The key to activating your L- and R-brain abilities
We have spent a fair bit of time explaining the function of the L-brain and R-brain and what they do to human behaviour and thinking, as well as how they help to solve problems.
Applying our L-brain and R-brain skills is certainly one important aspect to human life. Our cerebral hemispheres are like the doors of opportunity which we all must create and open if we wish to achieve something great. Using them will help you to discover things you have never seen before and be able to live a more easier and grander life.
But like any door you create, you need two keys to open it. Being open-minded and curious is one key as this engages the L- and R-brain and your frontal cortex to learn something new. The other key is your emotions. In this section, we will focus on our emotions and why they are so important for a healthy, functioning brain.
How important are my emotions?
Your emotions are vital. Even for a scientist who tries to suspend his/her emotions to solve a problem must at some point apply emotions to help record the information in memory and to recall it well. And a scientist needs emotions to be directed on a path where the solutions will be of positive benefit to everyone.
You need emotions. It is natural. It is not just about making youself feel more "human". Emotions are needed by every living thing to activate and build up the L-brain and R-brain skills to a level where they can effectively and efficiently solve problems.
In other words, you need emotions to ignite the fire in your brain of recognising important patterns (L-brain), making associations between patterns (R-brain), and then remembering all the relevant and useful patterns you have recognised and created. You also need your emotions to help you recognise when your solutions are positive for everyone. And finally you need emotions to enjoy what you do in life.
It isn't just a matter of using your L- and R-brain to solve any old problem and that's it. There is a third dimension to every problem-solving activity you perform, and that's called your emotions.
Whenever you problem-solve something, you are searching not just for the most efficient solution (L-brain) and the most all-encompassing solution (R-brain). You are also looking for the most positive solution you can find (the emotional part). Always use your emotions together with your L- and R-brain to find the most efficient, effective, easily remembered, enjoyable and most positive solution possible.
Psychologists emphasise the importance of emotions in our lives
The importance of emotions in everything that we do, think and say has certainly not escaped the psychologists. Even as we speak, psychologists have developed a branch of knowledge called emotional intelligence to help emphasise the importance of our emotions in our everyday lives.
The study and application of emotional intelligence is not about trying to eliminate emotions. Rather, it is about acknowledging the fact that you do have emotions, why you need them, and how you can apply them in everything that you do, think and say. Then it is a matter of feeling what those emotions are, and how to work with people having those emotions for a given situation in order to solve a problem. (1)
Finally, you apply our L- and R-brain as well as your emotions to get to the source of the problem so that a good and positive solution can be found for everyone.
Our emotions must be balanced
We are constantly bombarded by advertisements and advice from popular psychologists on how important it is to be positive in our emotions. Yes, it is important to be positive in our emotions. This is what pushes us to achieve goal(s).
It is nice to be happy all the time. But real life is not like this. You will experience negative situations.
This is normal. Too much emphasis on positive emotions and how we can make ourselves happy and positive can led to social problems. A study of rats constantly reinforced with positive experiences can eventually starve themselves to death just to maintain the positive experiences. For humans, the opposite effect can occur such that people can over eat themselves to death or become addicted to drugs.
You need to face negative (or distressing) emotions from time to time (eg. to know what hunger feels like, to know when a little discomfort is necessary when you are exercising, to know what it is like to lose someone close to you etc) in order to know what happiness really is. And once you have understood the range of emotions will you know where the balance of your emotions lie (ie. what actually makes you happy) and later how to feel what others are feeling in a process known as genuine empathy.
If you don't know how to balance your emotions through a range of different experiences or by imagining those experiences, you will eventually suffer depression. And if the stress of solving the problem to find happiness is too great, the physical symptoms of mental illness can develop.
In essence it boils down to what is true happiness? Only you can decide what this happiness should be.
Part of your aim in life is to find a point of balance in your emotions where not only do you know what happieness is, but also you can make this world a better place to live for everyone through your happiness. And when you have this happiness figured out, you will be mentally and physically healthy throughout life. (2)
We must know how to love
'...love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.'
Dr Viktor Frankl
Once you know where balance lies in your emotions, you can make the concerted effort to choose the well-developed creative R-brain and rational L-brain thinking and actions that bring happiness to all living things in this Universe in a process known as love.
Happiness is another term for love. Any positive feeling you may have is love.
Love may be defined as any behaviour formed by a suitably chosen belief or thought that promotes positive emotions in oneself and in others. Thus loving someone means giving yourself and the person the experience of joy and happiness, of laughter, hope and fulfillment through the work and play you perform (3). Love binds people together; it promotes unity. Aggression, ignorance and hatred - the opposite to love - divide people; they bring stress and promote disunity.
It is through love that people, societies and nations become closely bonded together in a common goal with a strong sense of unity. It is for this very reason that all world religions, if they get to the essence of their own teachings, promote this basic principle of life, timeless as the depths of space.
An example of a strong supporter of this concept may be found in the following quote about an enigmatic and charismatic individual of high character development and smooth-talker with a way of using simple words to the masses, known as Jesus of Nazareth, who appeared in Israel around the early 1st century A.D.:
'Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him [Jesus of Nazareth] a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
'Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself'. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."' (4)
This famous historical figure was known to have symbolised eternal life and love to his people by his willingness to sacrifice himself on the cross.
And from this very simple and ancient universal concept of love can we begin to understand the importance of promoting balance in everything that we feel, think and do if we are to learn to live harmoniously and with love with ourselves, with our fellow human beings, and with every living creature in the Universe.
For example, when we understand love by showing balance, we do not go about fighting (5) one another just to show who is right or wrong or who is allegedly more important for the sake of surviving better or having something of great desire or value. In reality, there is no right or wrong; right and wrong are relative concepts created by the human mind. And we are all equal in terms of the potential to achieve great things for everyone when we put our minds to it and especially when we focus on what's important to do and practice the principle of recycling.
Where there is balance, you will have all that you need to survive and be happy.
As English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote: 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.' (6)
By recognising there is nothing good or bad, what people do now is how they have learned to survive, and what we really want to achieve for others in a state of true peace and relaxation will be with love, we learn to follow a different path. It is a path with a heart. It is the path by which we choose the thinking and our emotions that brings love as we implement a better solution through our action.
Who should we love?
We should learn to love everything that we see in the final analysis.
When we are born, we first love our mother, then our father. Later we discover our sisters and brothers and hopefully we learn to love them, and the rest of our family as well. But we don't stop there. There are people in society who need love.
Then there are the animals who are constantly searching for love by finding enough food, have a secure shelter, and be free of the threat of predators attacking them.
Then we must love the Universe for what it has somehow managed to achieve in allowing you to come into this world through the atoms and the forces of electromagnetism to create a wonderful human being for which you are. The atoms that make up your body and the bodies of all your parents and everyone before them, the environment in which everyone has learned to survive and understand, and how well the Earth and the Sun has kept everyone alive to this point in time.
You have a lot to be grateful for.
To love all things is essentially to love, in the words of a religious leader, God itself.
God is in everything around us and in each one of us. It is the ultimate level of understanding the true meaning of love.
How do we love?
Simple. You follow a path with a heart. And you do it with all your mind and heart. As Carlos Castaneda once said:
'Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you....Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question...Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use.' (7)
For example, how would you like to be treated yourself? Does this bring you happiness? If you think you know the answer. Ask yourself, would you want to see this treatment done to others as you would yourself? Would people be happy because of it?
Likewise, if you see suffering in other people, would you bring the same suffering to others if you experienced the same suffering yourself? If not, what would you do differently?
Would you do anything that you wouldn't want done to yourself because of the pain and suffering it might bring? If you know the answer and you want to be happy, then you know the path with a heart. You do the things that bring love to the world. Because this love brings greater meaning to your life and helps you to see the ultimate Truth. As The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism once said:
'While we exist as human beings, we are like tourists on holiday. If we play havoc and cause disturbance, our visit is meaningless. If during our short stay — 100 years at most — we live peacefully, help others and, at the very least, refrain from harming or upsetting them, our visit is worthwhile. What is important is to see how we can best lead a meaningful everyday life, how we can bring about peace and harmony in our minds, how we can help contribute to society.'
Because we all deserve to be loved.
Remember, "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31), and you will know how to love.
When we know how to love, what would we be called?
Cormac Burke, author of Conscience and Authority (CTS London), said:
'...to be a Catholic means to belong — voluntarily — to a Body that, where fundamental principles are concerned, thinks and teaches with the mind of Christ.'
As we have seen, Christ was a charismatic individual who taught the fundamental principle of love to people. So to think and teach with the mind of Christ is to think and teach with the mind of love.
You may call yourself a christian once you have learned how to love. But what does this mean for the Buddhist who also follows the principle of love? A christian-buddhist?
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, following the principle of love could involve following all of the religions shown below:
Albanian Orthodox
Ancient Church of the East
Anglican Catholic Church
Apostolic Church (Australia)
Assemblies of God
Baptist
Born Again Christian
Brethren
Buddhism
Caodaism
Chinese Religions
Christian Revival Crusade
Church of Christ
Church of Scientology
Church of the Nazarene
Ethnic Evangelical Churches
Foursquare Gospel Church
Gnostic Christians
Hinduism
Humanism
Islam
Latter Day Saints
Jehovah's Witnesses
Judaism
Lutheran
Nature Religions
New Churches
Pentecostal
Presbyterian and Reformed
Salvation Army
Seventh-day Adventist
Temple Society
Uniting Church
Wesleyan Methodist Church
Worldwide Church of God
and more
As you can see, the list of possible religious affiliations you may have because of this principle could be endless.
When you know how to love, you really represent all the religions of the world. If you affect enough people, you might be tempted to start a new religion. But what for? Love is universal. There is no boundary. It should be practiced by all religions.
If you want to be on your own in Western society, you can become the great psychologist like Dr Carl Jung.
Who cares?
You have already grown into a loving adult, a person serving God. The name of the religion that you support does not matter.
As one anonymous college professor was known to have said:
'If you do your work with a great deal of love, you are truly serving our Lord, giving him glory.'
You are following the true religion of God.
Can I follow people who follow the principle of love?
Some people may need exemplars, or people who "show the way" of how to love. In Christianity, it might be someone like Jesus Christ and/or the mother of Christ, Mary.
In Buddhism, it might be the buddha.
So long as you remember one thing: you have the power to set the example to other people of how to love. You can become the person showing love to all people. Follow what you believe to be right based on your understanding of love and be the leader yourself.
Don't put other people in history on a pedestal for all times. At some point in time you have to blossom into the loving man or woman you are. Be your own Jesus Christ or Mary of your life.
As for religious followers believing in Christ's return, why? Why should you wait? If you need an incentive, what if Christ has already returned and is suffering in this imbalanced world as we speak and is waiting for you to change the world and make it better. Wouldn't you do something to make it better for everyone now?
Perhaps this is the big test for everyone. Do you have the power to bring God's love into the world?
Do we need complex laws to organise a society of people?
People who understand love do not go about reducing the potential of others by discriminating against, restricting, manipulating or segregating them. Quite the contrary, they do anything to help everyone to grow and be happy and this in turn comes back to them in the form of love. So why do we need to create additional laws? To stop people from helping others to grow and be happy? Highly unlikely!
Likewise a society that understands love also realises that both the environment and the individual are carefully intertwined in a kind of symbiotic relationship that must be nurtured as one living organism. A society that embraces love with all its heart and mind realises that there is nothing to fear and no need to enforce complex laws to control unacceptable behaviours in society. A society that opens its heart will be able to improve the environment and in turn the individual will develop his/her potential to achieve great things. And those things will return to society and the environment many times over with great gifts.
A society that loves needs no additional laws to control human behaviour. The fundamental constraint required by all to live in harmony and with love soon becomes apparent for all those who truly understand the concept. As author Thomas F. Crum said: 'To be truly secure, we must be vulnerable [by opening up our hearts].' (8)
And according to the book of Galatians in the Bible: 'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.' (9)
'We begin to understand that all people are operating out of one of two modes: fear or love.' exclaims Thomas Crum. 'Actions that are injurious or create disharmony and distress result from fear....In the alienation of fear, people, no matter how repulsive their actions, are crying out for help to resolve their insecurity and separation. When we understand this, we can let go of our judgements about their actions, show them compassion, and support them in creating the love they are looking for.' (10)
There is no such thing as a bad person. We are all searching for love so we can grow to our full potential and be happy. It is up to us to see it in our own minds.
What happens if we don't know how to love?
It is simple. If we choose not to love or bring love to others, we become psychopaths. According to psychologists, a psychopath is someone who is physically unable to feel how other people feel in a process known as empathy. There is little limbic system response (ie. emotions) to how other people feel.
Psychopaths may look intelligent and speak very well and may even successfully convince some people on what to do or how to think. They may present themselves confidently, communicate well and look charming on the outside, but deeper down they are prepared to do anything to get what they want even if it means harming other people.
The inability of any person to feel and love is perhaps the greatest loss any human being can ever experience. Without emotions, humans quickly turn into robots having only one self-centred goal in life, which is to preserve itself at all costs and achieve total power or foolishly become God in their own limited minds at the expense of others around them.
There are many examples in the modern world where people have or are behaving as psychopaths of which the most dangerous are those leading some of the most powerful nations on Earth.
For example, US President George W. Bush may be described as a psychopath for his inability to feel the emotions of the people who fight the war in Iraq. If he understood this emotion, he would not choose war to solve problems. He would have found a peaceful and alternative solution for the benefit of everyone. A solution that is more balanced. Instead, Mr Bush chose not to see this because he has only one agenda and will try to get it at all costs even if it means a significant number of Iraqi people, American soldiers and the insurgents must be killed.
In Australia, the Federal (Howard) Government continues to treat refugees held in detention centres with such contempt and heartless action where the refugees are slowly going insane under the harsh psychological treatment that more and more people are forced to see the government as behaving in a psychopathic manner.
For a further example, in Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's biography, Mao: the unknown story, painstakingly researched and written over 10 years from sources obtained from different parts of world including Russia and China, the authors have vividly painted a remarkably accurate picture of the true character of the Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung. On the surface, Mao presents himself to his people as the benevolent creator of modern China and supportive of the latest economic developments in his country. But deeper down lies the real truth and the reason why China has become a communist country in its present form and has to treat certain Chinese citizens with considerable contempt and a willingness to destroy their lives because of their opposing beliefs.
As the authors have unearthed from the archives of world libraries, Mao has many of the hallmarks of a psychopath.
For example, after becoming Chinese leader, Mao appeared to have had a hand in the deaths of 70 million people, of which 37 million of those died of hunger between 1958 to 1962 as they worked on the land for 20-hour days to help export food while Mao lived a life of virtually shear opulence as a result. And the deaths weren't due to economic mismanagement as the fundamental reason for the deaths. As Chang discovered during her research in China, it was so that Mao could achieve greatness while terrorising the people to do as they were told or else face execution under Mao's powerful and highly trained Chinese army. In essence, Mao could not, or would not want to see, the emotions of his people as they suffered.
As Chang said:
'I was constantly shocked by how evil he could be. Mao was very, very shrewd but he didn't have human feeling.' (Wheelwright, Julie. Authors' Long March sets aflame the myth of Mao Tse-tung: The Canberra Times. 11 June 2005, p.15.)
It was only until 1962 did Mao realise starving Chinese people weren't in the best interests of China and in maintaining the communist party or else the Chinese army would have to take over the work and maybe eventually Mao himself. So he ended the food exports that led to famine.
Further evidence of Mao's behaviour can also be seen from the way he allegedly treated his former wives and his children. For example, Mao's second wife named Yang Kai-Hui was imprisoned and executed by the Nationalists in 1930 without raising an emotional concern from Mao himself. But not before she wrote a number of highly sensitive letters kept hidden for some time until it reached the light of day in 1999. In those letters, Kai-Hui described Mao as a man prepared to get whatever he wanted at all costs and was willing to abandon or sacrifice his family for the sake of training his first army and eventually become the leader of China.
Within four months of executing his second wife, Mao married a third time. But this third wife was, as reporter Julie Wheelwright said, "...forced to give away four of her children [to raise funds for the communist party] and died after years of mental anguish."
Interviews of people in China with knowledge of Mao and his past by Chang, despite subtle pressure by the Chinese Government not to reveal anything to the authors, are showing a new attitude of overcoming their fears and discussing the bitter truth about Mao.
Mao continued until his death to hide behind the official veil that he is a revolutionary hero of the Chinese people and has never had help from anyone to achieve his ultimate dream of controlling the world (which he didn't actually achieve in the end). However, Halliday checked the archives in Russia to find what he could about the man. And it was discovered within the formerly classified Russian books about China that Russia had fully supported and had assisted Mao in his endeavours to gain full power using any reasonable means possible, in direct contrast to the Russian official view that Stalin had disapproved of Mao.
As Halliday revealed:
'Mao always perpetrated the myth that he'd risen to power without help from the Russians. But he was the one that the Russians were pushing and protecting.' (Wheelwright, Julie. Authors' Long March sets aflame the myth of Mao Tse-tung: The Canberra Times. 11 June 2005, p.15.)
To be prepared to knowingly abandon, kill and let people suffer without creatively looking for a better solution as needed to acknowledge the feelings and emotions of people affected by the change, it is difficult to see the Chinese leader in any other light.
But if you support the communist party and all its ideals, you may not understand what the fuss is about and may even be offended by the possibility Mao could have been a psychopath.
It depends on which side of the fence you are on: the Chinese person suffering under Mao's rule, or the Chinese person living well off and supporting it. (9)
How do you know when something is expressing love?
Just look at the people and what they do. Firstly people with love increase their intelligence, do the right thing (ie. show their love), and become free to express themselves through the activities they do. And secondly, the activities people do will reveal the positive benefits to many people and in their variety and creativity.
You don't need L-brain scientists performing harsh and frightening experiments on monkeys to do the opposite to love to test the power of love. Just observe people who already have love in what they do and how they achieve things.
It should be like turning on a light bulb. Where there was once darkness, people with love will bring light to the world. You see it in the consequences arising from love. For example, there are people who want to help other people. Children are happy. Animals are able to survive and grow. You can breathe fresh, clean air. You can get a free education when you need it. People want to do good in the world as a consequence of the love. And this in turn reinforces the original love to affect more and more people and other living things. Love grows if you let it.
There is nothing people cannot achieve when there is love.
How do people promote positive thinking and love?
From the way they smile and greet people everyday. You also see it in the sayings of people from various nations. For example, the following is a common Irish Blessing:
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you,
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness,
From this day forward.
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home,
And may the hand of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.
You will know when something shows love just by feeling and imagining it and you will see the positive consequences.
The importance of faith
Faith is one of those terms liberally shared by people in religious circles, especially Christianity. Faith is just another way of saying if you show love, then, after a while, you will see the positive benefits of the love return to you.
In a L-brain society that expects things to be observed straightaway and hence to see the link between things, it is hard for people to have faith. Yet if you use your imagination, you can see the link by imagining the consequences of your positive actions.
Despite how hard it is to observe the trend, applying love to something does guarantee something in return. You just have to have the patience to see the results of your effort. Then you will know faith works because eventually at some point the love you express to someone or something eventually comes back to you.
Human rights
Through positive emotions, you start to understand how certain positive consequences leads to positive human development. For example, providing food for people leads to positive benefits so long as all other things you do to the people shows love.
The set of common actions leading to positive benefits in human development can be described as human rights.
The EQ (or E IQ) test
There is a test to measure your emotional intelligence. Known as the Emotional Quotient (EQ) or Emotional IQ test, this psychological instrument will reveal something of your ability to recognise and understand one's own and other people's emotions in various common social situations and how you would handle those situations and other people.
There are no right or wrong answers in an EQ test. How you wish to handle situations where people's emotions are involved is totally up to you. The test merely shows your tendency to acknowledge and correctly identify emotions in yourself and other people, and how you would handle the situation based on those emotions for the most common situations in life. Generally the more balanced your emotions, the higher your emotional intelligence. And the greater your emotional intelligence, the better your ability to feel and appropriately assist people around you.
On a learning level based on L- and R-brain skills, good emotional intelligence leads to better memory and recall of information with the help of your frontal cortex. In other words, high emotional intelligence leads to better learning.
Problems with EQ tests
Like Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests (10), EQ (emotional quotient) tests can also be used in a negative way by people such as employers as a means of selecting individuals to do certain tasks in the workplace. Some people tend to see EQ tests as a way of pigeon-holing people for all times (as if their EQ will never change), so they may later use those people to achieve their own specific goal(s).
When employers and other people think this is the whole purpose of EQ testing to select people to fit a particular cog in the machine of economics, the testing component can be seen as nothing more than a management fad with some scientific substance behind it but will have very little benefit to many people and lots of benefits to a few others (ie. the ones who are selected by the employers and the employers themselves).
As with any kind of psychological instrument, tests should be applied with extreme care and should be seen as nothing more than a guide as to how people may behave under certain circumstances, especially in the moment when the tests were conducted.
People will change over time (ie. we do learn and gather new ideas), and hence the results of any test can vary significantly if performed on different occasions. In general, the older you become, the better you will do in IQ and EQ tests.
That's why EQ tests should be used with extreme care and must not be seen as the ultimate instrument for discriminating people, especially if people wish to achieve certain different opportunities in life.
When applying emotions, make sure they are positive
Remember, emotions are an important part of your life. And you should always apply positive emotions in everything that you do, think and say.
Christians call it love. The buddhists describe it as following a path with a heart. To the psychologists, it merely means the power of positive thinking.
Positive emotions or love? It really doesn't matter what words we use or how we try to visualise this feeling and apply it in life. The feeling of love is all we ever need to learn in our lives for us to truly create and achieve all the wonderful things in this universe for all to enjoy.
As the old song once said, "I don't know much, but I know I love you. That may be all I need to know."
This saying will always remain true. Everything else, including a well-developed L- and R-brain ability for problem-solving, will follow thereafter.
When we are born, we need love. When we live our lives, we need to know we are loved so we can love others, and when we die, we want to know we are still loved. Because love is all that is needed for living things to solve the greatest mysteries, to get through the most difficult experiences, and to achieve the greatest and most positive things in this universe for now and in the future.
That's why so many people on the Internet and elsewhere are often on the look out for some who will love them for who they are. The world is littered with people looking for love in all sorts of places so that hopefully someone can acknowledge their existence and then help them to do greater things over time through love.
Love is the key. Learn to love yourself, your fellow human beings, and all other living things with all your heart, and you will begin to see the world change for the better. As The Beatles, a famous British pop band, once said:
'There will be an answer. Let it be.'
With love, there will always be an answer, and a positive at that! By letting people grow in the environment of love, the mind and all the solutions for world problems will soon follow. Just let it be.
