Brain and Body Ambidexterity

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I played water polo for a while in my youth. Once I had to stop my opponent, who (as I unconsciously knew) was right-handed. When he got the ball, I grabbed his right hand with my right hand (I've been behind him), but he quickly turned in the same direction, pushed me away, grabbed the ball with his left hand and scored. He did everything so naturally as if he was left-handed. I found out after that he had injured his right shoulder and got used to throw the ball with his left hand. I unconsciously noted the advantage of ambidexterity.

Then I repeatedly met and saw the advantages of ambidextrous people (who are really very few) in various sports - badminton, boxing, wrestling... They are very uncomfortable and at first just overwhelming opponents in general. I understood that all that had to do with a connection between two halves of the body and the brain hemispheres and started to examine the question deeper. I began to eat, work, play ping-pong, throw the ball with my left hand, i.e. consciously tried to do a lot of things with my non-dominant (left) half of the body. Over time, I noted some "not my" thoughts coming to my mind and my artificial "left-handedness" added some depth to them. I started looking at my life slightly differently.


The human brain consists of 2 hemispheres. The left (logical) one is responsible for the right side of the body and the right (abstract) hemisphere - for the left side. About 90% of people are right-handed which means that their lives are mainly guided by the left (logical) brain hemisphere.

Logic is about formulas and exact sciences like math or physics. And yet logic as a projection of the present into the future brings unjustified optimism and excitement since it seems that the future can be calculated beforehand. However, logic is only a part of life. The future in reality is always different from what it looks like now, that's why the logic which mainly guides life process of the humanity is misleading. Humanity and all human's advanced sciences brilliantly demonstrate this, still not being able to answer the eternal questions of "who we are", "why we are here" and "where we are going".

The logic of science lacks the abstract perception of the world - stories, fairy tales and esotericism - the things the right cerebral hemisphere is responsible for. 90% of humanity uses mainly the logical half of the brain which leads to one-sided perception of the world and subsequent mistakes. The brain is a holistic separate organ of our body. It consists of two parts and should not be used one-sidedly.


What does all that have to do with people, their children and personal development?

In order to realize the full potential of any human being it is necessary to develop both logical and abstract hemispheres of the brain. Adults just need to know that, try that themselves and teach their children to do so.

Do any physical exercises with your child with an emphasis on the non-dominant side of the body and teach him or her not only math, but also read fairy tales and stories. And make your child paraphrase them and explain the main idea. Logical sciences taught people to burn coal for heating their homes and counted how much carbon dioxide is formed due to such burning, but also the abstract understanding of the fact that carbon dioxide wraps our Earth with a blanket which creates the global warming is badly needed.


My elder son's 4th grade teacher Mrs. Spencer once drew my attention to the fact that he often couldn't formulate the main idea of the story. I knew he could solve the problem in math because I taught him that. In general at home I was more focused on math and science than on reading and understanding texts. After talking to Mrs. Spencer and watching my son, I came to conclusion that grasping the main idea of somebody's speech or summarizing a 20-sentenced text (or a book) in a few words is more difficult task than solving a math problem. How can he take something valuable from the conversation or any useful experience from the history book, for example?

And I began trying to develop both his right (abstract) and left (logical) brain hemispheres. I started to make him read and paraphrase tales and stories, formulate the main idea of any text, write with his left (non-dominant) hand and do different physical exercises on both sides...

It is necessary to develop the physical aspects of your child, but just running or swimming are not enough. Have your child write with the non-dominant hand and encourage him or her to do anything with both hands (and legs) equally. There is a neural connection between the brain and executive organs and it works in both directions. In ALL nations ALL children's games are aimed at developing general coordination and focusing the attention. Any coordination activities (sports, dancing, etc.) must include the development of the non-dominant side of the body and will develop an appropriate cerebral hemisphere.

The art of calligraphy of the East is misunderstood in the West, but it is about the same - to form a coordination that develops good neural connection from hand or leg back to the brain. Playing different musical instruments creates very precise (finger) coordination of both sides of the body and it's interesting to note that left-handed Paul McCartney struggled playing right-handed in the very beginning of his career and needed to reverse the guitar.

Unfortunately, children all over the world now can't write in cursive and watch more video than read books. Reading has been decreasing much now in humanity due to the development of new technologies. That is why in particular the mankind is degenerating. Less coordination, calligraphy, reading and merely thinking atrophy the neural brain-executive organ connections and lead to deterioration of mental abilities. It's a pity that parents usually have no understanding and time for correct physical and mental development of their children.

My elder son now writes really nice and quick cursive with both hands. The younger one had a speech delay and related coordination disorder (he couldn't, for example, string quite large beads on a thread and was very angry about that), so now we are busy with his dominant hand. I am consciously trying to do something with my non-dominant hand or foot (eating, playing, working), I jog backwards and have all these nice thoughts coming to my mind that I am sharing with you here. Well, to be honest, it's not just because of that.


Thus the opening of the full potential of your child is deeper than just giving him or her a good education. A child cannot benefit from even a good education if he or she cannot or does not want to focus the attention or studies only logical part of life. This leads to a one-sided perception of the world and biased seeing. The development of the non-dominant hemisphere allows not only to move by both sides of the body equally, but also to see and therefore think differently.


When to start (if you would like to try all that).
I have heard an interesting story about a woman asking a doctor when she should start educating her child. The doctor asked how old the child was (2 years old) and said that the mother is already 2 years late. However, my experience shows that you can start at any age. I started experimenting with my non-dominant side in my 40s. It is very useful to look at the world through different eyes at any age.

What to do.
You can invent whatever by yourself, having the main idea in mind - you or your child have to write (eat, brush teeth, play) with the non-dominant hand. In that way you influence the underdeveloped brain hemisphere through synaptic (neuron) connections from the finger, hand or leg back to the brain. The main aim of your child's attending dance or kick-boxing classes has to be not becoming a showbiz star, but the developing non-dominant half of the body and general coordination for smooth interaction of both hemispheres of the brain with their executive organs. From my point of view, that coordination is best developed by dancing, martial arts (like kick-boxing, Thai boxing, karate) and gymnastics.


All of the above makes sense to read and try if you really want to develop yourself or your child and have time for that. Unfortunately, according to my observations parents do not have time for their children since usually both of them are too busy at work, putting all the responsibility on schools. However, no school can replace Mom and Dad.


P.S. I've got an interesting comment from my elder son after his reading this article. He said that almost all of his Language Arts teachers were left-handed (above-mentioned Mrs. Spencer) and almost all math and science teachers were right-handed.



P.P.S. Dear Reader! I am very much interested in your opinion on the subject of this article. Please, write a comment or ask a question if you want to clarify something.
Yours,
Igor Chykalov