How to Tap into the Right Hemisphere of Your Brain

Sep 15

Years ago, one of my favorite authors, Dan Pink, wrote a book called A Whole New Mind. In it, he shared the latest research at the time about the functions of both sides of our brain. Since then, neuroscientists have discovered these hemispheres have much in common, yet they each have their unique strengths.

Recently, another one of my favorite authors, Arthur Brooks, released a new book called The Meaning of Your Life. In it, he describes why he’s convinced that heavy social-media use strangles our happiness: Screen addiction is crowding out activity in our brain’s right hemisphere, which is where meaning, love and mystery reside. When we scroll or stare at a screen, we may feel the dopamine release, but it’s a “shot,” not a state of mind. We soon need more shots of dopamine, so we form habits of scrolling or binging. We don’t look up and enjoy the beauty of the outside world. We look down and seek an artificial prompt to feel pleasure. I wonder if this is why so many people are lonely and unhappy.

I stood in an endless line of people at the Atlanta airport recently. TSA agents were few, and the crowds were bigger than you see at a Disney theme park. I couldn’t tell where one line began and another ended. Of course, no one was happy. At one point, I looked around and saw a sea of people staring down at their phones, like Zombies. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as I remembered how different life was 25 years ago, before our phones became computers. Months ago, I observed a group of college athletes walking through the airport, and all of them were peering down at their phones as they moved forward. A traveler walking in the opposite direction began to prepare for a collision. He exhorted them as they progressed toward him: “Look up! Look up! Look up!”

This appears to be the battle cry of our day.

It’s a Pattern Around the World

The World Happiness Report was published by the University of Oxford last month. This year’s reportrevealed that social media is making us miserable. It’s almost everywhere. At the same time, we’ve discovered how people in a world more populated than ever—are lonely. The National Library of Medicine released a study that included 47,318 individuals, ages 18–64 years old. Over 80% of participants reported some degree of loneliness. When everyday people in our lives are both lonely and unhappy—it makes for a miserable life.

Loneliness and sadness are prevailing experiences today—but they can be overcome. We are not at the mercy of this 21st century addiction. We can be counter-cultural. It will require us, however, to do something different than the average person today. While I understand some people require treatment for disorders, I believe millions of us can evade anxiety or depression by taking some simple actions.

We must play “offense”, not “defense,” to enjoy this.

How to Tap into the Right Hemisphere of Your Brain

Arthur Brooks has been good to us—encouraging readers and followers to explore the right hemisphere of their brain. Dan Pink (as I mentioned) did the same thing. The right hemisphere includes beauty, art, music, emotional processing, creativity, spatial awareness and holistic thinking. When I created the Habitudes® courses, I attempted to engage both hemispheres of the brain in the learning process. I use images, conversations and experiences, not didactic lectures. I believe pictures beat lectures any day. My goal was to foster community and conversation since “pictures are worth a thousand words.” Sadly, some in the academic community felt they weren’t scholarly since they were so different than the educational norms at the time. The truth is, they involve both parts of the brain, not just the left side–intuition and imagination, not merely information. This sparks action and eventually, fulfillment.

This right-brain activity leads to what Arthur Brooks calls “moral beauty.” It moves people to act, as it involves emotion, not mere logic. It uses beauty to spark service and selflessness. Here is how Brooks puts it:

❝Moral beauty is most strongly perceptible in goodness toward others with whom one has no obvious ties—in other words, deeds that clearly involve a sacrifice of self. (Unfortunately, these acts are in decline in North America and Western Europe.) Examples on an escalating scale of selflessness might be: helping a person for no reason at all; forgiving someone who does not deserve it; or giving up one’s life for a stranger. Witnessing this kind of moral beauty elicits what scholars call ‘moral elevation,’ an experience that delivers a deep sense of meaning, and thus happiness.❞

So—here are some simple steps to begin:

Get your dopamine from production, not consumption. Earn it, don’t scroll for it.
Get your oxytocin from in-person interaction, not simulations of it on social media.
Get your endorphins from the beauty of exercise outside, not virtual reality online.
Get your serotonin from serving and sacrificing for others, not from artificial means.

Back to that long line at the airport. Our group of four, Melissa, Juliette, Pam and I, quickly discovered that our phone screens could not help us that day. It was chaos. We somehow managed to laugh and make the time pass faster by remaining as present with each other as we could. That’s not a bad way to spend your life.