Living with your whole brain

How massage helps brain development

By Annemarie Bijloos

“I believe we will find more peace in the world and become a better humanity if we allow our right hemisphere to lead the conversation and the skills of our left hemisphere to manifest it.” — Jill Bolte Taylor

In this blog, I’ll explore the workings of our brain, Jill Bolte Taylor’s research on brain hemispheres, and how massage can aid in developing, maintaining, and nourishing your brain.

Reading Time: 10 minutes

The Truth About Our Brain Capacity

Picture a living room. A boy is drawing a robot with his left hand while doing his math homework with his right hand. This image from a commercial about fifteen years ago left such an impression on me that I still remember it. The voice-over claimed that as we age, we use less and less of our brain capacity (I recall a startling figure of eight percent).

As a teenager, this scared me; if that was true, I definitely didn’t want to get older! This frightening future was soon replaced by a daydream… how much free time would I have if I could do Math and French simultaneously?!

Now I know it’s not true that we only use a small part of our brain. Unless you have a brain injury, you use one hundred percent of your brain. Depending on what you are doing, certain parts of your brain are more active than others. Functions like breathing, heartbeat, and digestion are always on.

When reading this blog, you use visual and linguistic parts of your brain, while getting up for a drink activates the motor part more. Our actions and activities influence which parts of our brain are active, so ask yourself: what do you do a lot?

The Four Parts of Our Brain

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor explains that the brain can be roughly divided into four parts: a left and right hemisphere, each containing a thinking and a feeling part. So, there’s a thinking left part, a feeling left part, a thinking right part, and a feeling right part. The popular idea that the left hemisphere is rational and the right hemisphere is emotional is not true! There are other differences between the hemispheres, and more specifically between the four parts of the brain.

Left Hemisphere: The Ego Center

The left hemisphere is the ego center. It constantly organizes and gives us a sense of where we end and the world begins (so you know your clothes are different from your body). This part also has a sense of time, allowing you to have memories and expectations. The thinking left part is logical and analytical, knows words and numbers, loves details and to-do lists. The feeling left part is anxious, suspicious, and selfish because it lives in the past.

Right Hemisphere: Unity with the World

The feeling right part is kind, creative, and reckless. The thinking right part is visual, creative, and intuitive. It loves being in flow and marveling. Generally, the right hemisphere experiences connectedness with others and unity with the world, love, gratitude, and bliss. It sees the bigger picture and lives in the eternal present. The parts of our brain process information in different but complementary ways; they are not separate but constantly communicate.

Brain Hemispheres in Society

It seems our society values the activities and values of our left hemisphere (specifically the thinking part) more than those of the right hemisphere (especially the feeling part). Critical thinking, being an individual, and specializing are considered more important than being kind, compassionate, and collaborative.

Ambition and competition are glorified, and stress (experienced in the left hemisphere) is seen as necessary and sometimes even worn as a badge of honor. We are more focused on external matters, like money and status, than on what happens within us.

This is reflected in job earnings—a lawyer, surgeon, or IT programmer generally earns more than a primary school teacher, artist, or therapist—and in education. Last year, the Minister of Education and the Education Inspectorate announced that schools should spend much more time on language and math. In the 2022 State of Education report, the first two societal tasks of education mentioned are: “Every student leaves education literate and numerate,” and “Every student knows themselves and has learned to make independent choices.” A child that knows where it ends and the world begins, can think in terms of ‘I’ and ‘me,’ and can read and write, uses (more of) their (thinking) left hemisphere.

Integrating All Brain Parts

Einstein said: “Our intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” We shouldn’t place our intuition or right hemisphere on a pedestal or paint our left hemisphere as the villain. It’s about integrating and harmonizing all parts of our brain.

Taylor knows better than anyone that we need all parts of our brain to live. At 37, she had a stroke that destroyed all functions of her left hemisphere. With only her right hemisphere online, she experienced a peaceful and cosmic unity with everything and everyone but couldn’t function in the world. After years of therapy, her left hemisphere slowly came back to life. However, when she noticed her thinking left part wanted to take charge again, she decided to let all parts of her brain work together (and wrote about this in her book “Whole Brain Living”).

She states: “I believe we will find more peace in the world and become a better humanity if we allow our right hemisphere to lead the conversation and the skills of our left hemisphere to manifest it.”

Living with Our Whole Brain

How can we better integrate our brain hemispheres? How do we live with our whole brain? Taylor enjoys being creative; she makes glass and limestone brain art, paints, sings, and writes songs. But any activity that brings you into the moment helps you step out of the constant chatter of your left hemisphere and experience more empathy, connection, and spiritual meaning. Dancing, moving, meditating, praying, and touch are other ways.

Touch is a Way

At Movement Matters, we find touch particularly interesting! We previously posted an article on the importance of massage for children and families, discussing what happens in the brain when you’re touched (with a great video explanation on massage for and with children at the bottom!).

The neurological benefits of massage aren’t limited to children; everyone benefits from loving touch. It stimulates the production of hormones that make you feel calm, safe, happy, and connected and activates your parasympathetic nervous system, helping you relax.

Did you know that research shows people can feel whether the person touching them is distracted or absent, or conscious, present, and connected (Cerritelli et al., 2017)? It’s not surprising that a good massage can help you experience awareness, presence, and connection, thereby developing, maintaining, and nourishing the qualities of your right hemisphere!

Right Hemisphere Terms

Our clients say the same. Just read the reviews of Movement Matters, which are full of right hemisphere terms! Clients describe the massages and spaces as calming, relaxing, magical, special, and healing. They experience connection and feel instantly calm, elevated, in another world, reborn, and sleep like a baby. They describe our masseurs as attentive, caring, warm, intuitive, mindful, and loving.

That’s the power of massage and your whole brain in action.

Annemarie Bijloos is a philosopher, masseuse, and yoga instructor.

You can read more of her stories here.

Bibliography

• Koontz, K. Listening in with… Jill Bolte Taylor. Unity Magazine.
• Scherer, E. (2012). Right Brain Learning. The Opportunity for Professional Massage Therapists. Journal of Massage Sciences (vol.2).
• Cerritelli, F., Chiacchiaretta, P., Gambi, F., Ferretti, A. (2017). Effect of Continuous Touch on Brain Functional Connectivity Is Modified by the Operator’s Tactile Attention. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Section Sensory Neuroscience (vol.11).
• Bolte Taylor, J. (2021). Whole Brain Living. The Anatomy of Choice and The Four Characters That Drive Our Life. Hay House Inc. (published in Dutch as “Grip op Je Brein” by Kosmos Uitgevers).
• Inspectie van het Onderwijs (2022). De Staat van het Onderwijs.