Whole Brain Living The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life Jill Bolte Taylor

When neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke on the left side of her brain, her life as she knew it dissolved as she lost access to basic cognitive functions. With only her right brain hemisphere functioning, she experienced a period of cosmic bliss, unburdened by her ego and past traumas. Later, when she regained her left-brain cognitive functions, she also retained a connection to the right side of her brain that brought her profound inner peace.Taylor’s key insight from her experience is that we can choose to access different parts of our brains and interrupt automatic thought processes and emotional reactions that don’t serve us. She links four areas of the brain to the “four characters within us”—each with their own ways of perceiving and navigating the world. In this guide, we’ll explore how the four characters show up in our lives and how to achieve emotional well-being by getting to know our four characters better. We’ll also compare Taylor’s ideas to other experts’ mindfulness techniques.