There are so many ways that we can improve ourselves. In fact, too many ways. Without any clear guidance, the methods blur together. To make better sense of self-improvement, visualize your brain in four quadrants: top, right, left, and bottom. By learning how these four parts work, you can grow along lines of your choosing and become a more integrated, balanced version of yourself.
Top brain (your story-mind steers you through life)
The top of the brain is responsible for thinking. Your thoughts and stories help you ride the complicated waves of life. They help you decide how to feel and how to act. In fact, the stories you program into the top of your brain define your very identity.
When you want to find mental balance, you need to understand and accept the story of you Self. Through the simple but powerful understanding of your own story, you become more accepting of who you are and more skillful at adapting to changes and desires.
Right brain (creative flow opens you to self and others)
The right-brain is the loose and open part of your mind. When you feel the pleasure of connection, or flow, or an open, warm feeling toward the universe, the right-brain is fully engaged.
Because the flow state gives us so much pleasure, we crave it as a way to escape our boring lives. Many obsessions and addictions result from our craving for the flow state.
In order to stay healthy, you need to coach yourself towards a balanced approach to flow. Many techniques help integrate a flow-state into everyday life, such as exercise, meditation, yoga, and free-writing. With practice, you will begin to see life flowing past you on the river of time.
Left brain (solve problems to steer towards your best self)
The left side of your brain is associated with analysis and problem solving. It achieves clear thinking by breaking life down into parts and seeing how the parts fit together. When you use it to foster a whole-brain approach, left-brain logic helps you plan for the future, solve problems, manage your time, and start habits. And using our left-brain logic, we can fact-check our stories in order to keep them in line with reality.
The left-brain can create problems when you over or under emphasize it. If you cling too tightly to the left brain, you deny yourself the pleasurable rewards of flow and wholeness. On the other extreme, generations of artists have been taught that the left-brain is the enemy, and that to induce creativity they must shut down the left-brain. However, shutting down any part of your brain is self-destructive.
Bottom brain (self-soothing and Hero’s courage lift you above fear)
The bottom brain, also called the “reptilian brain” is the center of survival instincts. While the top-brain has been programmed in this lifetime, the bottom-brain has been programmed for millions of years. Threats to the Self provoke defensive responses such as anger and paralysis. To manage the downward pull of these forces, we start in infancy, unconsciously developing ways to lift us above our fears.
The need for self-soothing continues throughout life and is one of the goals of therapy and self-help. By using the higher three quadrants of the brain, you continue to consciously develop and refine your ability to stay out of fear and move toward goals.
Use all parts of your brain
Many of us grow up with an imbalance, for example using left-brain logic and avoiding right-brain flow, or the other way around. When our fears are too strong, they shift control down to the bottom-brain. And when we rely too heavily on stories, we might disengage from reality and live within our own fantasies. To grow towards greater fulfillment and balance, consciously use your strengths to shore up your weaker aspects.
The left-brain helps you learn and establish new habits. For example, you analyze and decide to implement habits of relaxed breathing, affirmations, journal writing, and positive visualization.
Opening up to the influence of the right brain helps you stay in harmony, rely on social connections, and use creativity and meditation to stay up out of the bottom brain, without drugs and addictive behaviors.
And using the top-brain, you implement the powerful story of the Hero’s Journey. By picturing yourself with the courage and values of the Hero, you can ride above lower instincts and even harness them, to wisely steer toward the good of self, family, and society.
As you continue to learn and grow, you will energize and integrate all these parts of your brain, and become a more vibrant, creative, and self-aware whole-brained person.
For a deeper understanding of the methods to integrate the four parts of your brain, read my book How to Become a Heroic Writer – in it I break out the strategies of being a heroic, whole human being. By “becoming a writer” you must learn to manage your activities, your fears, and your story. And since writing is simply the expression of who you are, you can use the exact same approach to reach your own higher goals. Find your words to find your Self.