What is that? Excellent question; I am glad you asked. As you may know, we have two hemispheres of the brain. Neuroscience is a relatively young field, and we are continuing to learn more about the complexity of the brain and its function with time and as research evolves. We do know that there are different roles played by different sides and areas of the brain, and that integrating neural networks appears to be helpful in resolving traumatic memories.
The success of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in treating trauma and mental health challenges teaches us that alternating right- and left-brain stimulation, via visual, auditory, or tactile experience, helps facilitate emotional processing. Through the simple act of holding something that buzzes between your right and left hand, or listening to something shifting from your right to left ear, a memory that was once charged with emotion can become less distressing. During the process, it is common for relevant associations to arise, for memories of thoughts and body sensations to arise. With support, this process can facilitate lasting and integrated healing.
Right-left brain stimulation may sound like a scary, science fiction-like process, but I assure you there is no electricity involved in this type of therapy. Your body receives input in the form of sound, touch, or sight, without any added energy.
Along with helping us process emotions, EMDR can help build up positive memories, experience, thoughts, and feelings. We call this resourcing, and use imagined or real resources to cultivate feelings of peace, nurturing, protection, and wisdom. In addition to and as part of processing negative experiences, it is crucial to cultivate the positive, sometimes the opposite of what occurred in the experience of trauma.
How do walking, running, and drumming factor in? Think about it for a moment. When you walk, run, or drum, you are using your body in a rhythmic way, alternating the stimulation or use of your right and left brain throughout the activity. Have you ever gone on a hike or run and felt that you were sorting through your thoughts, developing new insights, or becoming less distressed about something? We know that exercise has many benefits; EMDR highlights for us some of the mental and emotional benefits.
There are a million ways to alternate right- and left-brain activation, including dance, yoga, and some tai chi moves. People have naturally gravitated toward right-left movements in many healing rituals across the world. Think of how many sacred rituals involve drums, movement, or voyages on foot. Understanding brain integration, plasticity, and resilience gives us some insight into why these rituals have been effective and why they continue to be passed down through generations.
Comment: 6 evidence-based ways drumming heals body, mind and soul; a fundamental form of human expression
Think about your life for a moment and ask yourself: when do I engage in an activity that engages my right and left brain in alternating rhythm? How do I feel before, during, and after the fact? How can I incorporate this information into my healing path?
If you are looking to heal from specific traumatic memories, I highly recommend working with a skilled EMDR professional who can provide structure and guide you toward health and resolution. Consider how your own choices outside of therapy can support your process as well. Perhaps you will choose to walk or bike to your therapist's office this week, or do a little dance after your session. Whatever you choose, may it serve your healing and integration.
Reader Comments
These cultural subjects invariably have two left hands, two left feet, and they always will.
"A normal person is better than you" - G.I. Gurdjieff
Just because there is a therapy or ritual to help, people allow the cause to go on. Dostoyevsky said that awareness comes with suffering. Throughout history we can see that those who saw reality and it's problems end up walking the hard path.
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Some of this is right, if you can separate the dancers out from the hat-wearers....[Link]
Speaking Without Words: Zorba’s Dance
Anthony Quinn “teaching dance” on the island of Crete to the music of Mikis Theodorakis is a popular image that portrays Greeks as extremely emotional, passionate and spontaneous. This paper shows the importance of dancing in Greek culture and how Greeks talk through their body by ex- amining Kazantzakis character, Zorba, who “has many things to say but would rather dance them”.
When in Paris, between 1907 and 1909, Kazantzakis combined his studies about the French philosopher Bergson with a reading of Nietzsche. The German philosopher had a powerful influence on Kazantzakis, who, in turn, wrote a dissertation on him. Clearly, Nietzsche’s “process theology” is expressed in Kazantzakis’s novel, “Zorba the Greek”. According to Nietzsche’s ideas about the sources of religion, god is the result of whatever the most energetic and heroic people value and create. Peter Bien, indeed, argues how Zorba’s actions are immediate reflections of Nietzsche’s ideas. To his perception, Zorba is the “superhuman” who knows that there is not a true, reasonable, permanent, ordered, or good world for us. Throughout his works, however, Kazantzakis does not kill “his” God, as Nietzsche would do, but, instead, wishes to save Him....[Link]
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http%3A%2F%2Fc8.alamy.com%2Fcomp%2FBPJB5D%2Fcharles-bronson-vincent-van-patten-valdez-the-halfbreed-chino-1973-BPJB5D.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alamy.com%2Fstock-photo%2Fvan-patten.html&docid=si3aHN3v3bVpaM&tbnid=IYO7CTBI4wxIzM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjnkLCTgoHTAhWMyoMKHVBwAk84yAEQMw g0KDEwMQ..i&w=1300&h=1115&client=ms-android-rogers-ca&bih=616&biw=360&q=photo%20charles%20bronson%20hat%20and%20long%20leather%20coat&ved=0ahUKEwjnkLCTgoHTAhWMyoMKHVBwAk84yAEQMwg 0KDEwMQ&iact=mrc&uact=8
Charles Bronson hat harmonica and long leather coat ... once upon a time
Oh what, you mean 'Man With The Harmonica', by maestro Morricone?....[Link]
This is another Morricone fav of mine. The inestimable Christy singing 'Run Man' from The Big Gun Down. Hold onto your 'hats' LOL...[Link]
I could go on, actually, but I feel I've already overloaded everyone with stuff.
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2nd kinda took me to another world lol
Since we re doing show n tell today, i just love it!!
Hey... they just won the worlds again
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Btw... Coeur de Pirate is Pirate's Heart
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Look, here s more. We re all about playing in the cold here... skate ski snowmen après- ski hot chocolate marshmellows campfire igloos lol
“Our souls are only created to dance;
it is their nature to dance …. and it is
the tragedy of life …. when the soul is kept from dancing.”
Rumi
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Nice chat...Talk again soon
I could go for some of that myself but the courses are a wee bit pricey.
Miriam LaVelle....[Link]
Now i keep it simple and flip flip down the pool lane. It does wonders for me, especially helps me forget i m a human
Miriam LaVelle....[Link]