Example
For example, you are planning for
your presentation and you suddenly encounter this thought: “Last time I could
not make an impression. That guy is so good at this that I stand no chance...
What if he falls ill and is not able to...”. Tune down this thought and get back
to your preparations. (Imagine that as with a radio or TV set you can tune down
the volume of your inner voices and finally tune them out.) However, after a
while you encounter another thought: “Why don't you select the most powerful
points and talk about them with conviction? Would this not be better than
talking about everything but not being able to put conviction and depth behind
them for want of time?” Should you pay heed to this thought?
Consider it for a moment. It has
come very spontaneously to you. You were not thinking about this aspect, yet it
has brought a very intelligent insight into the whole matter. Hence, don't brush
it aside with a left-brained objection: “It's too late to make such a drastic
change. Let me get on with this.” Stay on with the intuitive insight and give it
serious consideration and you may feel it wiser on your part to change your
decision; preparing for fewer points may not take much time because it is always
easier to carry things in bunches than in scattered form, even though the bulk
of information may be the same in both cases.
Reading is a left activity that
often gets interrupted by reactive thoughts which can both help or hinder one's
understanding of what is being read, depending upon whether these are related to
what is being read or not. If related, the thoughts may enhance one's
understanding. Often, when the subject does not interest the reader or if he has
been studying for a long time, the thoughts can bump his attention totally off
the track.
Voluntarily interrupt yourself at the end of each paragraph
and reflect upon it in your mind. Visualize the concept just discussed, if you
can. This will give a much needed breathing time to your left-brain since
visualizing is a right-brain activity. This will also strengthen the neural
pathways in the brain and thereby reinforce your memory of the concept.
Keep the tips of the right index
finger (controlled by the left brain) and the thumb in contact with each other
while reading as a cue in order to remind yourself to bring your attention back
to the reading material.
Define what you expect from both
brains and the reward you will give to your right brain - a toffee, a cup of
coffee, drawing a sketch or just humming a tune if it does not disturb while the
left is engaged.
Similarly if you want to
concentrate on a right-brained job, tune out all negative statements and
questions from the left brain which can do nothing but discourage you - for
example, the thought, “At 11 a.m., I am surely not at my best as far as my
gripping potential and body flexibility is concerned.” However, if you hear a
spontaneous intuitive insight in the garb of a left-brained message, be careful
to pay heed to it - sometimes intuitive thoughts can be so full of sense that
they appear to be coming from the left than from the right.
