Thursday, February 10, 2011

Can Chocolate Cake Lead to Enlightenment?

In my last entry I talked about the expansiveness of the right brain (ocean), and the constriction of the left brain (drop of water), and how my left brain still gets caught in the “doing” cycle as it attempts to implement the ideas generated from my right brain.

My intention last week was to practice living from right brain dominance, rather than all my energy revolving around “how much I get done” (see last entry).  Each day, I would wake up and ask myself: “I wonder what will amaze me today?”

The biggest shift I’ve noticed from asking this question is that I am noticing how much my children amaze me. Sounds pretty typical – but not when you know how much I get REALLY focused on my work, and on getting a lot done (that high productivity/creativity mode). 

I tend to go there and STAY there – missing other parts of my life like really connecting with those I care about, having fun, taking down time, etc.  This “chronic doing” is a pattern that in the past led me to getting adrenal fatigue.  So take note, you don’t want to go there and stay there.  Trust me on that.

I also found myself being more spontaneous.  On one of my late afternoon breaks, I spontaneously decided to bake a chocolate cake (if any of you know me well, you might be laughing out loud at how out-of-character this is).  I had a TON of fun, my kids joined in, and it really fed my right brain (and my chocolate craving). 

The other biggest insight from this stage of the experiment:

“I am not a doing machine.”  Doesn’t it sometimes feel like life is all about how much we get done? 

In Daniel Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind - Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future," he talks about how we are entering the “Conceptual Age:"

“Today, the defining skills of the previous era - the “left-brain capabilities” that powered the Information Age - are necessary but no longer sufficient...and the 'right-brain' qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders.”

More on this in my next entry…

Have a great day,
Bernadette

PS: BTW, the Chocolate Cake Recipe I used is SUGAR FREE, DAIRY FREE  and GLUTEN FREE - FLOURLESS.   It uses black beans which sounds really weird, but trust me, it tastes wonderful - no bean taste at all, just yummy, rich chocolate.  It calls for different sweetener options, I found Agave to taste the best.  Click here for the recipe.

Inspired Leadership.Thriving Productivity.Whole Mind Solutions.

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