Review of Stroke of Insight – by Jill Bolte Taylor

Jill Bolte Taylor’s autobiographical account of her own brain hemorrhage is a fascinating look into the microcosm of the brain and ultimately, into life itself. As a Neuro-Anatomist, Taylor’s scientific ability to draw us deep into the details of the form and function is raw and rampant, yet she is able to massage the content for the real meaning of the message, inner peace and prosperity.
Her 8 years of recovery transverse stages where the majority of the medical community had little hope, yet she emerges whole and complete, and actually, in her own words, better than she was prior to the stroke. When physicians had told her and her family that there would be little recovery past the 6 month mark, she marched on, re-learning, re-filing, and shedding unnecessary pieces of herself, eventually culminating with a North American speaker’s series and a best-selling book at the 8 year mark.
The linear, methodical thinking of the Left Brain proves useful in a variety of ways, yet when one is forced to shed some of the ‘details’, some of the ‘regretting’, some of the ‘what if chatter’, life becomes so much more enjoyable for all. Her discovery of her lost Right Brain, and the enjoying of the moments, and the ‘at one with the universe’ saw her through many a day when she was fighting hard to walk and talk again.
While this is a definite read for anyone who has been able to study the fascinations of the brain via a real life event of a loved one (or self), it is also a read for anyone that wants to change their life by enjoying all the moments that are THIS life, instead of worrying those moments away. It is true that our brain can and does control each of us, but oh, there is so much more power when we choose what it should control, and let the rest go.
www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight