On Super Soul Sunday (OWN) this morning Oprah Winfrey’s Soul Series interview of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor re-aired. During the interview she described her stroke experience and the profound awareness she learned in the process.The story is beautifully chronicled in her book A Stroke of Insight.
Essentially she had a massive hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain, the side that controls thought, learning, rote functions and all of the egoic thoughts with which we ordinarily identify. What remained was the intuitive, emotional, sensory “big picture” functioning of the right hemisphere of her brain. [more info on how the brain works]
She was aware that she was alive and connected; both a part of and wholly made of a loving, cooperative system of organisms working together for her good, her peace, her existence.
In fact, she was reborn! She had to re-learn a “self” because the “37-year old doctor and daughter self” she was “pre-stroke” had passed away in a mere 4-hour time span and no longer existed. Why and how? As a result of the stroke she lost her emotional baggage, memories of hurts, slights, pains, history, education and her “story” of who she was seen through the lens of a lifetime of events and relationships. She got a fresh start; she was indeed reborn again.
She was able to choose who she wanted to be. She chose and continues to choose to listen to her body’s response to the way certain thoughts, interactions and the energies of people feel. She chooses to focus on loving, nurturing, energizing thoughts, people and interactions and gives no time, thought or energy to the rest. She does so without judgment, only a recognition that life and the energy that supports it are both precious.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor reminded me that even without having a stroke and literally losing our minds, we too have a chance — through the power of conscious free will — to be reborn in any moment. The power of free will comes with it the power to choose whether you will be a loving, supportive, protective bearer of energy (yours and others) or whether you will be a fearful, negative, reckless waster and taker of energy (yours and others).
In order to be aware enough of your thoughts and energy you have to be conscious and present in the moment a thought arises. And in that moment you must also have the wisdom to identify life affirming thoughts and energy, to distinguish them from life draining thoughts and energy and to choose life.
The truth is we are always making choices anyway. The point is to be an active participant and co-create with the Life Force (I call it God) the life that honors and affirms your existence.
Dr. Taylor says there are two types of people on the planet; those who give you energy and those who drain your energy. So the fundamental and essential questions to reflect on in this Wisdom in the Whisper™ lesson are:
- What type of person are you?
- What type of people are you surrounded by in your inner circle?
- What type of energy do you bring?
- What type of energy have you allowed into your being?
Lovingly reflect on what changes are necessary to maintain loving energy within and around you. With conscious free will, let the old way go and be re-born!
Love & Light,
Tonya Marie
[Watch Jill Bolte Taylor’s “Stroke of Insight” TED Talk]
Wisdom in the Whisper™ lessons and WisdomintheWhisper.com by Tonya Marie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.wisdominthewhisper.com.
Wisdom in the Whisper™ 
Whoops, posted comment too soon — “There are interactions that leave me feeling stressed, and interactions that leave me feeling drained.” There are ALSO interactions that leave me feeling uplifted and encouraged! I hope to cultivate more of these 🙂
@Paula. Yes indeed! It’s a process but when things start to feel heavy I try to become more intentional about finding that life-affirming energy so that I can eventually continue to give it. Be encouraged. All is well!