisphere. That guy that put us in a box and keep us out of trouble, because that is the construct of the societal norm that the right hemisphere has to fit itself into. And it has that left hemisphere. To me, the power of knowing what

is my choice, everybody says, Oh, we have choices. Well, what's my choice? And it's well, how do I do that? If I practice my character three, and I embody this playful, open, creative, adventurous, collective whole part of who I am. Then that circuitry gets stronger. And then it's easier for me to become that level of my consciousness. If I spend a lot of time in the all, in the wonder, in the gratitude that I'm alive at all. And oh my gosh, what is and it's all good. Anyway, and then boom, I'm dead. It was like wow that was a ride. That's a part of who we are. We can embody that part, practice that part and spend more time being that part and the difference essentially between the tools

that our society has been using of mindfulness, etc. Nesk, that character 4 has been the ultimate goal. How do I find my own deep inner piece? How do I find out? What does that even mean? Who feels that? What does that feel like? Well, character 4 is that goal. That is this personality that we are all wired with.

And the more we practice it, the easier it becomes to access any of these and that really happens by having a conversation between these different parts of ourselves because they're already having conversations. But once we identify who's saying what in any minute, then it's all I can actually differentiate between these different parts of me that are in conflict and figure out, well, oh, those are my options. And then it's easier to embody. I love that explanation and Jill after this,

I'm gonna send you a picture of a painting that I have in the house. One of my favorite artists, her name is Carrie J.D.S. and she created this piece of art that I'm lucky enough to own because it's probably one of her top two most famous pieces and it's actually her favorite painting. But what she ended up creating was a self portrait with herself basically doing an arm wrestle against herself.

But in the painting she exposes both sides of her brain. And on one, it's showing this incredibly flowing creative side. And then the other showing the exact opposite side. And she named it doppelganger. But she says is the internal fight that's going on in herself between this one side where she went to school to be an electrical engineer and this other side that's really unleashing her creative in herself.

I will have to share it because I think it does a good job of visually showing what you were just explaining. First of all, it sounds beautiful and I look forward to seeing that. This is the state of evolution that our human brain is currently in. We have not differentiated the different parts at an anatomical level. We can do that now, and by doing that, we can actually know this construct of these four very predictable parts of who we are and identifying them so that they don't have to be in conflict. And how do I find peace?

I live in peace. Yeah, I still have things that stir up my little character too. And character three, she's always on the go and character one needs to go to work, but it becomes a negotiation, an ongoing knowledge-based negotiation between the different parts of who we are. And that way, I know, okay, my character one is saying, it's Friday, I'm busy, I need to sit down at the computer and I need to work, and I can come here and do that and feel no resentment,

or like I'd rather be doing something else because this is what I've negotiated among my different parts of this is where I am now and what I'm doing. And that's very different than having something else tugging on me. I wanted to go to that, whatever that is, right? So it becomes this ongoing negotiation of all four parts of ourselves getting our needs met. And oh my gosh, what a concept that I actually have the power to give myself what I need all these different parts in order to get my needs met so that I can actually live a life that does exist in peaceful euphoria. Well speaking of concepts, can you explain the concept of the brain huddle and how a listener can tap into their inner strengths of each character using it?

Absolutely. So I call it the brain huddle because there are these four very specific groups of cells that result in very specific modules of abilities, skill sets. If I'm really four major characters, then getting them on the same page, I truly believe the evolution of humanity. I think this is the ultimate goal, because that way then we have the ability to use all four skill sets, but to do it in a peaceful way,

motivated by the collective whole of what we are of humanity as the value base. So I truly believe that at whole brain living is the embodiment of the evolution of humanity. So, and I think once we get there, we'll be in a better place as humanity, because if our peaceful euphoria and value of the collective whole is the primary value, then we're not going to do anything with our left brain characters one and two that are going to go counter to what is actually healthy and the well-being of all of us in relationship to this beautiful planet. So a tool I use is called the Brain Huddle Brain Brain is an acronym, B-R-A-I-N, of course it is.

Now, could I pick anything else? So B stands for breath. And breath is the focus point and first step of so many different tools that we use. Why? Because it's right here right now. So breath is the tool that we use in order to bring our mind into the present moment.

We don't breathe in the past. We don't breathe in the future. It's a train running down a track. We can change the frequency, we can change the amplitude, we can manipulate breath. So breath, breathe, focus on your breath. Our stands for recognize who called the huddle. Which character was I in? Was it my rational thinking character one that said, okay, we're gonna have a huddle every hour and a half and the hour because we wanna practice this routine so we can make it a habit, right? Because in that way, the character one would wanna do.

And probably even put on a timer on our watches to ping every whole huddle. Now, I might be really sad or really upset or really angry and I may be just pining over something from the past and as a character too I can call the huddle and just calling the huddle allows me to recognize okay I have the power to pull the energy out of this group of cells in my brain and pull it in throughout my brain into these other characters. And on one of your other podcasts, as I was listening, you guys were talking about, now

as soon as you observe the reactivity of an emotion, when as soon as you observe it instead of engage as that emotion, automatically you are now looking at yourself and dissipating the power of that circuitry. So, are B stands for the breath, bring your mind to the present moment. R is recognize which of the four characters called the huddle, and I encourage people in the beginning to do this literally 20 times a day, because it's just cells and you want to practice and make it become your automatic circuitry. A stands for appreciate, it doesn't matter really which character called the hot-all.

You want to be able to recognize that, but appreciate the fact that there's four of us in here. In any moment in time, there's four of me to pick from. So A.A. is appreciate that there's four of me. I am actually a team. And I is then inquire within which one do I want to be now? Who needs to show up? Well, let's say all of a sudden I need to move into my rational thinking or I need to move into my emergency mode, which is my character three right here right now. What needs to happen in order for something to happen? How do I show up in order to help somebody who's in an emergency situation?

And then, Anne is navigate. Life happens and life is moment by moment. So, navigate moment by moment that all four of us are here, and we have the power to choose in any moment, which one of these we want to actually embody and give power to? I love that. And I can't wait to put it into use. I've already been trying it since I've been reading the book, but I wasn't doing it 20 times a day. So I will have to do that more myself. Well, now that we've laid this all out, I'll go back to my sister as the reason that I'm here connecting with you. I was hoping that you can share some examples of how whole brain living has helped people in different situations from my sister's example with cancer to people who might be in a troubled relationship to a child who

is experiencing this phenomena where they feel that they have to revolve themselves around success to families affected by anxiety. You can just pick one of those, but I think you can use this in so many different ways. The way I look at life and the brain is that the cells are the microcosm, and life is their expression, and they express following the same kind of macrocosm. So our worlds and our behaviors and how we manage the external world

is 100% dependent on what's going on inside of our heads and what's going on inside of our heads and what's going on with those neurons. So you can only imagine, if there's four of me inside of me and there's four of you inside of you, then in any relationship, there's eight of us. And when you consider how difficult it is for us to navigate our

inter-personal relationships with one another. Well, it makes sense. And once I recognize my own four characters and I can recognize your four characters, and I recognize that all the characters are good, and all the characters are important, even your little character too. So let's say you and I are in relationship with one another

and you come home and you're really upset about something. Well, I have choices. It's body, we had plans, we don't have time for this, blah, blah, blah, blah. I can come at you with a two for two tip for tat. You're not going to feel validated, you're not going to feel heard, you're going to be upset,

you're not going to want to spend the evening with me. So the day gets canceled and everybody goes to their own corners after we tip for tat with one another. Or you come in and you're unhappy and you're in your little character too. And I come in and first of all, my character one comes on and says, okay, well, I look at the clock and it's so you can push dinner back half an hour. It's no big deal. And I can come to you as my character for as a nurturing person and support you and hear you and hold you because that's what little character to usually needs. It wants to be held.

It wants to be heard. It wants to be validated. And there and one of the beautiful things about emotions is that from the moment you think a thought that stimulates a emotional circuit that gets triggered. It runs a biological physiological response to what we're thinking and what we're feeling. From the moment I think the thought, let's say I'm going to think a thought that makes me mad, then that thought of every time I think of that person, I get angry. So now I think of that person.

It stimulates my emotional circuitry of anger. I have a dump of something like nor adrenaline into my bloodstream, it floods through me, and flushes out of me. From the beginning to the end, takes less than 90 seconds at a cellular level. Now, everybody's saying, oh, I can stay mad for a whole lot longer than 90 seconds,

but what you're doing is you're rethinking the thought that's re-stimulating the emotional circuitry, re-stimulating the physiological response, and we run in these loops over and over again. Just knowing some basic things about how neurons organize information and how we can observe ourselves running our own neural circuitry. It's, oh my God, what a relief. I don't have to be mad for three hours. I can run a circuit and my sweetheart can say, honey, it's okay. I'm going to give you 90 seconds.

And so you can write it right for 90 seconds. And then you get it out and it's like, can I have a hug and a kiss? And now can we go to there? It's like, how do we actually interact with one another? And that's in the inter-personal, but in the intrapersonal, when I was managing my own recovery process, it was like, how do I stay out of my own way? That was so important. How do I stay out of my own way emotionally, which really for me was the character too? Because I could have said, whoa, as me, oh my gosh, I was a brain scientist at Harvard. Now I'm vegetable. I can't do anything. I don't remember anything. Oh, why did I live? I could have had all that story going on. And

other people would look at me and say, how can she not have that story going on? And all I can say is that circuitry was gone. I was just in the elation of my right hemisphere that I survived at all because it meant up possibilities. So number one was get out of my own way emotionally, really nurture my own little character too. And that was important to my mother, for example, as my mother was on her deathbed.

She was diagnosed with cancer and within five months she was deceased. And she said to me, I don't want everybody to be bemoning, oh, whoa, as me sad. I don't want that. I have lived a great life. I'm 89 years old. I want celebration. And I'm going, well, you're on my mommy and I am going to have a broken heart once in a while. But most of the time I promise to be in my other parts of my brain. And she said, that's fine.

I get it. That's OK. So, but these were conscious decisions that we made. And I told everybody, Gigi, come in, say, celebrate her life, be with her, love on her. But as soon as you move into the teary-eyed, oh, moa, by this, it's terrible.

She's just going to slap you out of the room. I don't know what he choice is. Right. So we have all this power over what we're thinking and what we're feeling that we haven't been trained as a society. And to me, the beauty of whole brain living is that we are now training people to be whole brain human beings. And kids love this. If you say to a, if you say to a little child who's four years old, okay, and people to be whole brain human beings. And kids love this. If you say to a little child who's four years old, okay, here's character one and these are the characteristics. And here's character two and these are the characteristics and three and four.

And now we're watching SpongeBob. And we're looking at one of the little characters, I can say, okay, is that character one, two, three or four? And a kid will tell you, it is so easy for them to observe and identify these different parts of who we are. And children, if you've had children and you've noticed, let's say I'm running along and I fall down

and I scrape my knee and I look around, right? I look around, which character is going to benefit me the best? Do I move into my little character too? And I just wail and I line and I get all this attention. Or it's, well, nobody's around. There's no point brush it off and go play some more. We have all this power. And kids are a great model for how we don't have to be attached to our pain.

But as adults, we so much of who I am, well, it is. It's me, it's my ego. It is Joe Bolte Taylor has a past and has a future. And I am defined by the trauma and pain from my past, it makes me who I am today. So I cling to that pain with whole brain living. We don't have to cling to it. We can hold it, we can nurture it, we can reflect upon it, we can love it, we can love it with the different parts of ourselves, be grateful that we had that opportunity for learning and growth so that I can actually transform into being who I am now because I had that experience. Well, Jill, thank you for that great explanation.

And I know that you have been on a ton of podcasts. I think the last time I saw it was over 150 that you did just in one year alone. So you're trying to get this word out there about whole brain living. And my last question to you would be, what is your ultimate vision for the impact of whole brain living on individuals, communities, and society as a whole? Peace on Earth. I'm a dreamer. Peace on Earth. I became so detached from life when I had that stroke. And I didn't die that day, but I was completely incapacitated.

My left hemisphere, my relationship to the external world that was gone, and all I had was life. And yet in just having that life, I recognized we are all wired for this incredible experience of peace. And what a different life people might lead if they knew that this level of peace was a choice in any instant for them. It's been 25 years since I had that stroke. And for me, that's gravy time.

I did not die that day, but I was given an incredible awareness that we all have at the core of who we are being in any instant. It's like the sky and the stars in the sky. They're always there. That's the bliss. That's the peace. And then the sunshine comes in and everything wakes up and has motion. And that's like character three. Now life is in motion.

And then the weather comes in and the clouds and the storms and the drama. And that's a little character two. And then character one is, okay, well, now I'm going to analyze it all and think about it and try to control it. And so we have all these different parts, but if I allow myself to quiet my character one rational thinking and the pain from my past and step into the present moment and have a sense of stillness of awe, oh my gosh, take away all that. And there's the stars in the sky. And we're all wired like that. And what a different humanity. We will be when we really embodied that. I love that you ended on that. And I just want to touch on a couple things there. I recently had on Professor Dacker Keltner. And we talked about his new book, and one of the most touching

moments for me was when he came to the realization that for the majority of us, achieving awe doesn't mean going to the Grand Canyon or seeing some spectacle like a spaceship taking off, where it's most commonly found is in moral beauty of people observing others, to acts of service to other people. And he said it's the littlest things that can cause the biggest impact of all in our lives.

And the other thing I wanted to touch on is I feel myself that I got the golden ticket similar to you I didn't go through anywhere near the circumstance that you did but I had an awakening myself, which is why I'm doing what I'm doing with this show and with the passion start Movement, but I think we are both aligned because I am trying, and I think you are too, to allow people to see that they can be better. They can live better, but most importantly, they have the ability every single day to impact the world. By impacting just one person in their life. And if we could do that as a united force, imagine the difference we all could make

in trying to bring some of the system change that's needed in so many different areas of society now. So I really appreciate this interview with you. I honestly had about eight or nine more questions I wanted to ask you, but if a person wants to learn more about you, I will of course have your books in the show notes. Where is the best place for someone to go to learn everything about Jill Bulti Taylor? Dr. Jill Taylor.com. Dr. Jill Taylor.com. And we're coming out with a new website.

But my TED talk was the first TED talk that ever went viral back in 2008. And I think that if somebody's interested in exploring Jobolti Taylor, that TED talk is a really good place to start. Yes, man, it sure has millions and millions of views now. And it is a great talk and gives a great whole backdrop to everything that we discussed today.

Well, Jill, thank you so much. It was such an honor to have you on the show today. Thank you, John. I feel fortunate and blessed. And thank you for the work you're doing as well. So it's a team, you know, we're a team. What an incredible honor that was today to have Dr. Jill Bolt Taylor on Passion

Struck. And I wanted to thank Jill and Hay House for the honor and privilege of having her appear on today's show. Links to all things Jill will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Videos are on YouTube at both John Armeyles and Passion Struck clips. And I have some incredible news that my book Passion Struck is now available for preorder on Amazon. A link will be in the show notes as well a link to our syndicated radio show PassionStruck, which is on the Brushwood Media Network,

and you can catch us on your evening commute every Monday and Friday from 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern time. I'm on LinkedIn where you can sign up for our LinkedIn newsletter or you can also sign up for our newsletter on PassionStruck.com or John Armiles. You can also catch me at John Armiles on all the social platforms, or I post daily. You're about to hear a preview of the Passion Start podcast interview that I did with visionary

nature filmmaker and cinematographer Louis Swartzberg. Louis breath-taking films, fantastic fungi, to his latest masterpiece, Gratitude Revealed, have enriched audiences worldwide, opening their eyes to the awe-inspiring beauty of the natural world. In gratitude revealed, Louis is going to take us on a transformative cinematic journey, exploring how gratitude can lead to a more meaningful life. Gratitude is not the answer, it's not the antidote, it's mental health crisis that you're describing. It is a baby step in the right direction because we tend to ruminate over and over about the negative things that are happening in our lives. The brain

is sort of geared for survival, the fight or flight response that like takes over. So anything that's about fear that touches the buttons, about conflict, anxieties. It all creates stress, and that's unfortunately the bulk of entertainment that is occurring on screens or in social media. It's all to grab your attention. The fee for the show is that you share it with family and friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know someone who can learn from Dr. Jill

Bulti Taylor's lesson today, but definitely share today's episode with them. The greatest compliment that you can give us is to share the show with those that you love and care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. Now, go out there and become Ash and Strut. you