EnlightenInk Blog

Are you in your ‘right’ mind, in a spacious place, tasting life anew in the Now? Or are you in your left mind, stuck out in left field, munching on rehashed leftovers? That’s what our left brain does — it recycles mind chatter and generates a wall of words that separates us from the peace and stillness of our right brain. We can’t function in the world without our left brain, we need it for language, numbers, structure, and boundaries; but sometimes we get trapped within those boundaries. In the book ‘My Stroke of Insight’, brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor writes about her massive stroke that blew out the left hemisphere of her brain. With the din of her left brain quieted, she was immersed in the expansive, present-moment, right brain hemisphere — the portal to a peaceful paradise.  She paints a vivid and fascinating picture of her experience.

I have found that my left brain can be like a manic hamster on a wheel, going round and round, spinning yarns, worries, and what ifs, ad nauseum. It is so dizzying that I need a drama-mine pill — a reality pill to remind me that this drama is mine and what traps me in the drama is the spin I am putting on things, the stories I am constantly recycling. The left brain loves drama. Stinking thinking, judgments, catastrophizing, shoulding on ourselves and others, these are all left brain past times, and future times — anywhere but here and now times.

On the other side, the right brain is right here, right now, feeling peaceful and calm, experiencing oneness and union and a sense that all’s right with the world. Being in the right brain is like taking a chill pill, “I’m cool. Life is good. Everything is One-derful.”

I think that there is a certain beauty to the design. The hell of left brain feelings of discord, worry and separation instills in us an impetus to seek the heaven of right brain feelings of peace and union. It could be all part of the divine plan to motivate us to find our way back Home. When I’m out in ‘left’ field, judging, worrying, and criticizing, I am compelled by the discomfort of that place to take a field trip to find the wordless, wondrous, spacious place of my right mind where I think not, therefore I AM. As Rumi so eloquently put it:

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field, I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

doesn’t make any sense.”

How do we get to that field? First notice and identify where you are; when you hear yourself judging and spinning yarns, when you’re aware that scurrying, worrying thoughts are spinning on the wheel in your mind, know that you are in your left hemisFEAR. Take the wheel and turn to the right, telling yourself, “Right here, right now is all there is, and right now all is well — breathe, relax, trust.” The left-brain chatter quiets, the body relaxes and you become peacefully encircled in the serene embrace of the right-brain hemiSHERE.

There are many other ways to quiet left brain chatter and turn on right brain peace, such as prayer, meditation, tai chi, yoga, walks in nature, breath work, and calling on your faith in a higher power. However, the most fun and joyous way for me is to sing and dance and play. Reverend Michael Beckwith says that praying and playing are the same energetic. That makes sense, since they are both in the realm of the right brain. Playfulness is next to godliness.

Every morning I sing and dance and play to the Beatles song, “Twist and Shout”. “Well shake it up baby now. Twist and Shout!” I shake my body like a dog shakes water off its’ fur; this shakes free left hemisFEARs and tensions, and wakes my spirit right up — it is shake and wake time!

Sometimes when I find myself lost in “poor little me” thoughts, feeling unloved, unlovable, and ‘left’ out, I tickle myself awake by singing The Worm Song:

“Nobody likes me.  Everybody hates me.

I’m gonna go eat worms.

Long thin, slimey ones; short, fat, juicy ones.

Itsy, bitsy, squirmy little worms.”

Humor is a great waker upper and before I know it I have lightened up and transformed a can of worms into butterflies!

When I notice that I am worrying, fretting, and forgetting the big picture, I shift myself by singing this song I wrote (along with my friend Nicola Gordon) to the tune of The Ants go Marching One by One. It’s called The Now Song. Sing along with me!

“There’s nothing I have to do today, hurrah, hurrah.

There’s nothing I have to do or say, hurrah, hurrah.

Just be in the NOW all the way.

That’s all I have to do today.

Breathe in, Breathe out,

Sing and dance and play.”

That always brings me right here, right now. What are ways you bring yourself into the spacious field of right-brained peace, unity and well-being?  I’ll meet you there!

In Love,

Jan Jacobsen

Tags: Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, left-brain, music, My Stroke of Insight, play, right-brain, Rumi, worry

I’ve been waking up in the morning for the last few days with some nasty bug bites on my body. Not many, four so far, but they are big, red and painful. Last night I was afraid to fall asleep, thinking that IT, whatever it is, would come out in the dark of night when I’m sleeping and vulnerable and bite me again! I’m thinking it may be one of those big, thick, gnarly-looking black spiders. I imagine it cunningly waiting for me to fall asleep so it can crawl onto my body and sink its’ fangs into me like a mini vampire. Is it any wonder that I was wide awake until 3 in the morning!?

I believe that life is a mirror, and that whatever shows up in my life is reflecting some part of me. I asked myself what this is trying to tell me. The thought came to me…something is ‘eating’ at me. What is it? I sat with that question for a few seconds and then I realized what it is – I am afraid that cancer may still be lurking in my life, waiting to take a bite out of me, or it may already be gnawing away in the dark unknown of my internal body. Cancer is something that literally eats at us – it ate my uterus!

I had decided to try and stop dwelling on it, like my brother who stopped thinking about his brain aneurysm and it eventually calcified. But there is a very fine line between not dwelling on something and repressing it. How do you know when you have let something go or are just whistling in the dark? For me, that’s easy – sitting on my feelings is very much like accidentally sitting on my felines – they very quickly bite me in the butt and I am forced to face them.

As I am now facing my fears, I realize once again that the worst part of cancer for me is the anxiety about it. That is what I am resisting, that is what was eating at me like a spider in the black night. What I resist persists, in one form or another.

Now that I’ve brought my creepy crawly thoughts into the light of awareness, it ‘s time to do some Mental Aikido with them, coming into alignment with them, telling myself, “I know that you’re scared. It’s okay to feel scared. Let yourself feel it. It is natural to feel scared about cancer. It’s something we don’t have much control over. That is scary.” Deeper breaths come as I allow the fear and I am ready for the uptwist. “It’s true that cancer might reoccur, AND, right now you are fine, right now you are healthy and strong and right now is all there is.” I take a big breath into open space.

I am accepting that fear is a recurring visitor to my life, a teacher that is helping me strengthen my faith muscles, build my ‘trust’ fund, and create a belief in a friendly universe. It is also teaching me to feel compassion for myself and for others who suffer with fear and anxiety. I want to hug us all in love and strength and say, “Yes, I know what that feels like. I understand. Just know that we are so much bigger than our fear. We are so much vaster than a body. We are so loved and watched over.” Fully feeling my fear always leads to feeling the loving presence of my Big Soul Self.

Is there something in your life that is trying to get your attention, something that is ‘bugging’ you, some disowned part of you that is eating at you? Shine the light of awareness on it, and invite it to the party – there’s plenty of space for all of God’s critters that show up.

THE GUEST HOUSE by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,


Some momentary awareness comes


As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!


Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,


Who violently sweep your house


Empty of its furniture,


Still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out


For some new delight.

In Love,

Jan Jacobsen

Tags: anxiety, fear, Rumi, spiders, The House Guest