Jill Bolte Taylor

The astonishing international bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment. On the morning of the 10th December 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four hours. As the damaged left side of her brain - the rational, logical, detail and time-oriented side - swung in an out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realities: the euphoric Nirvana of the intuitive and emotional right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical left brain, that realized Jill was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely. In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Taylor brings to light a new perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery that she gained through the intimate experience of awakening her own injured mind. The journey to recovery took eight years for Jill to feel completely healed. Using her knowledge of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Taylor completely repaired her mind and recalibrated her understanding of the world according to the insight gained from her right brain that December morning.

My Stroke of Insight

Jill Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of a curious scientist, she watched her mind deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of the brain, her respect for the cells in her body, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered. In My Stroke of Insight, she shares her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the two halves of her brain. When she lost the skills of her left brain, her consciousness shifted away from normal reality where she felt at one with the universe. Taylor helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel and how we react to life's circumstances.

A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

“The first thing I do to experience my inner peace is to remember that I am part of a greater structure - an eternal flow of energy and molecules from which I cannot be separated. Knowing that I am part of the cosmic flow makes me feel innately safe and experience my life as heaven on earth. How can I feel vulnerable when I cannot be separated from the greater whole? My left mind thinks of me as a fragile individual capable of losing my life. My right mind realizes that the essence of my being has eternal life.”

I.m. ruzz

I think my view of this book lacked a dimension and that lacking sullied what might have been a marvelous book. The angle I approached the book was--having watched her video on ted--about the mind and it's two halves and their role in cogitation and bliss. 

The idea of a more concrete delineation between the thinking mind and the feeling mind from someone who had one half turned off for a time seemed really appealing. 

What turned me off then was 120 of 170 pages devoted to what happened (AVM stroke) and her recovery. I imagine these pages will be invaluable to someone whose had a stroke or is close to someone who has but they were lost on me--beyond a cursory identification with someone else who has had a major medical event in their lives. Not only were they lost but being wrapped in saccharine sweet new-agey touchy feely language made it almost unbearable and I even remarked I may not be able to muster the strength to finish the book (Around pg 120 or so). 

Fortunately for me then I did finish and in that last 55 or so pages is where the meat of the book resides. It solidly discusses the roles and various flavors of the two mind halves and she has what i consider to be a worth the two stars given, a chapter on how to use your physical body to bring you back closer to a state of joy, or happiness, or flow, or bliss. whatever you want to call it. 

beyond that chapter, and a few surrounding ideas and thoughts it was all too much mushy love fest for me. 

why is it we cannot be blissful, happy, joy filled humans without resorting to baby talk?

On the morning of December 10, 1996, Taylor, a brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke. She observed her own mind completely deteriorate. Now she shares her unique perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery.

Lauren Grimes

olivia castanza

A brain scientist discusses suffering a stroke at the age of thirty-seven, describing her discovery of differences in the left and right side of the brain and the steps she took over a period of eight years to recover her health.

My Stroke of Insight

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