Is the right brain left brain concept a myth? Chances are we’re all familiar with this term, and it probably immediately brings to mind for you, on which side of the brain you tend to find yourself.
Most creatives describe themselves as right brain centric. Those previously termed “right brainers” are known to work best in non-linear fashion and you can find many memes fondly attributing disorder, non-conformity and even chaos to eccentric creatives.
We all tend to describe ourselves and others as being either “left brain” or “right brain” dominant, and which moniker subsequently explains ourselves as organized and methodical, or messy and flowing. And occasionally, we’re in the middle: organized but creative, or creative yet methodical, such qualities as an architect might employ.
But is left brain right – brain myth or truth?
Tables of Contents
- Are You More Linear or Radial?
- The Linear Approach
- The Spiral Nature of Creativity
- The Golden Ratio
- A Whole Mind Approach
- How to Synthesize Radial Growth with Linear Stability
- Radial Creativity and Linear Connectivity
- Flitting from Focus
The Right Brain – Left Brain Myth
Left brain right brain is just one way of assigning relatable qualities that everyone understands. We all know what it means… even though it turns out that it doesn’t really mean that after all.
The right brain left brain myth is predominantly ingrained in our thoughts and speech in a way that makes it easier to communicate differing proclivities. Those differences do exist, it’s just that they’re not right brain left brain specific.
It turns out that “left brain” and “right brain” have been proven to not be true literal attributes of analytical versus creative types. [1]https://www.techwell.com/techwell-insights/2014/06/debunking-left-brainright-brain-myth[2]https://www.livescience.com/32935-whats-the-difference-between-the-right-brain-and-left-brain.html
So we’re introducing the philosophical concept of left brain – right brain as working together in an integrated fashion. Like left foot – right foot, when walking, one after the other, both needing each other. It’s the same thing with our brains.
For the concepts in discussion here, I’m dubbing the commonly termed left brain proclivity as “radial intelligence”.
Linear thinkers can be equally artistic to radial thinkers. They simply have a different creative workflow. Linear minds work best within creative constraints.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
The Linear Approach
There are many creative individuals who do their best creative work in linear fashion.
In the landmark book, The One Thing, authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan dedicate an entire book to the vital importance of focusing on your “one thing”. We’ve written about The One Thing approach a number of times because as creative and prolific ideators, we’re no strangers to the struggle to narrow our focus to just one thing.
We know a number of successful creators who doggedly focus on one thing at a time, and who cannot tolerate distractions and interruptions without it impairing their progress and flow. Certainly, we can all relate to being frustrated with interruptions while in the middle of a project.
Having homeschooled our kids for years while also working from home, interruptions were constant, and even something I periodically need to course correct today. Not only that, I have to be aware of my interrupting them as well!
Whether you work at home or in an office complex with others, we’ve all experienced how interruptions disrupt creative workflow. Many times we’re our own distractors… clicking off to some “shiny object” or social post, where time is lost and it takes time to recover momentum and get back on track.
For linear thinkers, uninterrupted work within a time and structure is essential for progress.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
The Spiral Nature of Creativity
We live in a spiral galaxy, and all life on planet earth grows in spiral formations. We are hurtling through space at 67,000 mph while spinning at 1,000 mph… all while moving with the sun around the center of the galaxy, as it soars through space.
Given the nature of our spiral galaxy, it’s no surprise that all growth and progress also occurs in spiralic fashion. The nature of a spiral and it’s ever-expanding evolution, holds secrets to the mysteries of the universe that play out in all planes and strata of existence.
And thus it is that growth occurs, in ever widening and ascending circles whereby similar experiences reveal elevated discoveries.
You’ll enjoy the YouTube video shared at the end of this article that’s a beautiful visual rendition of this concept. For now, let’s explore this further.
“The path isn’t a straight line; its a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths.”
~Barry H. Gillespie, Canadian born artist, meditation teacher
Radial Consciousness and Growth
Radial growth expands from a core idea in ever expanding spirals. The thing about spirals is that they remain connected to their core. Spirals revolve around the core center from which they sprang.
Ideas, are those invisible etheric creatures that take on a life of their own. If left unattended, they eventually oscillate out of orbit and self destruct, or fizzle out into nothingness. If nurtured by the creator, they expand into an ever-widening spiral of uneven growth.
What connects that expanding spiral of conscious creation… what holds it all together are the linear strands… the ladder of creation. This is represented as The Fibonacci Sequence or Golden Ratio, as well as strands of DNA, where the expansion is represented by the spiral, connecting us to infinity and beyond. Thanks, Buzz Lightyear! ?
“The golden ratio describes predictable patterns on everything from atoms to huge stars in the sky.“
SOURCE: Investopedia.com [3]https://www.investopedia.com/articles/technical/04/033104.asp#:~:text=The%20golden%20ratio%20describes%20predictable,markets%20seem%20to%20as%20well
The Golden Ratio is a mathematically consistent pattern that’s a template for all in creation and used regularly by investors, artists and nature alike.
The creator must create and connect… create and connect.
We live and grow in a spiral universe, where, like the nautilus, growth is a radial and linear series of expansions and connections. This universal concept is known as The Golden Ratio.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
The Golden Ratio
A familiar term in the linear world of finance is “compound interest”, and compounding. The principle of compounding is embedded in every atom of our universe, in every plant and animal in nature, and every cell of our bodies.
The Golden Mean or Golden Ratio, also called the Fibonacci Sequence, has inspired thinkers of all disciplines in history. The mathematical (left brain) concept of the Golden Mean, holds intrigue and wonder even for non-linear creatives and mystics. In fact, The Golden Ratio is a part of art education and implementation.
Compounded growth, is a universal principle… a Fibonacci Sequence. When we align with the expanding spiral nature of The Golden Mean, we align with the very principles of life.
Your radial creativity needs your linear mentality. The most successful artists today must employ a whole mind approach.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com
A Whole Mind Approach
The most successful artists employ a combination of a linear and radial approach toward growing their creative business and getting their work out in the world. A whole mind approach is where predominantly linear thinkers engage the creativity of a strong radial approach—or vice versa, radial thinkers who employ a strong linear approach.
Professions that naturally tend toward a whole mind approach in their creative workflow are architects, musicians and anything related to music. Creators bringing together varied and diverse components into an integrated synthesize are also many and include landscapers and gardeners, and website developers in addition to art, math and science.
Each of these are working within the constraints of their medium; each employing math and science, structure and coding, even if unconsciously, as a part of the creative process.
When you synthesize linear growth with radial growth, like walking left-right, left-right, (formerly equatable to a coordinated left brain and right brain approach), you will move forward in your creative endeavors and make progress more quickly. Walking wasn’t easy at first either, but with every effort you get better. Same with art and business and the art of business, and especially when you can blend the whole mind approach.
How to Synthesize Radial Growth with Linear Stability
How to do more than one thing and synthesize your radial and linear mind?
You can synthesize an expanded network of projects by working on those which are connected to your core idea. To the anchoring seed thought, around which all of your other work revolves. Your seed thought connects everything you do with your “why“… your purpose for doing what you’re doing.
If you’re not certain of your seed thought around which to spiral your life and your business, explore that with questions.
Discovering Essentiality
ASK YOURSELF: “What…”
- “ …is most important to me in life/work?”
- “ …do I always come back to, dream of and long for.”
- “ …do I always gravitate toward?”
- ” ...have I always wanted to do?”
- ” …do I yearn for?”
- ” …was I always inclined toward as a child?”
We’ve written more about that in this article on creating yourself.
CALADANA Creatives — The Alderson Four…
In the family businesses we are building, we have a portfolio of websites, some of which are in different areas. For example, the iCreateDaily.com brand and our gardening website, GardensAll.com.
Connected to both of these are other areas of interest for us, including a recipe website and a health and fitness site, MyTrainerFitness.com. There are natural crossovers with each of these on some level, because the ultimate connecting core is us. These are all things we enjoy doing, with more to come, and at varying stages of development.
The ultimate connector… your stable, linear connecting link, is your life. As hone in on purpose and passion, this becomes more integrated into all that you do, and vice versa: all that you do becomes more connected to your overarching purpose, and your motivating passion.
So fitness is related to creativity because movement is essential for life and growth. Movement is essential for health, and a healthy, energized body and brain have the capacity to be more creative. Fitness gives you more life… and can even save your life as it saved mine.
Sooo…. rather than our “one thing” being one website, our “one thing” is Media Publishing. This naturally incorporates our iCreateDaily journals and merchandise, under the publishing and branding side of business.
- WHY: Our “why” is our family theme: to learn and grow through creating, contributing and connecting.
- WHAT: Our “what” is through publishing, which leads to our “how”.
- HOW: Our “how” is through multiple avenues of creative expressions including websites, podcasts, books and other products.
Our family theme is learning and growth through creation, contribution, and connection. The exact expressions change and evolve, but they’re always built on that same foundation.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com
Creative Workflow is not a Blended Approach
When a carpenter builds stairs, there are these tricky phases where the steps and that which they connect to need to happen virtually simultaneously. To secure one is to secure the other and vice versa.
Our growth is similar. To take a full step requires one foot followed by the other… right-left, right-left. Our growth is the same. We grow in linear steps that radiate out in spiral fashion, and we connect the spiral with linear actions.
The linear connections to our radial expressions that hold it all together is to learn the business of all that we’re doing. For example, it is not just to write for a website, but to learn the business of websites as well. It’s not just to do a podcast, but to learn the business of podcasting as well.
The other linear connection is how these sites connect to each other. As you’ve seen, I’ve linked from here to relevant articles on our fitness site. These connect to each other in the same way they connect to the different aspects of our interests.
The fronds of expansion are connected by linear lines of relevance and relatability.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com
Radial Creativity and Linear Connectivity
Your Core Concept
- You might map out your radial by drawing a large circle in the middle of a page. This is your core concept… your why… the seed idea of you and of your life.
- Then draw your areas of interest and endeavor as circles orbiting around that core, like ripples on a pond from a stone cast into it.
- Notice the connections between these orbiting areas. Ultimately, they’re all connected because they all connect to you… that central circle. Anything not connected, may be something for another time, or something to let go.
Stay forever open to the every expanding spiral of learning and growth, and remember to connect the growth spurts with linear lines of stability. Creativity and business… the business of creativity.
Anchor your creative ideas in daily doing, and they will thrive.
Creative ideas unfurl like fern fronds. For every expansion of the frond in space, there is an equal expansion of root in earth that holds it all together and stabilizes growth. Each needs the other to exist.
~LeAura Alderson, iCreateDaily.com®
The keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind; creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers, artists, inventors, and designers, storytellers, caregivers, and big picture thinkers.
~Daniel Pink, author, A Whole New Mind
Be sure to scroll down to the video link below for a visual treat and intrigue on the universe in spiral motion.[4]https://youtu.be/0jHsq36_NTU
Flitting from Focus
My biggest challenge is that most everything I want and love to do, is best done in the mornings, when I’m at peak cortisol, rest, clarity and caffeine! On the morning that I’m writing this, I have a dozen tabs open on my laptop, flitting in between them because there’s so much to cram into this first half of a very busy day.
Are you an early bird or a night owl, or something else? It may not be what you think.
A Family Circus Kind of Morning
Today—as with many days—isn’t proceeding in linear fashion. In fact it’s reminiscent of “Billy’s map” from the famed Family Circus comic strip. I’m guessing you have days that like too… chances are, we all do.
Though my side trips, detours and distractions are all productive tasks that need to be done. It’s like the prolific bursting forth of nature in spring, sometimes appearing as chaos, where everything is growing all at once.
Chaos and idea overload is the plight of many creators. However, for as many examples of creative chaos as we might cite, my own included, there are just as many examples of the ultra focused and organized creator. I’m a blend of both.
Tame the Turmoil
How to set an organized creative workflow amidst the creative chaos? Set goals and work them daily. Setting daily goals doesn’t sound glamorous or exciting but achieving your goals definitely is.
Daily steps in the direction of your dreams is a proven path to success.
Creative ideas rarely arrive in linear fashion. Rather, they sprout like weeds in spring determined to grow in all directions at once. Plant your best ideas in the fertile soil of daily effort. With care and cultivation, they will grow into the garden of your dreams.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
The helical Model – Our Solar System is a Vortex
This is a fascinating alternate perspective on the journey of our solar system.
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Hello! I’m LeAura, owner and co-creator of iCreateDaily.com®. As an autodidactic philosopher, generalist, personal development advocate, entrepreneur, writer, editor, author, ideator, media publisher, and podcaster, I’m passionate about helping others achieve their best possible life! Our small family of entrepreneurs, writers, investors, educators and creators own and run websites around topics we enjoy, such as gardening, health and fitness, creativity and pets, with more to come.
While my greatest teacher is Life… my formal training includes certifications in mediation, fitness, and strategic intervention coaching, including marriage and family. Today, the synergy of creating websites, articles and podcasts, brings together all my favorite things: family, learning, growth, creating, connecting and contributing. To share these with you is a privilege, that serves my lifelong aspiration to help others.
My personal areas of creativity are in writing, masterminding, ideation, synthesis and bringing ideas to life through business and entrepreneurship, all with a pervasive spiritual foundation with a focus on elevating the lives of others.
References
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