Brain Bent
Every brain is believed to have a bent. Call it aptitude, talent, innate giftedness, preference, dominance, calling, lead, energy advantage, or any number of other appellations. My goal is to share information that will stimulate your thinking about brain bent in general and perhaps yours in particular, and to offer examples for observing and recognizing brain bent in yourself and in others. Use these Practical Applications as a springboard for your own increased awareness.
In preparing these Practical Applications I have relied heavily on brain function research, a plethora of studies, and discussions with other brain researchers. Nevertheless, the summaries represent my own observations and opinions.
Typically, conclusions from research studies are presented in the form of generalizations. They apply to nearly 70% of the population (e.g., the red portions on the drawing of the Bell Curve of Distribution that represent the first standard deviation on either side of the mean). Of the remaining 30%, some will tend to match the generalizations even more closely and some less closely.
Because each human brain develops uniquely, however, there are always exceptions. No two brains are believed identical in structure, function, or perception, not even the brains of identical twins—as every thought you think changes your brain and no two brains ever think identical thoughts. Therefore, some of your personal characteristics may be a mismatch between the information and your brain. Mismatches do not invalidate the research; they do exemplify individual uniqueness. Avoid discounting perceived first-impression mismatches too quickly. Perhaps you haven’t had the opportunity to hone a specific skill, have lived much of your life trying to meet expectations that led your away from your brain bent, or your personal past experiences have impacted you in unusual ways. Above all, have fun in the process of discovery.
Adapting
The word adapting comes from the Latin and has been used to describe the ability of your brain to develop skills and change in a way that permits you to fit into a new or specific situation. It describes behaviors that involve the development and use of skills that don’t match your own innate giftedness or energy advantage. (Refer to Procrastination below.)
Some adapting is desirable. It increases your options and gives you more opportunities to accomplish more activities. There is a big difference, however, between temporary adapting (desirable) and prolonged or excessive adapting (undesirable); between what your brain has learned to do well and what it does energy efficiently. It appears to be very wide spread and this can be especially true in regions where primarily only one or two divisions are rewarded or valued and when some divisions are rewarded based on gender.
As Michael Levine put it, Nothing is as stressful as trying to be a different person from whom you are.
The concept of adapting represents the quintessential different strokes for different folks. Activities that require one brain to adapt can represent giftedness in another. Activities that energize one person can exhaust another. When an individual is born with a pattern that is generally rewarded by or approved of by society for their gender they tend to adapt less. They are more likely to identify with, develop, and use their innate giftedness the majority of the time.
In the United States, especially in the WASP cultures, there are very clear rewards and expectations for performance based on gender and brain function. For example:
- Males tend to be rewarded for skills in the in the Prioritizing Division.
- Females tend to be rewarded for skills in the Harmonizing Division.
Consequently, a female with a brain bent in one of the frontal cerebral divisions or a male with a brain bent in one of the right hemispheric divisions are the most likely to adapt—especially if they are extroverted and are able to do so.
Following are examples of tasks that could represent either temporary (desirable) adapting or prolonged (undesirable) adapting based on an individual’s own brain bent.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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| Offer a listening ear – typically accomplished most energy-efficiently by a brain with a bent in the Harmonizing Division
On the other hand, to open a family-counseling office or become a grief-recovery counselor would likely represent undesirable adapting.
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Learn to balance the checkbook – typically accomplished most energy-efficiently by a brain with a bent in the Maintaining Division.
On the other hand, to take a full time job as an accountant or bookkeeper would likely represent undesirable adapting. |
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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| Write a short article for the newspaper – typically accomplished most energy-efficiently by a brain with a bent in the Envisioning Division.
On the other hand, to try to earn a living writing short stories or scripts for a stand-up comic would likely represent undesirable adapting (and that brain might be unsuccessful in earning a living wage).
Note: A Brain with a bent in the Prioritizing Division might write an article if it involves an “analysis” of something.
A brain with a bent in the Harmonizing Division might write an article if it involved a “story” about people or animals involving emotions and feelings.
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Develop a financial budget – typically accomplished most energy-efficiently by a brain with a bent in the Prioritizing Division.
On the other hand, to take a job as a chief financial officer would likely represent undesirable adapting (and that brain might be unsuccessful over time in maintaining employment in that arena).
Note: Adhering to and maintaining the budget after it is developed may be accomplished most energy-efficiently by a brain with a bent in the Maintaining Division. |
Procrastination
What types of activities do you tend to procrastinate? Procrastination can be a symptom of the brain attempting to avoid adapting. The brain knows the way in which it works most energy efficiently, even when you have not yet identified that consciously, and it will try to push you away from activities that require excessive expenditures of energy.
The key to success involves your ability to manage judiciously the amount of time you spend doing activities that require functions outside your innate giftedness, because those functions tend to consume significantly larger amounts of energy. A desirable overall goal is to match the majority of your activities in life with what your brain does energy efficiently. Achieving this goal requires awareness, knowledge, choice, commitment, and willpower. It also requires being able to manage who you are innately in the face of expectations of others who believe they know what is best for your brain.
Falsification of Type
Falsification of Type, a term coined by C. G. Jung, describes an individual who has developed a non-natural pattern of habitually using cerebral divisions other than the one containing the person’s brain bent. Jung observed that people tended to be interested and energetic when “leading” with their brain’s division of energy-efficiency. Conversely, when they tried to lead with one of the other three divisions, they experienced fatigue, frustration, and ultimately exhaustion. Jung believed that Falsification of Type represented a serious and potentially life-threatening problem with both practical and psychological ramifications.
For decades there have been attempts made to develop assessments to help individuals identify innate giftedness. For example:
- Myers Briggs Temperament Inventory
- Blitchington’s and Cruise’s Temperament Inventory
- Bernice McCarthy’s 4-MAT inventory
- Ned Herrmann’s Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument or HBDI
- I. Katherine Benziger’s BTSA or Benziger Thinking Styles Assessment
These and other modalities are validating Jung’s perceptions that there is a huge cost to an individual (mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally, and perhaps spiritually) when the person is not living authentically.
Note: Jung reportedly believed that one’s position on the Extraversion/Extroversion-Ambiversion-Introversion Continuum was even more basic than brain lead. As such, people who are working and/or living in environments that do not match their innate position on the EAI Continuum are being forced to adapt. This may be a factor or co-factor in the person adapting in other areas of life including performing activities on a regular basis that are not aligned with his/her brain bent.
Monetary Metaphor
Since it is possible to develop skills through practice, why not aim for equal skills in all four cerebral divisions? Because prolonged or excessive adapting can exact a huge price. Remember, you pay for everything in some way or another. The cost may be recognized immediately or only become apparent somewhere down the line. And you pay primarily in energy (as energy is the basic medium of exchange in life).
Richard Haier MD used PET Scans (Positron Emission Tomography) to measure energy expenditures in a person’s brain (e.g., glucose usage) in relationship to the type of activities the brain was asked to perform. Metaphorically, the differences in energy expenditure may be as great as pennies on the dollar.
 Expend $1 per second when doing activities that match your innate brain lead. |
 Expend $100 per second when doing activities that draw primarily on a non-preferred cerebral division.
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How can you handle tasks that don’t match your brain bent?
- Avoid doing them, if possible
- Bookend them between two other activities that match your brain bent
- Hire out or trade out these tasks
- Collaborate with others to accomplish the tasks, making the experience “fun”
Remember, you do have a whole brain—it’s just that you want to manage the amount of time you spend completing tasks that are a mismatch with your brain bent.
Be conscious about these mismtched tasks. Try to schedule them when you have more energy available. Remind yourself that you are choosing to complete the task as part of a total life-activities package even though it may not be one of your favorites. Do some brain breathing before you begin the task to energize your brain. Make jokes about the task and try to laugh and have fun with it. When possible request help from others if you are really getting bogged down.
Addictive Behaviors
Addictive behaviors involve a natural brain phenomenon (a habit) that has run away with itself or been taken hostage. In consequence the individual’s easy conscious control over the habit has been reduced. In general, addictive behaviors are utilized as coping mechanisms, and coping is not thriving. Although most, if not all, human beings may be at some risk for addictive behaviors, those who are exhausted from excessive or prolonged adapting may be at higher risk.
The underlying reason for addictive behaviors is to alter your neurochemistry, your brain’s chemical stew, through self-medication so you feel better quickly. This typically results in negative outcomes down the line, however, rather than in positive outcomes. Self-medication may be accomplished directly or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously (refer to
Stew Metaphor below).
The following observations regarding addictive behaviors reflect input during conversations with addiction specialists and others regarding risks for addictive behaviors correlated with the four cerebral divisions.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may become involved with addictive behaviors that are perceived to help them:
- Achieve goals and/or win
- Get in touch with emotions and feelings (e.g., functions of the Harmonizing division)
- Compensate for perceived past losses or injuries (e.g., cope or block out) due to:
- Being shamed or punished for a need to set and achieve goals, make decisions, be in charge, direct others, and “win”
- A lack of opportunity to set goals, develop functional structures, solve problems logically, make logical decisions, or find similar role models.
- Loss of the “self” through adapting (e.g., utilizing Left Posterior Lobes or Right Posterior Lobes for long periods of time, or trying to cope with altered physiology due to adapting)
- A perception that they were unable to be in charge, or win, or realize goals (e.g., financial, educational, hierarchical, organizational)
- Connect with and/or loosen up clients (e.g., cocktails with a client)
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may become involved with addictive behaviors that are perceived to help them:
- Achieve contextual forecasting (e.g., financial markets, global environmental or health issues) when they aren’t able to get others on board or don’t observe results even after years of effort.
- Cope with expectations (especially for utilizing functions that derive from the Harmonizing division or compensate for perceived past losses, hurts, or injuries due to:
- Being shamed or punished for a nontraditional thinking style (may be labeled a misfit), for natural risk-taking, for futuristic views, for a need to envision and make change, for some actual or implied level of dyslexia in reading and writing, for a desire to engage in entrepreneurial endeavors (Extrovert), or artistically creative activities (Introvert)
- A lack of opportunity to use their abilities to perceive the big picture, to identify trends, or to engage in entrepreneurial (extroverted) or artistic (introverted) activities
- Loss of the “self” through excessive or prolonged adapting in an effort to meet expectations
- To escape from uncomfortable life situations (e.g., cope, forget, obtain needed stimulation or variety, to obtain a feel-good reward)
- To enhance their perceived abilities for creative endeavors
- To make a statement against the established status quo
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Common ways in which addictive behaviors are displayed may include:
- Use of socially acceptable substances such as food, nicotine, caffeine, or alcohol
- Nicotine to help steady nerves and to increase ability to thinking quickly and/or concentrate
- Caffeine to relieve fatigue and increase ability to think quickly and/or pay attention
- Alcohol to get in touch with emotions, or to loosen up oneself and/or clients
- Taking uppers to boost energy levels
- Using anger to obtain an adrenaline rush
- Living a life that is out of balance from doing “good works” to feel better about themselves or to “earn” a reward and win
- Excessive playing of video games
- Excessive time spent watching television, videos, and movies
- Excessive involvement with the internet or texting
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Ways in which addictive behaviors are displayed may include:
- Use of socially acceptable substances such as nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, or food
- Use of socially unacceptable substances (high-risk drugs) or activities
- Overuse or misuse of prescription drugs
- Engaging in dangerous and/or thrilling sports activities
- Breaking the rules
- Engaging in promiscuity or gambling
- Reading Sci-Fi or adventure novels
- Becoming involved with stimulating music or exotic dancing as an escape
- Living a life that is out of balance from doing “good works” to feel better about themselves or to “earn” a reward and win (if Extroverted)
- Excessive playing of video games
- Excessive time spent watching television, videos, and movies
- Excessive involvement with the internet or texting
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may become involved with addictive behaviors that are perceived to help them:
- Achieve standard production levels when these have been threatened (e.g., quota increased with resources, same quota with decreased time/resources)
- Cope with or compensate for perceived past hurts or injuries due to:
- Being shamed or punished for a need for routine, especially in the face of rapidly changing environments or rules.
- A lack of opportunity to “do” or produce effectively using their routines, with resulting anxiety and frustration, or lack of ability to participate in team/group activities such as sports (extrovert)
- Loss of the “self” through excessive adapting or Falsifying Type (e.g., trying to live and work as a frontal thinker, need for affirmation in order to achieve a sense of being a member of the team or group)
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may become involved with addictive behaviors that are perceived to help them:
- Achieve harmony in human relationships (especially when things aren’t going smoothly) or in the environment
- Cope with or compensate for wounded emotions or hurt feelings due to perceived past hurts or injuries such as:
- Being shamed or punished for a need to connect and/or for a reluctance to confront or say “no,” or to handle conflict
- A lack of opportunity to develop rewarding relationships with resulting anxieties, or to use their innate skills related to building harmony, trust, and conversation in relationship building, or a failure to achieve a personal connection with a Higher Power and they perceive it (introvert)
- Loss of the “self” through Falsifying Type (e.g., trying to function from one of the other three divisions to meet the expectations of others, or a need to “keep the peace,” or to gain a reward and be “accepted by others,” or an excessive need for affirmation and belonging
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Common ways in which addictive behaviors may be displayed can include:
- Use of socially acceptable addictive behaviors with food, nicotine, caffeine, or alcohol
- Taking prescription drugs (e.g., for anxiety)
- Maintaining rigidity and control (often in an attempt to maintain the status quo)
- Following habitual activities, rules, or regulations (often in an attempt to develop a sense of safety)
- Living a life that is out of balance from doing “good works” to feel better about themselves or to “earn” a reward of being part of the establishment or group-of-choice
- Excessive playing of video games,
- Excessive time spent watching television, videos, and movies
- Excessive involvement with the internet or texting
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Common ways in which addictive behaviors may be displayed can include:
- Use of socially acceptable addictive behaviors with food, nicotine, caffeine, or alcohol (e.g., to fit in with friends)
- Taking prescription drugs to manage anxiety and/or depression
- Pursuing romantic relationships, or reading romance novels, or attending romantic movies and fantasizing about romance, or engaging in sexual activity looking for “love”
- Shopping as in trying on and/or purchasing clothes (especially if Extroverted), purchasing furnishings or knick-knacks for the home, movies/CD’s to feel better about the self (e.g., I am worth buying this…)
- Music (e.g., emotional, story songs)
- Dancing (as an escape)
- Living a life that is out of balance from doing “good works” to feel better about themselves or to “earn” a reward of belonging and being loved and accepted
- Excessive playing of video games,
- Excessive time spent watching television, videos, and movies
- Excessive involvement with the internet or texting
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Comments related to risk for addictive behaviors based on other contributors:
Falsifying Type and Alcohol Misuse
Some have hypothesized that alcoholics may be innately more right-brained (e.g., have a brain lead in the right Frontal Lobe or the Right Posterior Lobes). As a consequence of Falsifying Type for a significant portion of their lives they over-utilize alcohol as a coping mechanism for the way in which their lives are not working for their brains. (Refer to
Adapting for additional information on Falsifying Type). Studies by Benziger have estimated upwards of 80% of Americans are pushed toward left-hemisphere function in adulthood, regardless of the person’s innate giftedness.
Extroverts
PET scan studies by Dr. Debra Johnson have shown that Extroverts have lower rates of blood flow to brain (lower internal stimulation). Because of this, Extroverts crave stimulation to help their brains stay awake. In addition, their dominant brain pathway is activated by dopamine (the brain chemical involved with addictive behaviors and with achieving a sense of pleasure). Consequently, Extroverts may be a higher risk for developing addictive behaviors that trigger the release of high amounts of dopamine. This may be especially true if they are trying to function in an introverted environment, or when close family members and co-workers are much more introverted.
Introverts
PET scan studies by Dr. Debra Johnson have shown that Introverts have higher rates of blood flow to brain (higher internal stimulation). Because of this, Introverts can become overloaded and overwhelmed quickly by too much stimulation. If not managed effectively, this overwhelm can lead to illness. Their brain’s dominant pathway is activated by acetylcholine (alertness, attention). Introverts are at higher risk for sensing they are misfits in a society that rewards higher levels of Extraversion. Thus, Introverts may be at risk for developing addictive behaviors that help them to keep up with expectations of self, society, or others (especially when they are trying to function in an extroverted environment, or when family members and co-workers are much more extroverted) and that mask their sense of being a misfit.
Kinesthetics
Individuals who have a Kinesthetic sensory preference may be at higher risk for addictions related to food (as they are particular sensitive to taste and odors and may be gourmets or gourmands) and beverages. Society currently places a huge “visual” emphasis on how things look (and what comes in through the eyes does not register as quickly and intensely in the Kinesthetics). They prefer a hands-on approach and that option is not readily available in many environments.
Males Who Are Not Prioritizers
Typically in Western cultures at lesat, males are rewarded by society and culture for possessing a
bent in the Prioritizing Division and for exhibiting skills that derive from that cerebral division. Males who have a
bent in one of the other three divisions often try very hard to develop skills in the Prioritizing Division. In the process they may become exhausted and turn to an addictive behavior in order to try to sustain the excessive energy expenditures.
Females Who Are Not Harmonizers
Typically in Western cultures at least, females are rewarded by society and culture for possessing a
bent in the Harmonizing division and for exhibiting skills that derive from that cerebral division. Females who have a
bent in one of the other three divisions often try very hard to develop skills in the Harmonizing Division. In the process they may become exhausted and turn to an addictive behavior in order to try to sustain the excessive energy expenditures and dampen a sense of being a misfit.
Individuals Who Prefer Same-gender Partners
Individuals are primarily rewarded in many cultures, societies, and religions for preferring partners of the opposite gender. These individuals may become involved with addictive behaviors in order self-medicate, to help themselves feel better about the disconnect between who they are innately and societal expectations and rewards (refer to
Stew Metaphor that follows).
Individuals whose brain function preferences differ from society expectations may turn to an addictive behavior for self-medication in an attempt to help themselves feel better about the disconnect between who they are innately and societal expectations and rewards.
Stew Metaphor
Think of your brain as a pot of chemical stew and you are the chef who adds seasonings. The seasonings result from what you ingest, think, and do. All humans continually self-medicate to alter their brain’s chemical stew in order to:
- Obtain a “reward” (e.g., proactively create pleasure)
- Get relief from pain (e.g., physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual, intellectual, social, financial)
- To manage boredom (a sense of being bored is typically a choice)
- Experience a general sense of well-being by achieving a preferred “seasoning”
- Fit in with a chosen group of associates
You can season your brain’s chemical stew directly or indirectly. Following are examples:
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Direct Seasoning
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Indirect Seasoning
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- What you eat (including nutritional products)
- What you drink
- Medications (prescriptions or over the counter
- Vitamins, minerals, and enzymes
- Drugs (e.g., cocaine)
- Substances you sniff (glue)
- Substances you inhale (cigarettes)
- Substances you chew (nicotine)
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- Thoughts you think
- Risk-taking activities (e.g., gambling, sky diving, stealing, playing the “choking game”)
- Maintaining strong emotions (e.g., anger that triggers the release of adrenalin followed by dopamine)
- Physical exercise
- Sexual activity
- Behaviors that involve competition
- Watching TV, movies, and videos
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Healthy Self-Medication
The goal is to learn to self-medicate in ways that result in positive outcomes to your life and to the lives of those close to you. To do this you will need to implement two key strategies:
Alter the way you season your brain’s chemical stew by developing healthier and more functional behaviors
Remember: the most common cure for one addictive behavior is to substitute another addictive behavior that will result in the same type of seasoning to your brain’s chemical stew.
Teach yourself to like the new seasoning
Remember: failing to learn how to manage cravings (your brain demanding that you give it the old seasoning) is a common cause of relapse.
In order to resolve addictive behaviors successfully, it is important to identify reasons that prompted you to attempt to alter your neurochemistry using the specific addictive behavior.
In addition, old routines can trigger cravings for the old behavior. Identify and alter as many old routines as possible to minimize cravings (e. g., different vehicle, cup, schedules, chairs, environments…).
In order to achieve long-term recovery, it is important to develop and live a high-level-wellness lifestyle in balance (e.g., eat nutritional food, drink plenty of water, exercise, get sufficient sleep, work, play, have fun…). For every of exhaustion, the brain tends to experience a corresponding period of depression that challenges it at its points of vulnerability.
12-Step Programs (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous)
There have been reports that prior to Bill Wilson founding AA, he spent time in Switzerland with C. G. Jung who reportedly told Bill that alcoholism was “false spirits” and that the individual would need to reembrace his/her spirituality. (M. Scott Peck also reportedly had a similar view.) Arguably Alcoholics Anonymous has been the most successful model for helping individuals to deal with alcohol addictions.
Some have hypothesized on alcoholism and concluded that most early-in-life alcoholics are individuals who are Ambiverted or Introverted and who have an innate brain
bent in the Harmonizing Division. They have, however, been pressured by their environment to give up their spiritual identity and connection in favor of more Extroverted and more left-brained activities. Since spirituality is thought to be a right-hemisphere experience this loss is more painful to these persons that it would be for far more Extroverted brains or brains with a bent in a left-hemisphere division. Thus, many of these individuals are thought to use “spirits” in an attempt to cope with the loss of this authentic sense of spirituality. And if the individual has a genetic predisposition or epigenetic cellular memory for coping through the use of “spirits,” this will likely contribute as well.
Approach to Conflict
Conflict happens everywhere and is will likely always be around on this planet. When engaged in by brains that are balanced and functional, conflict can move individuals and organizations to collaboration, consensus, and compromise.
Conflict is also expensive, if not lethal, especially when mismanaged or unresolved.
- In the home it contributes to: illness, stress, violence, addictions, divorce, murder….
- In churches it decreases spirituality, burns out teachers and clergy, triggers misunderstandings, and can result in decreased attendance if not outright anger….
- In the workplace, the US State News August 19, 2006 reported: managers spend 18% of their time managing employee conflicts. This estimated percentage doubled since 1996.
Following are stereotypical examples of the way in which individuals tend to approach conflict based on brain bent.
Prioritizing Division | Envisioning Division |
Brains with a bent in the Prioritizing division are often the most comfortable with conflict and indeed may initiate it. They tend to view conflict as a necessary part of negotiations in life (professional as well as personal), to attain their goals and to be successful. If also extroverted, they may perceive conflict as stimulating, competitive, and challenging fun. However, their approach to conflict may be perceived by others as argumentative, non-sympathetic or non-empathetic, and more concerned with the bottom line or being in charge or winning. They may appear to run rough-shod over harmonizing concerns and be oblivious to feelings of others. Being diagonal from the Harmonizing division, they may miss how uncomfortable individuals with a brain bent in one of the right hemisphere divisions can be with conflict. They can learn to pay attention and develop skills of empathizing and collaboration, if they choose to do so. | Brains with a bent in the Envisioning division do not like conflict, rarely seek it, and tend to avoid it when possible. They may be perceived as conflict adverse unless and until they become passionately involved with an issue and then they may be willing to engage in conflict and ‘crusade’ for a short time in an effort to help resolve the issue. When pushed sufficiently, they may try one or more problem-solving attempts. If these do not resolve the conflict situation, they may distance themselves emotionally from the conflict situation and eventually withdraw and isolate, or physically leave the conflict situation, environment, or even the relationship. They can learn skills to help them address and negotiate conflict more successfully—if they choose to do so—but it will likely not be anything they gravitate toward if there is another choice. Because the right frontal lobe contains functions of intuition and of ‘seeing the big picture,’ their ideas are often ahead of the rest of the group and they may find it discouraging when their vision isn’t even recognized by other brains. |
Maintaining Division | Harmonizing Division |
Brains with a bent in the Maintaining division don’t enjoy conflict and tend to be slow to engage in conflict situations. They may choose to be involved when they are trying to maintain the status quo or if they become strongly opinionated about something, especially if they believe the conflict will result in fairer practices. For example, they may vote to ‘strike’ when workers and management disagree, perceiving this as a tool to resolve the conflict. When involved in a conflict situation, they are likely to invoke rules and regulations or legislation in an attempt to resolve the issues. If the conflict doesn’t resolve quickly and easily, they may just dig in their heels and wait, hoping that if enough time goes by they can get the outcome they desire. They can learn to negotiate and to reach consensus through compromise, understanding that compromise works for the group but rarely works well for each individual brain. There are times when compromise beats continued conflict. | Brains with a bent in the Harmonizing division dislike conflict the most and will do almost anything to avoid it. They may over-comply, over-conform, and even violate conscience and their own moral or ethical judgements at times to resolve the conflict or make it go away—often to their own personal detriment. They may stay in an abusive work or home environment rather than addressing the abuse for fear the conflict will escalate. They can learn that conflict is not all bad and may sometimes result in positive outcomes, especially when used judiciously. They are more likely to be willing to tolerate some conflict if they can see how the desired outcome may benefit those they love or care about in a work situation. They may need the support of others to help them develop skills to work through the conflict, however, and they typically would rather do almost anything else. |
Conflict Resolution
Working through conflict requires an understanding of differences, at least at some level, because each brain only knows itself (and sometimes not all that well). The overt confrontational style of the Prioritizing division can shut down brain bents in the other three divisions or escalate the conflict in a way that disrespects differing perspectives. The other divisions can learn to stay at the negotiating table. All brains need to understand that a workable solution for differing brains is typically not ‘either or’ but more likely ‘both and.’ Each brain needs to be aware of the words and tone of voice that are being projected into the conflict. The healthier and more functional each brain, the more likely the group is to listen to and respect differing perspectives and honor the input of others, recognizing that no brain has all the answers and that excellence often comes out of diversity—as long as there is the willingness to discuss, collaborate, and share a commitment to discover a creative solution—or to respectfully agree to disagree and look at move in a different direction.
Many individuals approach conflict in the style they saw role-modeled during childhood (or 180 degrees different) or in the way in which organizations in their culture expect and have taught them to behave. In addition, if the individuals perceive they must ‘win’ in order to be okay, consensus may be impossible. Regardless of brain bent, the healthier and more actualized and differentiated the individuals are, the more likely it is that they will be able to arrive at consensus or compromise. In a personal arena it will be important to decide whether the relationship is more important than the issue. If the answer is no, then the individual may need to walk away from the relationship. If the answer is yes, the parties involved will need to find a way to compromise or to accommodate the differing perspectives. That may be as simple as purchasing two tubes of toothpaste because each has a different way of getting the toothpaste out of the tube and onto their toothbrush. Regardless, it is critical for individuals to understand that chronic stress due to chronic conflict can contribute to many different illnesses and diseases and could even shorten one’s life.
Approach to Goal Setting
Viewing goal setting as a distinct function, individuals with a brain
bent in the Prioritizing division may engage in goal setting and goal achievement most energy efficiently. There may be some gender differences, as well:
- Males are more likely to set goals and then give it everything they have to achieve those goals, even becoming workaholic, if necessary. They are not particularly interested in the quality of the experience on the way to the goal. The type of goals they set are often based on what is important to them innately (based on brain bent) or what is expected of them by their job, society, sometimes by their family, or by affiliation with a specific religion / club / organization.
- Females do set goals but they may be equally interested in the quality of the experience on the way to goal. Consequently, they may take longer to achieve the goal but will have managed the process more experientially. The type of goals they set are often based on what is important to them innately (based on brain bent) or on what is expected of them by their family, society, job, affiliation with a specific religion / club / organization, and so on.
| Prioritizing Division |
Envisioning Division |
This division is talented in goal setting and discovering ways to achieve them. Innately it wants to make objective and timely decisions about everything, including setting and achieving goals.
Its emphasis on goal-setting is usually related to achieving a positive return on investment (ROI). It tends to speak about “My goal is to…” It is the most likely to set goals in almost every area of work and life:
- Fiscal issues including budget
- Physical exercise to attain a stated weight or body sculpture
- Preparation for competition in order to win
- Selecting a business or personal partner
It uses inductive/deductive reasoning (logic, the researched view) in setting the goals, preparing the budget, and estimating time of completion so as to reduce the risk as low as possible. It emphasizes research data, functionality, and the cost/benefit ratio in relation to goals. It relies on data to support the likelihood that the goal will be reached and may have a difficult time if the data is erroneous or doesn’t exist.
It single-mindedly and systematically moves toward goal achievement and can become workaholic in the process. If not very centered ethically, it can do whatever it takes to achieve the goal.
Their concern typically is: Was the goal reached and was the ROI equal to or better than expected?
It is diagonal from the Harmonizing Division and tends to have diametrically opposed interests and skills. That is, the Frontal Left is interested in winning, in achieving its goals, whether or not that creates some disharmony among people or in the environment. It will embrace conflict as needed to pursue goal achievement. |
This division is talented in exploring the unknown, finding new solutions (inventing or reinventing), visioning, imagining, and inspiring others to embrace the vision (goal).
Its emphasis on goal-setting is usually related to anticipating and making changes, doing something new, and innovating. At times, the process of brainstorming can be a goal in and of itself.
It is the most likely to set goals for entrepreneurial activities, to invent something, or to intuitively find a solution for a problem that hitherto had remained unsolved. It probably would speak about the project more in terms of “I have this great idea,” or “I have a vision for…” rather than talk in terms of setting a specific goal.
A time frame may or may not exist. It tends to emphasize the global picture, cutting-edge, future trends, and speed in relation to goals.
It can and does use data—if data exist. If not, it will intuitively try to problem-solve and come up with a solution. If that doesn’t work it will try something else. It can and will abandon a goal and move on to something else if the details become overwhelming, it becomes bored with the project, or something else more interesting comes along.
If not very centered ethically, it can do whatever it takes to achieve the goal; including taking what others may view as unreasonable risks or even unreasonable chances.
Their concern typically is: Was the problem solved in an innovative and cutting-edge way?
It is diagonal from the Maintaining Division and tends to have diametrically opposed interests and skills. That is, the Visualizing Division is as interested in avoiding rules and regulations and embracing change as the Maintaining Division is in following rules and regulations and avoiding change. |
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing Division |
This division tends to run routines, dependably supply services that are required to meet goals that have been set for it, and to follow established habits needed for maintaining life.
Its engagement in goal-setting is usually related to maintaining something, like the status quo, in following a track record, clear directions, and accurate details. For example:
- Succeed in meeting assigned quotas
- Follow assembly-line procedures to achieve consistent quality standard
- Balance checkbook to the penny
- Follow budget so there are no financial surprises
- Sign up for a package vacation so know in advance exactly how much everything will cost
- Follow rules and procedures and hope they don’t change
Their concern typically is: Was the assigned goal met? They can be very committed to goal achievement as long as they understand how the part they play ties in with achievement of the goal.
It is diagonal from the Harmonizing Division and tends to have diametrically opposed interests and skills. That is, the Maintaining Division is as interested in following rules and regulations, “doing it right” and avoiding change as the Envisioning Division is in embracing change and minimizing or ignoring rules and regulations. |
This division tends to be interested in building collaborative trust and connection and experiencing peaceful relationships between people, people and the environment, with nature, and between people and nature.
Its engagement in goal-setting is usually related to connecting or collaborating with others, harmony, and celebration for achieving goals. For example:
- Birthdays
- Anniversaries
- Holidays
- Fulfilling expectations of others
- Career promotion
- Being recognized for an athletic or scholastic achievement
- Some milestone or improvement in a hobby or special interest (e.g., health concern)
It assesses everything for the presence or absence of harmony and can become very anxious in the presence of conflict. It can over conform and over comply in an effort to avoid, minimize, or resolve conflict
Their concern typically is: Did everyone get along and have a good time? They can be invaluable in building consensus as long as they understand how reaching the goal will be of benefit to everyone.
It is diagonal from the Prioritizing Division and tends to have diametrically opposite interests and skills. That is, the Harmonizing Division is as interested in avoiding conflict as the Prioritizing Division is in embracing conflict as needed to achieve its stated goals. |
Balance in Brain Function
Any good thing, including your brain bent, can become a liability when taken to the extreme or used out of balance. Therefore, it is preferable to use your giftedness in balance to minimize the probability that it will turn into a liability.
Following are examples of the way in which individuals might approach attaining balance in life in relation to the four cerebral divisions.
Prioritizing Division | Envisioning Division |
Individuals with a brain bent in this cerebral division tend to want social and organizational power (and may try to achieve this through managing time, money, and other resources). They want to set and achieve goals, but they do not have to: - Always be in charge
- Be over-controlling
- Blow up when frustrated
- Become a workaholic in an effort to achieve goals and win
| Individuals with a brain bent in this cerebral division tend to want innovation and variety. They want freedom from restrictions, routines, and rules, but they do not have to: - Break the law
- Go into debt
- Flaunt all conventions
- Avoid all routines / details, and leap before looking
|
Maintaining Division | Harmonizing Division |
Individuals with a brain bent in this cerebral division tend to want predictability and continuation of the status quo. They want to develop and run routines, but they do not have to: - Proliferate rules and routines
- Avoid all change
- Refuse to take any risks
- Dig in their heels and become rigid and overly stubborn
| Individuals with a brain bent in this cerebral division tend to want peaceful environments and foundations, connection, and collegiality. They want harmony and dislike conflict, but they do not have to: - Be overly sensitive
- Stake everything on a relationship (and/or tolerate abuse)
- Overconform or overcomply
- Violate conscience to achieve harmony and avoid conflict
|
Note: Almost any desirable activity, taken to excess, can result in the development of a life out of balance and an addictive behavior. (Refer to Addictive Behaviors for additional information).
Boundary Development
The concept of boundaries is not new. The process of developing them continues to be challenging, however. Webster’s defines boundaries as something that indicates or fixes limits. Personal limits are tools necessary for surviving safely in a frenetic world. It’s been estimated that at least half of all the problems humans encounter in life are of their own making based on the way they think. Often those problems are related to boundary issues. Individuals with healthy appropriate boundaries are able to know, understand, and state their personal limits as well as their family limits.
Although human beings are born with virtually no boundaries, they have the ability to learn to set healthy limits, a process that should begin at a very early age. Children absorb information about boundaries from watching their care providers and role models just as they learn almost everything else in infancy.
Think back to your childhood? Were you allowed, even encouraged to say the word
no or was that concept relegated to the vocabulary of your care providers? If so, it may be difficult for you to use that word in adulthood. In fact, there are some who believe that it is relatively impossible to say ‘yes’ in adulthood with awareness and responsibility unless that same adult first learned how to say ‘no’ appropriately.
Were you expected to say
yes to whatever your parents, teachers, or care providers wanted you to do? If so you may have found yourself agreeing to things you really didn’t want to do. Two of the shortest words in the English language are
yes and
no, and yet they’re often the ones that require the most thought before they’re said.
Creating and consistently implementing bona fide boundaries can offer many benefits. To list just a few, they can:
- Help you achieve your potential
- Promote healthier relationships
- Allow for genuine intimacy
- Offer some level of safety and protection
- Decrease victim and offender behaviors
- Diminish discomfort and dysfunction
- Promote a more balanced use of your brain’s resources
Boundaries can to too tight, too loose, or nonexistent in any number of areas (e.g., physical, intellectual, emotional, sexual, spiritual, social, financial). It is critically important to evaluate, develop, and consistently implement appropriate personal boundaries. They are faces we show to the world.
Learning to develop, implement consistently, and live within appropriate personal limits is a lifelong process. This process and your own emphasis can differ based on your innate brain
bent.
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
Individuals with a brain bent in this division tend to use boundaries as tools to help them achieve their goals.
- They tend to set their boundaries based on the evaluation of available data. If the data is incomplete or does not exist, they may set boundaries that are inappropriate
- They may act as if their boundaries are the gold standard, and expect others to conform (this may be especially true in an abuser stance)
- They may implement boundaries objectively, decisively, and authoritatively (even coercively and abusively) and expect others to obey or conform to their position
- They may be the most likely to be able to “just say no”
|
Individuals with a brain bent in this division tend to use boundaries to protect the self. They prefer to avoid conflict although can deal with it in situations when others raise objections about boundaries. If the conflict continues, these individuals often will take steps to distance themselves emotional and/or physically from the conflict (especially if they choose to maintain their own personal boundaries).
- They tend to be somewhat unstructured about their boundaries and develop only those that they perceive to be absolutely needed
- They may adjust their boundaries based on situational or environmental contexts so may appear inconsistent at times
- They dislike and try to avoid boundaries that are perceived to be excessively rigid or even unnecessary and generally avoid pushing others to set boundaries (although they can be charismatically enthusiastic when trying to talk someone else into taking a specific boundary position)
- They may say “let’s take the risk” (although they can be equally definite about refused to take the risk)
|
|
Maintaining Division
|
Harmonizing Division
|
Individuals with a brain bent in this division tend to use boundaries to maintain the status quo and to help them feel safer.
- They tend to set boundaries based on what they were taught, learned on their own, or on what they have observed to exhibited traditionally or historically
- They tend to perpetuate and honor established boundaries, and expect others to do the same
- They tend to adjust their boundaries to fit into the established environment
- They may be rigid and stubborn in implementation of their selected boundaries and may invoke “rules and regulations” in an attempt to get others to conform to their perception of what is necessary
|
Individuals with a brain bent in this division tend to use boundaries to conform to expectations.
- They tend to set (or not set) boundaries based on what is happening in their peer group or with close family and friends or with what is in harmony with family and friends
- They may violate personal boundaries in order to avoid disharmony or increase connectedness (victim stance), and can find it very difficult to “just say no”
- They may underestimate the value of boundaries, and may struggle to develop appropriate boundaries (over a lifetime)
- They may be affronted when others implement personal boundaries (especially if their perception is that this creates any type of conflict or interferes with desired connection) although they themselves can become ‘offenders’ in terms of imposing their preferences on others (sometimes in a perceived attempt to care for or stay close to family and friends)
|
Brain Assessment Modalities
In the past, much of what was learned about the brain was discovered somewhat indirectly (e.g., through observation of behaviors, by studying the anatomy of a brain post-mortem, through evaluating tests from blood and cerebral-spinal fluid).
In the 21st century, testing modalities for brain-function research are opening up the brain much as ocean-going ships once opened up the globe.
Brain imaging equipment is being refined and even developed almost on a daily basis.
- DTI (Diffusion-Tensor Imaging. A variation of magnetic resonance imaging, DTI is able to measure the diffusion of water molecules through tissue. It was used on studies of 92 pairs of fraternal and identical twins. Researchers found a strong correlation between the integrity of the white matter (e.g., myelin that coats neuronal axons) and performance on a standard IQ test. A high quality of myelin, that seems to be inheritable, appears to correlate with higher IQ scores.
- EEG (Electroencephalography). Measures the electrical patterns, or brain waves, created by the rhythmic oscillations of neurons. The qEEG measures changes in brain waves.
- EKG or ECG (Electrocardiography) — not to be confused with Echocardiogram, Electromyogram, Elecgroencephalogram, or Echocariogram.This nonivasive testing modality captures the electrical activity of the heart over time by means of skin electrodes, and records this by an electrocardiographic device. The etymology of the word is derived from electro, related to electrical activity, cardio, Greek for heart, and graph, a Greek root meaning to write.
- Electromagnetic Energy. A variety of equipment may be used to detect and measure electromagnetic energy, believed to leave neurons of the brain and heart at the speed of light, including:
- Magnetometers
- EEGs
- EKGs
- SQUID machines
- Oculargrams
- Multimeters
- Holograms
- MEG (magneto encephalography). Similar to the EEG but picks up signals from neuronal oscillation by honing in on the tiny magnetic pulse they give off rather than the electric field. It is faster than other scanning techniques and can chart changes in brain activity more accurately than either fMRI or PET Scans. Researchers can see how magnetic fields flux throughout the brain during thought processing, and how and where neurons work while the person does a specific task.
- MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Utilizes large circular magnets to align atomic particles in tissue and then bombard them with radio waves. A sophisticated computerized software system called Computerized Tomography converts the information into a three-dimensional picture of any part of the brain.
- fMRI (Functional MRI). Elaborates the MRI/NMR by adding to it the areas of the greatest brain activity (e.g., areas utilizing larger amounts of glucose and oxygen).
- Nano-imaging. Uses nanoparticles, about 33 nanometers in diameter when wet, to safely cross the blood-brain barrier (an almost impenetrable barrier that protects the brain from infection) and enable a process known as brain tumor painting. This lights up tumors in the brain. It allows doctors to better pinpoint the location of the tumor, identify its boundaries, and possibly even use the nanoparticles to carry treatment medication.
- NIRS (Near-Infra-red Spectroscopy). Produces an image based on the amount of flues (e.g., glucose, oxygen) being utilized at any moment by each part of the brain.
- PET (Positron Emission Tomography) Scans. Identifies the brain areas that are working hardest by measuring their fuel (glucose) intake. It requires an injection into the bloodstream of a radioactive marker.
- TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). Uses a powerful magnetic field to stimulate or inhibit precise areas of the brain. May be helpful in working with patients who have been diagnosed with depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Tomography. Imaging by sections or sectioning, through the use of waves of energy, using a device called a tomograph. The image produced is a tomogram. A tomography of several sections of the body is known as a polytomography.
Following is a selected summary of other testing modalities for use with the human body and senses:
Body Temperature
- Medical thermometer
- Infrared thermometer
Circulatory System
- Blood tests for measure a variety of blood-related parameters
- Electrocardiograph records the electrical activity of the heart
- Glucose meter for obtaining the status of blood sugar
- Sphygmomanometer, a blood pressure meter used to determine blood pressure
- Ballistocardiograph or BCG – measures the recoil of the human body due to the momentum of the blood that is being pumped by the heart
Hearing (loudness in phone)
- Headphone, loudspeaker, sound pressure gauged, for measuring an equal-loudness contour of a human ear.
- Sound level meter calibrated to a equal-loudness contour of the human auditory system behind the human ear.
Musculoskeletal System
Nervous System
Respiratory System
- Spirometer – volume of air exchanged during inspiration and expiration.
- Capnograph – concentration or partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the respiratory gases.
- Pneumograph (or pneumatograph or spirograph – records the velocity and force of chest movements during respiration.
- Pulse oximeter – measures the oxygen saturation of a patient’s blood indirectly (as opposed to measuring oxygen saturation directly through a blood sample) and changes in blood volume in the skin, producing a photoplethysmograph.
Sight
Smell
Brain Bent Overview
Every brain is unique, just like one’s fingerprints are unique. There have been many terms used to describe this uniqueness. I prefer brain
bent. It refers to the type of brain you possess in terms of the way in which it processes specific types of information, what gets its attention quickly and what it pays attention to, how it manages data, and to your brain’s innate energy advantage, believed to exist in one of the four natural divisions of the cerebrum over the other three.
Work by Richard Haier using PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans has shown that the brain expends less energy (e.g., requires less oxygen and glucose) when using functions that align with its innate bent. C. G. Jung suggested that the brain requires a shorter recovery time when activities are aligned with that specific brain’s innate giftedness.
Most people are also believed to use parts of all of the brain all the time, although one cerebral division tends to take the lead when engaged in some specific tasks. Neurochemically, this means that when you are thinking using primarily your brain
bent:
- There is a reduced resistance to transmission of information across the synapse
- There may be more rapid firing across the neuronal pathways
- Processes tend to require lower levels of energy expenditures
The cerebrum or thinking-brain layer is the largest chunk of tissue housed within the bony skull. It is constantly at work even though only a small percentage (5% – 10% by some estimates) of its activities surface to conscious awareness. The brain is not a simple organ but that hasn’t stopped people from trying to understand its functions! It has been said rather succinctly that if the human brain was simple enough for people to understand, it would be so simple they couldn’t.
Quadrantal Models
Over the centuries, a variety of models have been developed in an effort to enhance our understanding of brain function. Although no model is completely adequate, because the human brain is so complex, models can help explain things that cannot be easily or directly observed. It is interesting to note that a quadrantal pattern has been used in a variety of descriptive models from as early as Hippocrates and Galen. (Refer to
Brain Models for examples.)
Brain Anatomy and Functions
Natural fissures divide the human brain (also referred to as the cerebrum, gray matter, cortex or neo-cortex) into left and right hemispheres. Natural fissures further divide each hemisphere, creating a total of four cerebral divisions. (A plethora of names have been used to label these divisions including upper and lower quadrants, frontal and posterior sections, frontals and basals, and some by specific descriptive labels to assist individuals who have right-left confusion).
The two frontal divisions consist of one large lobe each.
The two posterior divisions consist of three smaller lobes each:
- Parietal lobes – decode data received through touch, taste, and position
- Occipital lobes – decode data received through the eyes
- Temporal lobes – decode data received through sound.
Brain Bent is Natural
For purposes of discussion, say that you have a right-hand preference and expend less energy doing tasks that utilize your right hand (e.g., pounding nails, using a utensil to eat food). Now imagine that you break your right arm and end up wearing a cast for six weeks while the bones heal. You can learn to do many of those same tasks using your left hand. At first it may be extremely awkward. With practice however, you learn to do some of them very well, although you may always be aware at some level that it doesn’t “seem as natural.” When the cast is removed and you become accustomed to using your right arm again, you tend to revert almost automatically to using that right arm. It is a relief, gives you a sense of comfort, and utilizes less energy (although you still maintain some sense of developed competence with the opposite arm).
Societal Rewards by Gender
In general, it appears that this culture (and many others) reward males primarily for skills built in the left frontal lobe. Because of this, many males try to build skills in that section of the brain, whether or not they have a brain
bent in the Prioritizing Division.
Females are primarily rewarded for skills built in the right posterior lobes. Therefore, many females try to build skills in that section of the brain, whether or not they have a brain
bent in the Harmonizing Division.
Skills that utilize the left posterior lobes or Maintaining Division are often emphasized in industrialized America, so many males and females work hard to build these skills.
Regardless of gender, relatively few are rewarded for skills built in the right frontal lobe or Envisioning Division, at least during their lifetime.
Correlation Examples
Following are some correlations with the four cerebral divisions.
Archetype
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
|
King or Judge
|
Dreamer |
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing Division
|
| Work Horse |
Earth Mother |
Values
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
| Non-emotional, objective, decision making
Naming
General operational principles |
Innovation
Amusement
New concepts |
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing Division
|
| Dependability
Time saving
Providing services
Procedural applications (step-by-step, immediate and clear use, pre-digested or pre-determined)
|
Interpersonal
Sensitivity, encouraging, and nurturing
How to harmonize (sounds, tastes, colors, people with people, people with the environment, people with nature)
Underlying unity or equality (connection with others, nature, a Higher Power) |
Language
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
| Internal: Logic
Communication style: Communicates results of thinking, usually a decision, verbally or in writing. |
Internal: Images
Communication style: Thinks imaginatively and may communicate through art, music, gestures, words, etc. |
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing Division
|
| Internal: Rules
Communication style: Thinks in terms of prescribed order and what is out of order and may communicate this verbally or in writing |
Internal: Feelings
Communication style: Thinks empathetically and my communicate feelings through words, gestures, music, touch, etc. |
Use of Language (Quotes as Examples)
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
| When you appeal to force, there’s one thing you must never do: lose.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
They always talk who never think.
—Poet John Donne
Analogies prove nothing.
—Sigmund Freud
Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater than the bounty of our material blessings.
—Jimmy Carter |
The Republic is a dream. Nothing happens unless first a dream.
—Poet Carl Sandburg 1878-1976
I like strawberries, but when I go fishing I use worms.
—Entrepreneur Dale Carnegie
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
—Martin Luther King Jr
I believe good philosophers fly alone like eagles, not in flocks like starlings.
—Galileo
The hands and arms must in all their action display the intention of the mind that moves them…gestures should be appropriate…the orator who is wishing to persuade someone of something must gesture. Otherwise he will seem dead.
—Leonardo Da Vinci |
|
Maintaining Division
|
Harmonizing Division
|
| Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men. Things are more like they are now than they have ever been.
—Gerald Ford
In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience of the law. The business of America is business. One with the law is a majority.
—Calvin Coolidge
Patriotism is not short frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime
—Adlai Stevenson
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. The watchword should be “carry on.”
—Winston Churchill 1874-1965, an Envisioner who chose his language carefully to influence people of the British culture that was more aligned with the Maintaining division (1940s) |
America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. It is time for us to turn to each other, not on each other.
—Jesse Jackson
Opportunity for all means making taxes fair.
—Bill Clinton
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.
—Helen Keller
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
—Mother Teresa
We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing. It is not the body’s posture, but the heart’s attitude that counts when we pray. Nothing can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love.
—Rev Billy Graham |
Mode of Communications
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
| Short written summary with key points or bullets
Verbal debate |
Metaphoric/symbolic images
Word pictures or artistic products |
|
Maintaining Division
|
Harmonizing Division
|
| Written forms that maximize efficiency
Check marks and lists |
Singing, dancing, touching
Speaking with eyes |
Career Choices – Selected Occupations
Almost anyone can choose a career or occupation and then learn the key tasks that are required. For example, most human beings can learn to exhibit
caring behaviors and
people skills although it will be easier for some than others. The degree of success achieved lies in how much energy it takes to learn the key tasks and to sustain repetition on a daily basis. Individuals with differing preferences tend to approach similar careers from differing perspectives, with differing emphasis, and with differing degrees of accomplishment and success based on what their brain does easily.
Confucius reportedly said,
Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.
Selecting a career or occupation that is a good match for your innate giftedness is both a challenge and an individual journey. Some are fortunate in achieving a good fit early in life. Others struggle before achieving a match.
Global Strategies
Most people work, inside or outside of the home. When evaluating employment options, begin by identifying the key tasks that the specific job requires and compare them with your brain
bent. Or look for a job/organization that allows you to contribute based on your innate giftedness—even if some of the tasks don’t match your formal education.
Following are examples of activities matched with each cerebral division.
| Prioritizing Division |
Envisioning Division |
An individual with a brain bent in this division tends to:
- Excel when difficult decisions need to be made that involve resource allocation, money, and structure; especially when priorities need to be understood and identified and acted upon.
- Be gifted at setting goals, identify steps that need to be taken, assigning responsibilities based on functional analysis, and discovering ways to achieve goals and/or to win.
- Prefer to delegate operational implementation, routine maintenance or follow-up, and the tracking of details to others.
Search for work that allows you to:
- Set goals
- Be in charge of something
- Make some decisions
- Identify required steps
- Prioritize required steps
- Direct
- Monitor (research) outcomes
- Redirect
- Achieve goals
Major Contribution:
Analysis and evaluation
Key Component:
A data-based project or program and the ability to make decisions and set/achieve goals |
An individual with a brain bent in this division tends to:
- Excel when something is beginning, getting started for the first time, or when it’s being turned around or reinvented. Once the project is working as envisioned, it needs to be passed to others to maintain. Otherwise, in a push to improve, reinvent, or change it, the project can be ruined.
- Be gifted at anticipating and making changes based on seeing the big picture (and usually wants variety)
- May enjoy planning and leading groups or expeditions to new or to a variety of different destinations
Search for work that allows you to:
- Begin a project or program, even if it involves temporary work (e.g., a political campaign, time-limited campaign, project or trip)
- Restart or turn around a project or program
- Brainstorm (research) solutions to problems
Major Contribution:
Envisioning and enthusiasm
Key Component:
A short-term project or program and the ability to be somewhat independent and innovative |
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing Division |
An individual with a brain bent in this division tends to:
- Excel when something concrete needs to be dependably sustained, whether the something involves service or production.
- Follow routines/maintain projects as long as there is an understanding of why it’s important to do so.
Search for work that allows you to:
- Maintain something
- Continue the status quo
- Work with established routines
- Follow a schedule
- Be protected from constant interruptions
Major Contribution:
Dependability and production
Key Component:
A long-term project or program and the ability to produce dependably |
An individual with a brain bent in this division tends to:
- Excel at building connections, harmony, good will, and peaceful foundations and can do this in a wide variety of settings.
- Like to encourage others, help to build consensus and compliance (if the “reason for” is understood).
Search for work that allows you to:
- Read nonverbals
- Provide feedback
- Offer encouragement
- Provide nurturing
- Work in relative harmony
Major Contribution:
Connecting with others and translating for the BL and FR
Key Component:
The ability to experience harmony among people, or animals, or nature, and in the environment |
Selected Occupations
At the risk of being able to include only a few examples, following are occupations individuals may gravitate toward based on brain
bent. The center sections and middle sections on each side represent choices by individuals who are considered to be “doubles.” That is, they tend primarily to utilize two adjacent divisions, although they are still believed to possess a brain
bent in only one of the divisions.
| Prioritizing Division |
Doubles |
Envisioning Division |
- COOs
- Engineers
- MBAs and CPAs
- Fiscal management
- Consultants
- Accountants
- Speakers in area of expertise
- College or University Professors in area of expertise
If Extroverted:
- Negotiating
- Leading in times of controlled growth and plentiful resources
- Fighting, forcing, or driving to win
If Introverted:
- Engineering research
- inancial analysis decision making (accounting)
- Medical and scientific research
- Accounting
|
- Chemical engineer
- Computer Programmer
- Research Scientist
- Chemist
- Economist
- Inventors
- New product development
- Advertising, display
If Extroverted:
If Introverted:
- Scientific and medical investigations and research
- Contemplative meditating
|
- Artists
- Poets
- Entrepreneurs
- Philosophers
- Physicists
- Playwrights
- Strategic planners
- Motivational speakers
- Speakers in area of expertise
- College or university professors in area of expertise
If Extroverted:
- Creating, articulating, and sustaining a personal or corporate vision with which to lead others
- Founding new ventures
- Troubleshooting in highly complex, dynamic situations from business to fighting large fires
- Negotiating
- Leading in a charismatic or motivational manner, especially in difficult times
If Introverted:
- Computer programming, systems design
- Basic research, especially in chemistry or physics
- Designing logos, graphics, and layouts
- Reading “invisible patterns” from small, isolated quantities of data (e.g., geologist or futurist)
|
| Double Left |
|
Double Right |
- Mechanical engineers
- Attorneys
- Auditors
If Extroverted:
- Operational management
- Purchasing
If Introverted:
- Fiscal management
- Contract administration
|
|
- Actors and dancers
- Organizational development specialists
- Public relations
- Family systems therapist
- Massage therapist
- Marketing
- Sales
- Staging presentations
If Extroverted:
- OD consulting to companies and organizations
- Human resources manager
If Introverted:
- Acting, dancing, singing, entertaining
- Using design skills for display or interior decorating purposes
|
| Maintaining Division |
Doubles |
Harmonizing Division |
- Bookkeepers
- Foremen
- Lecturers
- Line supervisors
- Operational planners
- College or university professors in area of expertise
If Extroverted:
- Assembling, using, operating, cleaning, and maintaining machines after thorough and adequate experience-based training
- Repairing machines when the diagnosis and repair processes have been proceduralized and require a minimum of troubleshooting and inventiveness (or where a computerized expert system is used to diagnose more complex problems
- Overseeing proceduralized productions
If Introverted:
- Completing and maintaining established office and legal forms accurately
- Keeping well organized and accurate/legible books, files, accounts, records
- Organizing and managing stock, parts, and supplies
- Monitoring schedules and productivity levels
- Attending thoroughly and regularly to established procedural, operational, legal, and financial details
|
- Grade school teachers
- High school teachers
- Dental hygienist
- Physical therapist
- Clerk in a small copier company
- Technical training and orientation
- Coaching in specific technical job skills
If Extroverted:
- Due and payable debt collection
If Introverted:
- Bookkeeping in a group office
|
- Human resource specialists
- Facilitators
- Social workers
- Therapists
- Musicians
- Interior decorators
- College or university professors in area of expertise
If Extroverted:
- Developing and maintaining positive customer relations including building goodwill and handling customer complaints; or employee relations; or community and public relations
- Developing and maintaining positive media relations, building goodwill and trust with the press
- Managing consumer affairs
- Singing in a professional choir
- Doing group therapy
If Introverted:
- Playing a musical instrument
- Providing pastoral counseling, spiritual comfort, and guidance
- Doing one-to-one counseling
|
Examples of Nursing-Career Options Matched with Cerebral Divisions
Again at the risk of being able to include only a few examples, here are choices individuals might lean toward in the nursing profession based on brain
bent .
| Prioritizing Division |
Doubles |
Envisioning Division |
Individuals with a brain bent in this division tend to prefer situations where they can be in charge, make decisions, use state-of-the-art equipment, or investigate and analyze something.
- Vice-president of nursing
- Emergency department
- Nursing or forensic research
- Specialty unit with specialized electronic or evaluation equipment
- Special projects (depending on the type of project)
- Legal nurse (expert witness)
- Abstracting records
- Chart review for analysis of care provided
|
- Research nurse
- Disaster planning
- Emergency preparedness
- Performance improvement
- Quality measures
- Risk management
- Compliance
|
Individuals with a brain bent n this division may gravitate toward working in unusual and somewhat autonomous settings. They tend to enjoy using innovative technology (once the learning curve has been reached), and may like some types of research (anecdotal, more outcome or results oriented and less straight data-oriented).
- Specialty unit if new types of equipment or procedures
- Behavioral health
- Emergency department
- Homecare
- Infection control
- Risk management
- Surgery (circulating)
- Cardiovascular lab
- Helicopter or ambulance
- Some supervisory positions, if duties involve broad oversight and not too detailed or oriented to budget-finances
- Teacher – nursing sciences
- Nursing research (some projects)
- Nurse recruiter
- Public health nurse
- Nurse traveler
|
| Double Left |
|
Double Right |
- Intensive care unit
- Intensive care nursery
- Monitored care unit
- Orthopedics with specialized equipment
- Specialty unit nurse using specialized electronic equipment (dialysis)
- Scheduling office
- Chart review for compliance and for standard of care
|
|
- Behavioral health
- Home care nurse
- Newborn nursery
- Pediatrics
- Obstetrical nurse
- Special projects (depending on the type of project)
- Public health nurse
- Cancer center nurse
- Nurse educator (if work is not too routine)
- Outpatient surgery
|
| Maintaining Division |
Doubles |
Harmonizing Division |
Individuals with a brain bent in this division may gravitate toward providing services in routine or traditional settings with pre-established parameters
- Clinics
- Professional offices
- IV therapy
- Nurse manager / director
- School nurse
- Supervising nurse
- Surgery (scrub) nurse
- Teacher – nursing (e.g., skills lab)
- Legal research (health care)
- Scheduling office
- Chart review for compliance
|
- Medical-surgical
- Outpatient surgery
- Office nurse
- School nurse
- Teacher (e.g., nursing skills lab)
- Nurse educator
|
Individuals with a brain bent in this division may gravitate toward making contributions to a patient’s physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing in a variety of settings
- Clinics (e.g., immunization, pediatric, office)
- Counseling (e.g., grief, recovery, spiritual)
- Medical-surgical units
- Newborn nursery
- Pediatrics
- Oncology
- Pain management
- School nurse
- Teacher (e.g., nursing subjects)
- Nurse educator
- Nurse recruiter
|
Factors that Often Impact Initial Career Choice
A great many factors can influence your choice of a job or career, especially your initial career choice.
Evaluate these and other factors and the contribution each makes to your life:
- Gender brain preference
- Birth position and position in the sibling lineup
- Position on the Extroversion-Ambiversion-Introversion Continuum
- Sensory system preference
- Chronological age
- Expectations (e.g., yours, family, friends, school, church, society, culture, politics)
- Educational opportunities
- Accomplishments and accompanying rewards
- Past experiences related to the observation / exposure to a variety of career options
- Past work-related opportunities and experience
- Level of self-esteem
- Presence and functionality of boundaries (personal limits)
- Personal beliefs and attitudes
- Living location and environment
You may need to alter some of these factors (e.g., expectations, personal beliefs and attitudes) in order to achieve greater levels of health, happiness, and success and a better brain-career match.
You may have selected a career due to expectations or opportunities rather than one that offered a good match between key tasks and personal innate giftedness. Over time, if your brain
bent doesn’t match the key tasks required for this career, you may eventually:
- Gravitate to a branch of a profession that is a better match
- Change careers (if you have that option)
- Find a way to tweak the job to obtain a better match
- Self-medicate using an addictive behavior
- Burn out, become ill, or go out on disability
Because of this, it’s a good idea to evaluate your career choice ongoing and the way in which it is impacting your overall health, happiness, and success. Many people change careers midstream to obtain a better match. Sometimes this involves tweaking and existing career and sometimes it means going in a different direction altogether.
Cerebral Divisions and Brain Bent
Almost anyone can decide to learn a specific skill and if he/she works hard at it can develop some level of competence over time. That may be different, however, from following one’s brain
bent.
One researcher explained it this way. If you work very diligently at something for which your brain has no energy advantage, over time you can probably develop mediocre competence. If on the other hand you work diligently at something that matches your brain
bent, over time you are more likely to excel and to become exceedingly competent.
Estimates are that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated, wise, and effective practice to develop world-class competence in a specific skill (e.g., instrumental musician, sports athlete). Some thinks this same estimate may apply to other areas of competence. Regardless, competence required a great deal of practice. If you are willing to invest that much time and energy, do so in your area of brain
bent, as this may increase your likelihood of reaching very high level of competence with less energy expenditures.
Following are examples of what an individual may do best based on brain bent.
| Prioritizing Division |
Envisioning Division
|
Individuals with a brain bent in the prioritizing division tend to excel at making logical decisions based on data, especially when this involves allocation of resources
They generally prefer to make the decisions themselves or delegate who will
They usually work quickly and in control, using technical concepts
They tend to be very competitive and try to win
They can become workaholic in an attempt to achieve their goals
They may become bored when presented with either elaborate explanations or a lack of data
They tend to want things covered rapidly, to make decisions rapidly, and to identify and compare options in a timely manner
In a nutshell they want logically, precisely, and analytically to strategize and win
If Extroverted:
- Negotiation
- Leading in times of controlled growth and plentiful resources
- Fighting, forcing, or driving to win
If Introverted:
- Engineering research
- Financial analysis decision making
- Medical and scientific research
- Accounting
|
Individuals with a brain bent in the envisioning division tend to excel at anticipating and making changes, at seeing the big picture and trending, and may be very metaphoric, adaptable, and creative (e.g., “solving the impossible” which is often seen by others a “risk taking”)
They tend to be intuition-driven and enjoy innovative trouble-shooting, often providing humor and amusement through a quirky sense of bizarre or unusual
They tend to do spatial thinking and planning (e.g., furniture placement, packing suitcase or car, envisioning body organs during surgery)
They usually work in starts and fits (e.g., like greased lightening and then need a break) and can be oblivious to time when absorbed in a project
They may become quickly bored with repetition, routine, rules and regulations, “red tape,” or too many details
They tend to shift jobs frequently, seeking new stimulation and opportunity
In a nutshell they want to trouble–shoot and to find ways to avoid day-to-day operational maintenance that would be too routine for their constantly changing brains.
If Extroverted:
- Creating, articulating, and sustaining a personal or corporate vision with which to lead others
- Founding new ventures
- Troubleshooting in highly complex, dynamic situations from business to fighting large fires
- Negotiating
- Leading in a charismatic or motivational manner, especially in difficult times
If Introverted:
- Computer programming, systems design
- Basic research, especially in chemistry or physics
- Designing logos, graphics, and layouts
- Reading “invisible patterns” from small, isolated quantities of data (e.g., geologist or futurist)
|
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing Division
|
Individuals with a brain bent in the maintaining division tend to excel at dependably supplying services, especially those needed for everyday living in this culture
They generally like to follow routines (especially when they understand the reason for the procedures) and can do so repetitively and accurately
They usually work methodically using established routine, attend to detail, and meet deadlines
They tend to dislike negotiation and want regular hours (e.g., may unionize to get the hours and benefits they think they can depend on)
They tend to seek and demand a great deal of sameness and procedure in everyday living (detailed routines, more rituals that occur at a specific time each day, week, or month)
In a nutshell they want predictability and stability
If Extroverted:
- Assembling, using, operating, cleaning, and maintaining machines after thorough and adequate experience-based training
- Repairing machines when the diagnosis and repair processes have been proceduralized and require a minimum of troubleshooting and inventiveness (or where a computerized expert system is used to diagnose more complex problems)
- Overseeing proceduralized productions
If Introverted:
- Completing and maintaining established office and legal forms accurately
- Keeping well organized and accurate/legible books, files, accounts, records
- Organizing and managing stock, parts, and supplies
- Monitoring schedules and productivity levels
- Attending thoroughly and regularly to established procedural, operational, legal, and financial details
|
Individuals with a brain bent in the harmonizing division tend to excel at building trust, harmony, peaceful foundations, and good will
They may allow their pace of work to be driven by their feelings or mood
They usually work better when they like who they are working with, and need frequent breaks to connect and chat
They tend to dislike deadlines and budgetary restraints, and while they like regular hours they may be willing to work late at times to “help out”
They tend to be nurturing and spiritual
They tend to be sensitive and interpersonal and worry about other people and how everyone is feeling; they want and need to be close to others in situations that enable them to feel connected.
In a nutshell they want peace and harmony and want life to work for everyone
If Extroverted:
- Developing and maintaining positive customer relations including building goodwill and handling customer complaints; or employee relations; or community and public relations
- Developing and maintaining positive media relations, building goodwill and trust with the press
- Managing consumer affairs
If Introverted:
- Playing a musical instrument
- Providing pastoral counseling, spiritual comfort, and guidance
|
Refer to
Cerebral Divisions and Functions for additional information.
Cerebral Divisions and Functions
Brain scans have greatly expanded an understanding of the functions that are housed within the cerebrum. To quote Rita Carter, editor of
Mapping the Mind:
Almost every mental function you can think of is fully or partly lateralized.
In other words, the cerebral hemispheres are hard-wired for very specific skills that, under normal circumstances, usually develop in one hemisphere or division. While it is true that certain areas are specialized for specific purposes, the brain can only be understood as one highly complex and integrated functional unit.
Dr. Restak, author of
Mysteries of the Mind, wrote:
The great majority of its neuronal connections involve cross talk among neurons rather than the transfer of information to and from the rest of the body.
Evidence for lateralization can sometimes be observed in a brain scan (e.g., shows the side of the brain that is in charge of the particular function or task), although functions/systems can overlap or be involved in the same process, such as the memory system and the emotional system. A region in the hemisphere that is in charge of a specific task glows more brightly when compared to the matching region in the opposite hemisphere. Testing modalities have identified areas of the cerebrum that control or primarily direct specific functions (e.g., Broca’s Area for uttering audible speech, Wernicke’s Area for decoding audible speech).
Following is a summary of key functional contributions of each cerebral division.
The Two Frontal Cerebral Divisions
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
- To set and achieve goals
- To make and objective and timely decisions
|
- To anticipate and make changes
- To innovate, meditate, and picture something in your mind’s eye
|
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing Division |
- To supply services (dependably) needed for maintaining life
- To run routines and habits
|
- To build trust, connection, and peaceful foundations
- To assess for harmony
|
Specific Skills Correlated by Cerebral Division
Basic cerebral functions are important as they permit human beings to learn skills and develop competencies that are critical to life on this planet as we know it. Following are examples of ways in which the cerebral functions enable individuals to develop specific skills.
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
The Prioritizing Division contains functions to assist you in developing skills related to:
- Inductive/deductive reasoning (logic, the researched view)
- The ability to set goals, make decisions, prioritize the actions necessary to achieve goals, analyze everything for functionality (bounded shapes as well as abstract ideas)
- Data-driven problem-solving (comparing, analyzing, summarizing)
|
The Envisioning Division contains functions to assist you in developing skills related to:
- Active three-dimensional internal mental picturing
- The ability to take in huge amounts of data (balcony view) second for second, notice when things are changing, identify trends, and compute context
- Intuitive, innovative problem-solving (e.g., brainstorming new ideas, processes, products; meditating)
|
Areas of Unique Giftedness
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
- Hardball negotiation (if Extraverted)
- Strategy development
- Cost-benefit analyses
- Goal setting
- Managing resources based on data
- Precision
- Creativity in setting and achieving goals and finding way to “win”
|
- Exploring the unknown (entrepreneurial)
- Finding new solutions (inventions, creativity, problem-solving intuitively)
- Imagining (visioning)
- Inspiration (may be charismatic)
- Mimicry
- Meditation
- Creativity in a variety of artistic endeavors (e.g., painting, composing, sculpture)
|
Unique Challenges
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Prioritizers may be viewed by those with a different brain bent as insensitive, a people user, and a workaholic; may have limited access to the harmonizing division and can blow up easilywhen frustrated or crossed (e.g., Mt. Vesuvius). Tasks or activities that require use of the other three divisions (especially the diagonal Harmonizing
division) are much more energy-exhaustive, such as:
- Helping others to get along with each other and/or feel comfortable
- Learning to speak foreign languages
- Dressing (selecting colors, styles)
- Direct spiritual experiences
- Learning complicated dance routines
|
Envisioners may be viewed by those with a different brain bent as unpredictable, unrealistic, and undependable (due to penchant for spontaneity); dislikes details and routines and can quickly become bored with them. Tasks or activities that require use of the other three divisions (especially the diagonal Maintaining division) are much more energy-exhaustive, such as:
- Routine self care (e.g., brushing teeth, washing face, applying makeup, styling own hair)
- Detailed and repetitive routine procedures
- Sequenced details (spelling)
- Accuracy in addition (balancing check book)
- Following rules and regulations precisely
|
Validation Suggestions
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Validate an individual with a brain bent in the Prioritizing division for an ability to:
- Exhibit an inductive/deductive reasoning style
- Make objective decisions in a timely manner
- Set and achieve goals
- Prioritize steps required to achieve goals
- Investigate and solve problems based on data
- Engage in analytical investigation (research)
- Use tools effectively and efficiently
|
Validate an individual with a brain bent in the Envisioning division for an ability to:
- Anticipate and make changes by recognizing abstract patterns and trending
- Be spontaneous
- Problem-solve intuitively, be imaginative
- Be entrepreneurial (if Extraverted)
- Be artistically creative
- See in your mind’s eye something you want to create
- Exhibit a sense of humor
|
Functional Specializing and Specific Activities
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
The functional specialization of the Prioritizing division is designed to help accomplish specific activities, such as:
- Make decisions and/or delegate
- Set goals
- Prioritize the best options
- Be objective/single-minded in pursuing goals
- Achieve social and organizational power by managing time and money effectively
- Abstract and analyze data of every type
- Be competitive and try to win
- Utilize tools of every type
- Research and problem solve based on data
- Speak audibly and laugh aloud
- Develop and use conscience
- Manage willpower
- Understand numbers and signs
- Manage emotions (e.g., happiness, joy)
|
The functional specialization of the Envisioning division is designed to help accomplish specific activities, such as:
- Anticipate and make changes
- Absorb the big picture, the balcony view
- Scan for trends, patterns, global perspective
- Meditate, daydream, imagine, envision
- Innovate – travel, write, compose, design (entrepreneurial activities if Extroverted, artistic activities if Introverted)
- Compute context
- Gesture expressively and expansively
- Be spontaneous (unconstricted due to a dislike of rules/routines)
- Appreciate, develop, and use a sense of humor
- 3-D internal mental picturing
- Risk doing something in a new way
- Think in pictures and symbols
- Manage emotions (e.g., anger, fear, sadness)
|
Environments or Accessories
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Desirable environments or accessories for a brain bent in the prioritizing division include:
- Uncluttered space
- Colors: black, white, gray, and navy
- Machines and mechanical tools
- A computer for research projects
- Scales, gavel, calculator
- Charts containing numbers and percentages
- Framed awards
- Abstract photographs of arrows
- A list of goals and objectives
- A five-year plan
- Structured music (e.g., slow movements of Bach, Mozart, baroque compositions). If used as background music, typically works best for male brains and more Extroverted female brains
|
Desirable environments or accessories for a brain bent in the envisioning division include:
- Airy, unstructured space with plenty of flat surfaces for visual stacking
- A computer to assist with creativity and managing data
- Geometric models
- 3-D puzzles
- A reading corner with a wide range of topics
- Large sheets of paper, pencils, erasers, and markers
- Caricatures and cartoons
- Unusual furniture and/or pillows on the floor
- A bulletin board with pins
- Jazz and baroque music. If used as background music, typically works best for male brains and more Extroverted female brains
- Space for meditation
|
The Two Posterior Cerebral Divisions
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
The Maintaining division
contains functions to assist you in developing skills related to:
- The ability to sequence a set of actions into a routine (a set of pre-made decisions) and follow it accurately
- The tendency to more easily absorb information that is perceived as linear (e.g., rectangles, squares, lines, angles)
Occipital lobe (vision): sees and identifies details
Temporal lobe (auditory): listens for nouns and verbs (labels/directions)
Parietal lobe (kinesthetic): grasps and manipulates bounded shapes, tends to line up objects precisely |
The Harmonizing division
contains functions to assist you in developing skills related to:
- The ability to compare everything to assess for the presence or absence of harmony
- The tendency to more easily absorb information that is perceived as harmonically related (e.g., color, smiles, body language, oval or circular or rounded shapes)
Occipital lobe (vision): sees colors and reads nonverbals
Temporal lobe (auditory): listens for nonspeech sounds and the music of speech
Parietal lobe (kinesthetic): assesses touch connection and relational position of bounded shapes in the environment |
Areas of Unique Giftedness
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
- Performing routine and repetitive self-care activities (e.g., brushing teeth, washing face, applying makeup, styling own hair)
- Following detailed routines and step-by-step procedures
- Achieving accuracy in repetitive sequenced tasks
- Legible hand writing and accurate spelling
- Operating machines
|
- Connecting with others
- Singing and/or dancing
- Selecting colors and style in clothing
- Learning to speak foreign languages
- Achieving spiritual connections
|
Unique Challenges
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Maintainers may be viewed by those with a different brain bent as boring, stuck in a rut, and lacking spontaneity or an ability/willingness to make changes.
Tasks that require use of the other three divisions (especially the diagonal Envisioning division) are much more energy-exhaustive, such as:
- Drama
- Coping with novelty
- Inspiration or brainstorming
- Trending or imaginative forecasting
- Innovation (hates change and tries to maintain the status quo)
- Dealing with interruptions
|
Harmonizers may be viewed by those with a different brain bent as overly sensitive and overconforming or overcomplying in their effort to maintain harmony.
Tasks that require use of the other three divisions (especially the diagonal Prioritizing division) are much more energy-exhaustive, such as:
- Making logical decisions
- Completing cost-benefit analysis (e.g., financial)
- Negotiating
- Saying “no” or making unpopular decisions
- Setting personal limits appropriately and consistently
- Engaging in hardball negotiations
|
Functional Specialization and Specific Activities
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
The Maintaining division contains functions to assist you in honing skills related to the following:
- Develop and run internal brain “software” (habits) dependably
- Be sequential, practical, and predictable
- Honor and maintain traditions
- Learn the rules and follow them
- Repeat routines/procedures accurately
- File and track data, labels, details, objects
- Develop skills for reading, writing, spelling
- Utilize fine motor skills for grasping and manipulating bounded shapes, for data entry, word processing, and typing (prestidigitation)
- Store and track non-emotional memories
- Develop complex rhythmical skills (music, data entry, typing, marching)
- Decode speech sounds (although can decode nonspeech sounds)
- Maintain the status quo
|
The Harmonizing division contains functions to assist you in honing skills related to the following:
- Promote relatedness, connectedness, and harmony (among sounds, colors, bounded shapes, the environment)
- Be sentimental
- Be in tune with nature
- Celebrate everything (e.g., holidays, anniversaries, deaths, national events)
- Enjoy potlucks
- Pursue relational and collegial connectedness
- Take in information via touch (hugs)
- Sing and play musical instruments by ear (native musical ability)
- Entertain, act, dance, sing, cook, teach
- Process spiritual experiences, counsel
- Read nonverbal body language
- Recognize faces, store emotional memories
- Decode nonspeech sounds (although can decode speech)
|
Environments or Accessories
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
- Space that contains equipment for tracking data (hard copy and/or electronic)
- Neutral or subdued colors
- Filing cabinets with files and labels
- A computer with which to track information
- A dictionary, a calendar, and a to do list
- A selection of how to books
- A desk set that contains divided portions for pencils, pens, erasers, and paper clips
- Martial style or traditional style music. If used as background music, typically works best for male brains and more Extroverted female brains
|
- An upbeat, colorful space
- Photos of family members and close friends
- Plants, pine cones, candles, stuffed animals
- A computer for personal use
- A chair with a cozy afghan or blanket
- Inspirational books and pictures
- Smiley stickers and colorful crayons
- Sounds of nature
- Musical instruments
- Rhythmical, melodic music, and music that tells a story. If used as background music, typically works best for male brains and more Extroverted female brains
|
Validation Suggestions
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Validate an individual with a brain bent in the Maintaining division for an ability to:
- Provide services predictable and dependably
- Follow directions/procedures accurately
- Complete assignments on time
- Track bounded shapes (data, objects)
- Memorize facts, figures, names, labels
- Spell words accurately
- Print or write (cursive) legibly
|
Validate an individual with a brain bent in the Harmonizing division for an ability to:
- Build trust, harmony, and peaceful foundations
- Verbalize own feelings
- Observe and acknowledge feelings of others
- Connect with others (e.g., smiles, hugs)
- Harmonize sounds, colors, the environment
- Be a peacemaker, help others to feel welcome and comfortable, especially in new situations
|
Children and Brain Bent
While in place at birth, the frontal lobes of the cerebrum are thought to develop at about 6 months of age. By 12 months of age the frontal lobes are beginning to gain control over the subconscious drives of the emotional brain.
Wernicke’s area (the portion of the Maintaining division that translates sounds, especially speech sounds, into something that has meaning) becomes active at about 18 months of age, and then Broca’s Area kicks in (the portion of the Prioritizing division that provides one with the ability to speak aloud). This means there is a span of time when children understand words but have difficulty verbalizing them. The frustration this can cause may explain, in part, some of the behaviors exhibited during the terrible twos. Some care providers have discovered that teaching American Sign Language to babies tends to reduce some of the frustration experienced during this communication lag.
By the age of two, if children have been exposed to a variety of activities and have been encouraged to be who they were designed to be–and their parents understand something about brain function–you may be able to start recognizing the child’s brain
bent. The old axiom,
train children in the way they should go and when they are old they’ll never depart from it, makes incredible sense when viewed from this perspective. If you are living your brain
bent the majority of the time and your brain is purring along using a fraction of the energy that is required when utilizing functions from one of the other three divisions of the cerebrum, why would you ever want to live another way?
Following are examples of what to look for when trying to identify children’s brain
bent.
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Children may have a brain bent in this division when they:
- Gravitate toward tools and machine
- Like to use tools to construct things
- Try to take apart small machines to figure out how they work (e.g., portable CD player)
- Are articulate but not chatty
- Set personal “goals” for self (may try to do it for others as well)
- Seem to like to argue
- Are good at math, especially algebra (although this may be a function of the skill of the teacher to bring this out in the child)
- Prefer multiple choice or essay tests
- Have a good sense of time and want to tell others what to do based on time
- Like to read stories about famous sports figures or great generals or leaders—people who did great things
- Want to make the rules and wants other to follow them
- May tend to intimidate others (e.g., some teachers) with emerging inductive-deductive style of reasoning and the need to people to present logical reasons for what they say or do
|
Children may have a brain bent in this division when they:
- Wander off or explore
- Daydream
- Draw, often expansively covering the entire page
- Are good at visual or spatial games
- Move and gesture when talking
- Prefer to run, jump, and climb, often while making noises
- May not read as a young child or may read voraciously about new and different things (e.g., may like futuristic stories and science fiction)
- Tend to be good at geometry (although this may be a function of the skill of the teacher to bring this out in the child)
- Prefer essay tests in which there is no one right answer (although would rather use a computer for preparation than handwriting)
- Seem to have a shorter attention span, jumping from one thing to another as if searching for variety, or seem restless
- May know the answers but may be unable to clearly state how the answer was arrived at
- May often be way ahead of the teacher
- If truly interested in a subject or topic or project can lose all sense of time
|
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Children may have a brain bent in this division when they:
- Seem to need more routine
- Prefer to eat at the same time every day
- Prefer to have the same food for the same meal
- Prefer to be told what to do and how to do it
- Like toys that follow a track
- Like to read books about “how to do” something the right way, and about the real world
- Prefer true-false test
- Wants his/her room and personal space kept “just so”
- Tend to want to be on time and meet deadlines
- Tend to be willing to follow the rules when he/she knows what they are
|
Children may have a brain bent in this division when they:
- Are quite chatty
- Know everyone in the neighborhood and is known by everyone
- Like to change clothes often and play dress up
- Enjoy and often wear bright colors
- Touche and like to be touches
- Like to read animal stories, biographies (stories about people), and romances
- Like pets and usually remembers to take care of them
- Giggle a lot or are “silly”
- Like to help others or to share their experiences
- Prefer to be in the same room with others rather than be alone
- Are not particularly good at tests and don’t like to take them
|
Following of examples of general descriptions of behaviors that may be exhibited by children based on brain
bent.
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
| Children may have a brain bent in this division when tend to be verbal, logical, and conceptual.
They want to make decisions, like to direct others, and tend to challenge others when discussing concepts (e.g., information that is stated rationally rather than logically). If they are not given opportunity to make decisions they will find ways to do so (e.g., saying “no” to almost everything)
They can test almost everything to the limit, and can focus attention on a problem until it is solved to their satisfaction. They are usually careful and somewhat cautious. They may look self-assured in new situations but are slow to warm up to strangers in separation situations. |
Children may have a brain bent in this division when they tend to enjoy innovation, and trouble-shooting.
They like to solve problems and, if none exist, may create a few to solve. Typically, they arrive at answers in an abstract, intuitive way but may not be able to state how they arrived at their answers or conclusions.
They take in huge amounts of data second for second and can almost lose touch with reality as they generate ideas. They get the picture quickly and may get bored as the teacher goes through the sequential steps so often emphasized in most curricula. |
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Children may have a brain bent in this division when they tend to:
- Prefer large-muscle activities
- Like to use tools of all kinds and try to gain the most effect with the least effort
- Arrive at answers by evaluating the pros and cons
- Seem to develop and exhibit an inductive/deductive reasoning style quite quickly and easily
- Can become impatient when things do not go their way or when answers to their questions don’t seem logical to them
- Enjoy taking things apart to see how they work
- Like to make or set the rules
- Want to make decisions, be in charge, and tell others what to do
- Like to investigate, research, analyze, and evaluate data/projects
- Argue and debate almost everything
- Like to set goals and achieve them
- Are competitive and want to win
|
Children may have a brain bent in this division when they tend to:
- Prefer to be active and need to move to learn, enjoy outdoor activities (often with noises/gestures) but can sit still for hours if their interest is sufficiently piqued
- Can be leaders, but can also wander off if something else catches their interest
- Can separate fairly easily and don’t fear new situations; can be daring and even reckless (e.g., leap before they look)
- Enjoy using and thinking in metaphors
- Prefer to have all their things in plain view, (e.g., clothes, toys, books, papers in stacks) because anything out of sight tends to be out of mind
- Enjoy pretend stories and ask many why and what-if questions
- Enjoy drawing, especially caricatures, and often cover the entire page
- Dislike rules and routines and may drop out of traditional school systems
- Often start multiple projects, skip from one to another, and fail to completely finish any of them
|
| Prioritizing Division |
Envisioning Division |
Validate these children for an ability to:
- Reason logically and verbalize reasons
- Make decisions quickly and accurately
- Set and achieve goals
- Analyze for functionality
- Summarize information
- Engage in research projects
|
Validate these children for an ability to:
- Anticipate and make changes
- Make imaginative choices
- Create artistically
- Take appropriate risks
- Brainstorming innovatively
- Solve problems intuitively
- See the big picture
|
| Maintaining Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
| Children with a brain bent in this division tend to need routines and limits. They often ask questions such as, “Am I doing this right?” or “Is it time?” They usually follow the rules, try to be good team players, and like to keep things in order.
They don’t like others to move their belongings (bounded shapes) without their permission.
They tend to remember the words to a song. Like most children, they enjoy stories; but will usually prefer factual stories. They enjoy repetition and may ask you to read the same story to them over and over again. |
Children with a brain bent in this division tend to need interpersonal connection. They usually make friends easily and encourage everyone to participate.
They aren’t particularly adept at details. If allowed to work on a detailed project with a friend, so they can connect and communicate with each other during the learning process, they will likely do the detail much more accurately.
They tend to love stories of almost any type, but especially those about people and/or animals. |
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Children with a brain bent in this division tend to:
- Prefer small motor activities that involve handling/manipulating bounded shapes
- Show stress when asked to change(e.g., when the schedule is unexpectedly varied or the lunchbox menu is different)
- Don’t venture out by themselves
- May exhibit separation anxiety, especially when expected to move into a new situation such as enrolling in day-care or starting school (show change stress)
- Want repetition, predictability, familiarity, and stability
- Like routines and are bothered by interruptions
- Need additional time to adjust to change to a new environment or situation
|
Children with a brain bent in this division tend to:
- Like to dress and undress, to change clothes and play dress-up endlessly
- Enjoy rhythmic music and movement (e.g., ballet), may enjoy singing
- Are sensitive to nonspeech sounds (e.g., cries and shouts)
- Like nature sounds such as pounding surf, falling rain, singing birds
- Like to collect souvenirs¾provided there is a connection with a pleasant experience
- Separate easily if they can transfer to another trusted person (e.g., mother to teacher)
- Tend to touch everything and like to be touched
- Want to be with others and may dislike being alone
- Seek facial and eye contact
- Enjoy pets and stuffed toys that can be held
- May talk a lot and ask a great many “why” questions
|
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Validate these children for an ability to:
- Produce and supply services dependably
- Follow directions accurately
- Complete assignments on time
- Keep belongings organized
- Memorize facts, figures, and names
- Spell words accurately
- Achieve neat printing and/or cursive writing
|
Validate these children for an ability to:
- Build trust and harmony
- Be a peacemaker and help others to feel comfortable
- Verbalize own feelings
- Observe and acknowledge the feelings of others
- Give smiles and hugs
- Harmonize sounds and colors
- Exhibit a sensitivity to others, to creatures, and to nature
|
Brain Maturation
The brain matures more slowly than the body. For example, the largest of the three bridges that connect the two cerebral hemispheres (the Corpus Callosum) is not myelinated or wrapped with insulation until about age 20-21. Until myelination is complete, the brain is at risk of “shorting out,” so to speak (e.g., exhibiting behaviors that a myelinated brain might avoid).
The pre-frontal lobes directly behind the forehead that contain the brain’s executive functions (e.g., decision, willpower, planning, conscience, morality) are considered to be developed somewhere around the late 20’s or 30’s, and sometimes into the 40’s—and this process typically takes about 1.6 years longer to occur in the male brain than in the comparable female brain.
Caveat: There can be 2-3 years of difference in maturation rates between brains of the same chronological age.
Be aware that decisions made prior to the maturation of the Corpus Callosum and pre-frontal cortex may not work very well once the brain has developed and matured.
Factors That May Skew Behaviors
Typically exhibited characteristics may be skewed in an individual child based on a host of factors such as:
- Parental preferences or brain bent, etc.
- Opportunities that the child has been given
- The past experiences of the child (especially those related to unrealistic expectations, rewards, or punishment)
- The child’s perception of who he/she needs to be to make the parents feel okay about themselves
- The child’s position on the Extrovert-Ambivert-Introvert Continuum
- The child’s Sensory Preference
- The presence of abuse or vicarious exposure to abuse
- The presence of an intact versus a fractured family system
- Expectations and/or pressure from culture, society, family, school, religion, etc.
- Being downshifted due to fear, trauma, crisis, or anxiety
- Whether the child has been medicated due to a diagnosis of ADD
Classroom Behaviors
Parents and teachers often ask, “How can I identify a child’s brain
bent?” That’s a challenge for most adults. How much more so when trying to identify this in a child. In general:
- Give the child a variety of learning opportunities and observe how he/she approaches each activity. What type of comments does the child make? Does the child tend to lose all track of time when engaged in the activity or does the child tend to lose interest quickly?
- Observe the behaviors the child exhibits in classroom settings and then compare them with some of the following commonly described behaviors that tend to be exhibited by children based on brain bent.
Following is a brief summary of how children may be viewed in the classroom (by others) based on their brain
bent.
Frontal Lobes (Large Motor Skills)
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Students with a brain bent in this division may:
- Test as “bright”
- Be articulate
- Know more than the other students
- Intimidate the teacher
- Want to make decisions
- Like tools (get more done with less)
- Be very precise
|
Students with a brain bent in
this division may:
- Appear as the “genius” who under-performs
- Move around
- Run, jump, hop
- Gesture a lot
- Have difficulty with handwriting
- Be dyslexic and shamed for their difficulty in accessing the Maintainaing division
|
Posterior Lobes (Small Motor Skills)
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Students with a brain bent in this division may:
- Come across as the “good child”
- Touch bounded objects
- Do what they are told
- Exhibit separation anxiety
- Be uncertain when they don’t know the environment
|
Students with a brain bent in this division may:
- Come across as a “pleaser” or as “teacher’s pet”
- Have difficulty saying “no”
- Stand by the teacher
- Like to change clothes
- Be with people and talk
- Like to give gifts
|
Frontal Lobes (Large Motor Skills)
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Children with a brain bent n this division:
- Are usually quite precise
- Need to reason in order to learn
- Are often seen as leaders
- Are typically articulate and may even intimidate the teacher
- Are viewed as bright, and appear to know more than the other students
- May see school as a game that must be won in order to be successful (may underachieve, just doing enough to get by)
- Often easily master subjects such as arithmetic, algebra, calculus, statistics, auto mechanics, electronics, engineering, public speaking, and research science
- Prefer tests with multiple-choice questions but can handle essay questions or verbal presentations
- Are talented in goal setting/achievement, strategy development, precision, and inductive/deductive reasoning
- Are limited in ease of speaking foreign languages, spiritual experiences, nurturing, dressing (color, fabric, and style harmony) due to lack of access in the right posterior lobes
- Tend to ask questions such as how does this work or what is its function
|
Children with a brain bent n this division:
- Are often seen as the innovators or smart or geniuses although they may not perform up to expectations of others
- May have oodles of incomplete projects
- Usually have difficulty in writing/spelling
- May have trouble with self-care as in brushing the teeth, tying shoelaces
- May be considered dyslexic due to a reduced ability to perform functions that draw heavily on the left posterior lobes
- May exhibit symptoms of stress or rebellion when required to conform to rules/regulations
- Need to be able to move in order to learn
- May view school as a barely-tolerable situation and are at high risk fordropping out
- Often excel at subjects such as chemistry, physics, geometry, trigonometry, philosophy, creative writing including poetry/essays, as well as artistic creativity (if introverted) or entrepreneurial activities (if extraverted)
- Can handle essay questions (especially if can be prepared on a computer rather than in longhand), lines of poetry, a musical composition, or an art project
- Are talented in exploring the unknown, finding new solutions (inventions), visioning, mimicry, and inspiration
- Are limited in routine self-care, detailed procedures, sequenced details (spelling), and accuracy in addition
- Tend to ask if and what if and how come questions
|
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
To validate children with a brain bent in this division:
- Allow them to create debating games and participate in them
- Say things such as, “It’s helpful to have a strong logical argument for what you want to accomplish”
- Understand they want to make decisions (whenever possible, allow them to participate in setting the rules; provide opportunities for making decisions from a selection of previously established options)
- Positively reinforce their attempts at critical analysis and for asking questions such as how does this workor what is its function
|
To validate children with a brain bent in this division:
- Create an affirmative atmosphere for daydreaming and imagining (remind them that some of the world’s most creative individuals are daydreamers)
- Understand that to them rules represent an unnecessary evil so set and enforce a minimum number of rules and explain the reason they are necessary; be willing to adjust rules/regulations
- Encourage exploration, variety, spontaneity, and individuality
- Affirm them for asking if and what if and how come questions
|
Posterior Lobes (Small Motor Skills)
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Children with a brain bent in this division:
- Are usually quite well-behaved
- Are likely to do whatever the teacher expects
- Don’t know the environment and don’t see the big picture easily
- Often exhibit anxiety when change is required
- Need time to learn, to incorporate new information into an existing body of knowledge, or to insert a new step into an already-mastered routine
- Tend to view school as the way life isand try to fit in
- Easily master subjects such as reading, spelling, writing (printing or cursive), bookkeeping, civics, history, and typing
- Prefer true-or-false test questions and like predictability in terms of examinations (can experience extreme stress if a surprise quiz is announced)
- Are gifted at detailed procedures, repetitive tasks, operating machines, routine self-care
- Are limited in drama, novelty, inspiration, and imaginative forecasting/trending
- Tend to ask how to do it right questions
|
Children with a brain bent in this division:
- Are often seen as pleasers
- Have difficulty saying no
- Stay close to the teacher
- Enjoy giving gifts
- Need to talk, play, and work with others in order to learn
- See school as a chance to associate with friends, and view studying as incidental
- Enjoy drama, languages, interior decorating, home economics, counseling, and music
- Don’t like test questions of any kind (prefer practical questions and situations that allow them to exhibit, demonstrate, role-model, or act out/portray the answers in some way)
- Are talented in hosting, spiritual experiences, dressing, and connecting
- Are limited in logical or unpopular decision-making
- Have difficulty with hardball negotiations and/or when doing cost-benefit analysis
- If relationships aren’t rewarding at school, may be at risk for dropping out
- Tend to ask why questions
|
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
To validate children with a brain bent in this division:
- Teach procedures sequentially, using at least three steps for each
- Develop, state, and enforce appropriate regulations (rules provide them with predictability and security)
- Discuss pros and cons of needed change
- Introduce concept of change with a preface such as, “You and I are going to load a new procedure” or “You can add this step to the routine you are already using”
- Acknowledge the discomfort associated with change and help the child to adjust
- Affirm them for asking how to do it rightquestions
|
To validate children with a brain bent in this division:
- Allow opportunities for them to help plan and give a party; to make and give a gift
- Provide time to talk about the rules and make sure they apply to everyone equally
- Support them in decision-making activities
- Make comments such as, “If you need help in making a choice, I’m here to help you”
- Provide playing time and costumes for dress-up and drama (or for) play-acting
- Afford plenty of touch affirmation
- Affirm them for helping others to feel included, comfortable, or at home
- Affirm them for asking questions (explain that the brain has difficulty answering “why” questions but can usually come up with “reasons” for things)
|
Remember that commonly observed classroom behaviors may be skewed in a specific child based on factors such as:
- Parental preference or brain bent, etc.
- Opportunities that the child has been given to date
- The past experiences of the child (especially those related to unrealistic expectations, rewards, or punishment)
- The child’s perception of who he/she needs to be to make the parents feel okay about themselves
- Gender
- East Brain or West Brain
- Sensory Preference
- Position on the Extrovert-Ambivert-Introvert Continuum
- The presence of abuse or vicarious exposure to abuse
- The presence of an intact versus a fractured family system
- Pressure from culture, society, family, school, religion, etc.
- Being downshifted due to fear, trauma, crisis, or anxiety
- Whether the child has been medicated due to a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD
Comfort with 'Change'
Dictionaries often have very long lists related to defining the word ‘change. Here is a sampling:
The act, process, or result of modifying something (an alteration in facial expression)
To cause to be different (an alteration in the spelling of a word)
The replacing of one thing for another as in substitution (an alteration in ownership)
A transition from one state, condition, or phase to another (the passage of seasons or time as in the process of aging)
And then there are all the idioms, including ‘to change:’
- Hands – To pass from one owner to another
- One’s mind – To alter a previously held opinion
- One’s tune – To reverse an original approach, position, or attitude
Change can be discomfiting for many individuals, especially when they perceive little or no control over the events or situations that created the alterations, or perceive a lack of opportunity to provide input. For example:
- Forced relocation for career or occupation (e.g., downsizing, bankruptcy)
- Divorce or separation (especially when desired more by one party)
- A catastrophic event (e.g., flood, hurricane, fire)
- The death of a parent or loved one that turned life upside down
And then there are all the myriad changes that can occur in families, schools, churches, and organizations. Sometime an accumulation of small changes can be as overwhelming as one big change. Even changing something by choice (e.g., going back to school, partnering, changing occupations or residence) can be stressful.
Initiating or participating in change is likely to be more successful when you understand that one’s approach to change may differ dramatically based on brain
bent. Following are examples of the way in which individuals might approach change (or their comfort level with change) based on brain
bent.
| Prioritizing
Division |
Envisioning
Division |
Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Avoid change unless it must be utilized to achieve goals
- Consider change if the changes will expedite winning and the change seems logical
- Want to direct the change and maintain control of the process, or delegate to others
- Be somewhat insensitive and dictatorial during the change process and alienate others
- Be comfortable with change if they initiate it
|
Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Love change simply for the pleasure of change itself
- Enjoy change, especially when they initiate it
- Initiate change to solve problems, add variety to life, and avoid boredom
- Think and act intuitively and spontaneously, and inspire others to participate
- Become impatient and bored with details and routines, and may withdraw if the change causes conflict that cannot be easily resolved
|
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Resist change
- Consider change if it’s a life-and death issue, or the change is practical and proven
- Want to deliberate about the change and, if at all possible, maintain the status quo
- Accurately incorporate change into an already existing routine if necessary—but may sabotage the whole process based on fear of change
- May be very uncomfortable with change, especially if it was forced upon them
|
Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Acquiesce to change
- Accept change if it is beneficial to all and promotes harmony
- Want to discuss change thoroughly, include everyone in the discussion, and minimize conflict
- Help to smooth the process if they get on board (but with high levels of concern about harmony, they can cause delay in implementing the change or even sabotage a project)
- Be become comfortable with change only if they perceive it is better for them and their loved ones
|
Managing Change
You can choose to access any function in any portion of your brain to help you respond to or initiate change. To paraphrase the words of Brian Tracy, master change rather than allowing it to master you. And above all, consciously use your brain for success when managing it! When change is necessary or beneficial, access all portions of your cerebrum as necessary to be successful. Alternatively, collaborate with others who have a different brain
bent: each of you bringing your giftedness to the table.
| Prioritizing
Division |
Visualizing
Division |
To manage the change process:
- Set realistic and measurable goals
- Identify and select the best options for optimizing the likelihood of attaining the goals
- Prioritize steps to follow
- Manage willpower needed to realize the change
- Direct the change
|
To manage the change process:
- Be visionary and innovatively imaginative related to the change
- Brainstorm available options
- Picture your desired outcome in your mind’s eye
- Embrace the calculated risk of the change
- Pursue your dreams and follow through
|
| Maintaining
Division |
Harmonizing
Division |
To manage the change process:
- Organize routines
- Follow schedule carefully
- Strive to do things right
- Practice, practice, practice…
|
To manage the change process:
- Create a support system
- Seek harmony among the components
- Embrace personal growth related to the change
- Encourage yourself and others as you move through the process
|
Communication Styles
Each human being has a preferred brain language that is energy efficient for his/her brain. Knowing your own brain language preference and being alert to the brain language preferred by others allows you the option of speaking momentarily in the other person’s brain language (given you have developed skills in one or more of the other brain-division languages). Observe the other individual’s brain language and reply in kind.
Miscommunications can result for any number of reasons, including differences in:
- Male speech and female speech patterns
- Neuroculture (e.g., West Brain or East Brain)
- Sensory system languages (Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic)
- Extraversion, Ambiversion, or Introversion preferences
- Innate brain energy advantage
Following are examples of typical communication styles matched to the four cerebral divisions.
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
| Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to be logical, brief, decisive, to the point, and somewhat witty when communicating
Their communication is designed to direct what needs to be accomplished in order to achieve the goal(s) |
Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to be big-picture and non-detail oriented, abstract, imaginative (metaphoric), futuristic, motivating, charismatic, and often humorous when communicating
Their communication is designed to convey a picture of what is possible, and to interest and inspire others |
|
Maintaining Division
|
Harmonizing Division
|
| Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to be matter-of-fact, and quite detail-oriented
Their communication is designed to report what needs to be done or has been accomplished |
Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to be casual, chatty, personable, emoting, and spiritual (depending on the environment)
Their communication is designed to enhance connection and create peaceful foundations for harmony |
Competency-Building
Life usually goes better when you have built some skills in all four cerebral divisions and have some level of competency.
Competency tends to increase as you practice specific skills. At least in the field of music, estimates are that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to develop high levels of competency. Many think that this estimate may apply to other genres as well.
To become outstanding in your field of endeavor, not only does it take thousands of hours of practice, but also the level of competence you achieve may depend on whether or not you are trying to build skills within your brain’s innate energy-advantage or outside of it.
Nothing in this section is to be construed as a recommendation to attempt to achieve outstanding competence in a field of endeavor that does not match your brain’s energy advantage.
Having said that, back to the opening statement: Life usually goes better when you have built some skills in all four cerebral divisions and have some level of competency. If you do want to develop skills in a specific cerebral division
, following are examples of competency-building activities.
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
Activities that may help to build skills in this division:
- Join a debate club
- Give a speech in public
- Read and prepare an abstract
- Participate in a research project
- Learn to play chess
- Learn to read a foreign language
- Learn to use tools (of any type)
- Take an object apart to determine how it was made or how it works and then reassemble it
- Analyze a process or system for functionality
- Analyze different types of music
|
Activities that may help to build skills in this division:
- Write poems and stories
- Learn to meditate
- Compose song and/or arrange music
- Draw, paint, sculpt, carve, design
- Assemble 3-D puzzles
- Travel
- Learn to play games such as Sudoku
- Learn to play an unusual instrument
- Play jazz or music that is new and/or unusual
- Learn to musically improvise or write free harmonizations
|
|
Maintaining Division
|
Harmonizing Division
|
Activities that may help to build skills in this division:
- Read information and develop an outline
- Make and follow lists
- Balance your checkbook
- Join a club or team
- Learn to sight-read music
- Join a group that plays or sings musical selections together
- Develop a schedule and stick to it
- Do crossword puzzles
- Play cards
- Learn to write in a foreign language
|
Activities that may help to build skills in this division:
- Join a choir or other singing group
- Take a drama class
- Play games for fun
- Participate in peer counseling
- Play an instrument by ear
- Learn to speak a foreign language
- Learn to cook gourmet-style
- Volunteer at an animal shelter
- Volunteer at a hospice center
- Work at a summer camp or weekend workshop for children or individuals who are handicapped or impaired
|
Creativity
Webster’s Dictionary defines creativity as artistic or intellectual inventiveness. When most people talk about creativity, they are often referring primarily to musical, artistic, or literary talents. This partial definition tends to assign creativity to one portion of the brain only and is far too limiting! True creativity may really be the capacity to use functions from all four divisions as appropriate in whatever endeavor is undertaken.
Some consensus exists for four stages of creative problem solving:
- Preparation
- Incubation
- Illumination
- Verification
All cerebral divisions possess intellectual inventiveness. That is, they are creative within their own functional spheres. Remember that creativity can be blocked when the brain is under prolonged stress or when the brain is downshifted due to fear, crisis, trauma, or anxiety.
Following are examples of the contributions that each cerebral division may offer to creative efforts.
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
- Setting goals
- Abstracting and analyzing for functionality, and managing time and money effectively
- Solving problems using data-driven brainstorming
- Dividing processes into manageable steps
- Prioritizing steps and making decisions / delegating (typically based on prior analyzing of functionality)
- Achieving goals
|
- Seeing the big picture
- Trending, noticing when things are changing
- Solving problems using intuitive brainstorming
- Being willing to take risks and try something new
- Engaging in artistic endeavors in almost any form
- Moving toward innovation and/or novelty in almost any form, sometimes changing just for the pleasure of changing
|
|
Maintaining Division
|
Harmonizing Division
|
- Following routines accurately
- Managing and tracking data, recalling labels and retrieving data
- Handling self-care
- Paying attention to details
- Maintaining the status quo
|
- Nurturing and encouraging
- Honing relationships
- Harmonizing colors and sounds
- Fostering harmony between people and the environment, and between people and animals / birds and the environment
- Developing peaceful foundations
|
The outcome of a collaborative effort (e.g., the four cerebral divisions working together) can be exponentially greater than the efforts of each section of the brain working independently. In order to achieve outstanding outcomes, synergistic brainstorming is a must and really is a whole-brain exercise.
Refer to
Brain References: Creativity and the Brain for additional information.
Dating Patterns
At some time in their lifetime, most people
date and if they are living authentically and have a large enough pool of individuals from which to select, their dating patterns may reflect innate brain function.
The more similar two people are in terms of brain function the greater the likelihood that both the verbal and nonverbal communication patterns will be understood. Often the people who become “best friends” are individuals who have similiar brain function.
Following are examples of dating patterns that myself and others have observed.
|
Prioritizing Division
|
Envisioning Division
|
Individuals with aan energey advantage in this division may:
- Lean toward systematic dating
- Be careful and goal-oriented spenders (e.g., want a return on their investment)
- Make goal-driven, objective, somewhat unemotional decisions about dating
- Avoid potlucks and social events (unless they can achieve a goal by attending or at least “kill two birds with one stone”)
- Create a list of preferred characteristics and single-mindedly seek for a match
- Date to find a mate so they can get back to the business of work and living
|
Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may:
- Lean toward simultaneous dating, often of individuals who are unusual or exotic or who differ from the “norm”
- Take up with and “underdog” in an attempt to help the individual
- Be impulsive spenders
- Make spontaneous (even unusual) choices about dating
- Hang out with people they like, singly or in a group, but may not think of this as a “dating” per se
- Date several individuals for different reasons depending on the specific type of activity involved with each
- Resist commitment from fear of possible boredom and/or lack of variety
|
|
Maintaining Division
|
Harmonizing Division
|
Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may:
- Lean toward prolonged dating
- Be conservative spenders
- Plan ahead, be on time, and expect his/her date to be on time
- Generally like group activities and may enjoy team situations
- Dislike surprises
- Resist commitment from fear of change and may get in the habit of dating a person for years
|
Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may:
- Lean toward emotional dating
- Date someone for whom they “feel sorry” and try to help them
- Date in the company of a group of friends, at least initially
- Be extravagant spenders
- Enjoy celebrating anything and everything (e.g., anniversaries, birthdays, holidays)
- Have favorite activities, foods, music, locations
- Generally enjoy potlucks and social events
- Be quite accommodating in dating situations in an endeavor to achieve harmony, which can give the other person a misleading sense of reality
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Dinner Preparation – Tongue in Cheek
Not long ago, a group of friends were discussing individual differences related to brain function. It started out when one of the guests asked how soon dinner would be ready. That led to the topic of how long it takes to prepare different types of foods, which led to a discussion of the way in which different cooks or chefs might approach food preparation from the position of their innate giftedness. Soon a lively discussion was well under way.
Before long one of the guests introduced the topic of male-female differences and a great deal of good-natured laughter followed related to gender stereotypes. This in turn led to a discussion of brain lead based on a comment that “males with an innate giftedness in the right posterior lobes are often marvelous chefs, while females with an innate giftedness in one of the frontal lobes may want to have as little to do with routine meal preparation as possible.”
Almost as if on cue, one of the guests offered his perception of how four different cooks might approach making Quick Potpie. While exaggerated and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it was highly entertaining. Here’s the basic recipe as he presented it, along with his specific instructions matched to four hypothetical individuals, each with a different brain energy advantage. Enjoy!
QUICK POTPIE RECIPE
Ingredients:
- 1 medium carrot, sliced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 medium potatoes, diced
- 1½ cups cooked peas (or other legume)
- 1 Tablespoons olive oil (if desired)
- 2 cups of water
- 3 Tablespoons browned flour
- ¼ teaspoon sage
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dehydrated chives
- Pie crust for top and bottom of 9” pie plate (whole wheat, if desired)
- 1 cup stock, bouillon, or sour cream
Instructions for a Envisioning Cook
You’ve been making potpie without a recipe since Hector was a pup. Well, at least since your grandmother turned the kitchen over to you when you were nine years old. She wanted to take up oil painting, remember?
- You might prefer substituting a parsnip, rutabaga, turnip, or even a yam, for one of the potatoes. You also might throw in some of whatever is on sale at the farmers’ market!
- If it’s the weekend or a holiday, and your guests don’t object, try adding a few cloves of garlic, or some cumin, or even a dash of chili. What’s the worst that can happen? If it isn’t wonderful, you can stick a bit closer to the recipe next time. Or better yet, try something entirely different!
By the way, since you are so innovative and the oven will already be fired up, you may as well make a batch of hot rolls, too. If the Quick Potpie turns out especially yummy, you might want to jot down your creative additions. If not, it can be an entirely new recipe next time (if you ever decide to make it again seeing as you like variety). In fact, in light of your daring-do attitude, we wouldn’t be surprised if by this time next year you’ve published your own cookbook or opened your own restaurant. Well, think about it, anyway.
Instructions for a Harmonizing Cook
We know that you are capable of pleasingly blending almost anything (colors, sounds, as well as foods). Be sure to use celery root or rutabaga instead of onions. Your partner hates onions with a purple passion, right?
- Why not invite a couple of friends over early? They’ll bring the salad? Great! All of you can put the quick potpie together, each one doing some of the tasting and some of the work. It’ll be a great opportunity to catch up on the local gossip, too!
- You always set such a pleasing table! It’s exactly one year since your son got his driver’s license back, so make sure there’s one candle on the cake. Oh, yes. Remember to locate and add the table extensions so that everyone can eat together. After all, it’s the connection with family and friends that’s really important! Bon appetite!
Instructions for a Prioritizing Cook
1. If you cannot delegate this chore, approach the project logically. First, decide if you even want potpie for dinner. You might prefer to grab a bite out in order to save time and keep on working. If you choose to go with potpie, decide exactly what time you need to begin preparations in order to have dinner ready precisely at 6 o’clock. Prioritize activities to make the best use of your time. But you already know that!
2. Review, analyze, and evaluate the following:
- Apparatus needed. The right equipment is important. The fewer the utensils dirtied the better.
- Procedure. Is there a more efficient way to work? For example, a lot of effort could be saved (e.g., check out instructions for Cook with a lead in the Left Posterior Lobes) by simply using a package of instant gravy or a can of cream of mushroom soup. Also, you might want to use frozen prepared pie crusts to save time.
- Recipe. The goal here is to have enough food for the family and company plus some leftovers to freeze for later. So multiply the recipe two and a half times and measure precisely.
3. If you can delegate at least part of the preparation to someone else, make sure the individual knows how to follow directions carefully and accurately
Instructions for a Maintaining Cook
We know you want to do this correctly so here are some steps for you to follow:
- Assemble needed bounded shapes: mixing bowl, 9”-deep Pyrex pie plate, saucepan, Teflon frying pan, wooden mixing spoon, encyclopedia (Volume S), tape measure, measuring cup, measuring spoons, and timer.
- Line 9”-deep Pyrex pie plate with pie crust.
- Check sage in the encyclopedia to make sure it’s safe and approved.
- Measure carrot and potatoes to be sure they are medium sized (medium carrot = 6 inches in length; medium potato = 7 1/2 inches in circumference).
- Wash and peel the carrot and the potatoes. Place potatoes in a bowl of water so they don’t turn brown.
- Carefully slice carrot into circles of uniform width. Place sliced carrots and chopped onion in a saucepan along with the two cups of water and half-teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Set the timer for five minutes and boil for five minutes.
- Dice the potatoes. Add diced potatoes to the carrots and onions and bring to a boil. Boil for five more minutes.
- Turn on the oven to 350 degrees F. so it will reach desired temperature by the time you need it.
- Make the gravy. In a non-stick Teflon frying pan, melt margarine. Stir browned flour and sage into melted margarine.
- Add six tablespoons of hot liquid from saucepan and stir until smooth.
- Add sour cream or other liquid (e.g., stock or bouillon) to consistency.
- Pour gravy over vegetables.
- Cook two more minutes or until wooden spoon easily mashes a cube of potato.
- Pour contents of saucepan into a mixing bowl, add peas, and shake together. Pour into pie plate with bottom pie crust in place.
- Cover top with piecrust. Seal or crimp edges and place pie plate in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees F until browned. Set timer for ten minutes and pay attention.
- Be sure the family is already seated at the dining table when you remove potpie from oven. Cut it into six sections. Serve piping hot.
We know you will want to clean and reorganize the kitchen as soon as the meal is finished….
Emotions
Managing emotions optimally is a learned skill. Many didn’t learn that skill growing up because their caregivers and role
models didn’t have that skill (and human beings
can only teach what they know).
Children learn their first skills related to identifying, using, and managing emotions by observing their caregivers and role models. If yours were highly functional in terms of managing their emotions, you may have gotten a jump-start on the process. If that was not the case, there is work to do! It may even involve some reparenting.
Following are examples of the way in which individuals might approach emotions based on innate brain bent.
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Prioritizing Divis ion
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Envisioning
Division
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Individuals with their energy advantage in this division tend to be somewhat oblivious to emotion in both the self and in others and may:
- Fail to read nonverbals well (may lack easy access to the Harmonizing division)
- Perceive emotion as a potential loss of control so may be threatened by them
- Express anger easily when stressed, when attempts at goal attainment is thwarted, or when they cannot be in charge and make decisions
- May express emotion through criticism, biting wit, and blowing up
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Individuals with their energy advantage in this division tend to perceive emotion in the self but may not read nonverbals easily in others and may:
- Gravitate toward and are comfortable with change so are less likely to be threatened by emotions
- Express frustration and anger when opportunity for variety and innovation is lacking or when they are forced to follow detailed rules and regulations
- Express emotion through gestures (e.g., tears, large motor movements, gestures, laughter), whole body position, prosody, humor, drama, stories
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Maintaining
Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with their energy advantage in this division tend to avoid emotions when possible and may:
- Fail to read nonverbals well
- Perceive emotions as potentially disruptive to the status quo and are uncomfortable with change (lack easy access to the Envisioning division)
- Learn to maintain an emotion out of habit or the emotion most often experienced
- Express emotion habitually and minimally
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Individuals with their energy advantage in this division tend to perceives emotion in the self and in others and may:
- Be sensitive to emotions in others and in nature; less pragmatic (lack easy access to the Prioritizing division)
- Read nonverbal body language easily in others and in nature
- Mirror emotions back to others
- Express emotion through affective speech, tonality, drama, stories, nonverbals (e.g., touch, body position, small motor gestures, facial expressions)
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Managing Emotions and Feelings
According to Candace Pert PhD, the molecules of emotion are designed to connect the consious with the subconscious and provide valuable information. Other studies have shown that emotions and feelings follow separate pathways in the brain (refer to Brain References).
You are in a much better position to make conscious choices about the way in which you want to manage your emotions and feelings, the actions you decide to take, and the behaviors you choose to exhibit when you:
- Have identified your emotional history, including the emotional atmosphere(s) experienced during childhood and adolescence
- Are able to differentiate between emotions and feelings, theoretically and practically
- Understand some of the factors that have contributed to your present emotional tone
With practice, you can learn to identify and experience all emotions, choose appropriate actions—sometimes the appropriate action is to do nothing—and talk him/herself through the process of moving back to joy. You can hone the skill of processing an event with an emotional component, especially one that involves an overreaction, quickly and consciously. You can talk yourself through the process; you can teach the strategy to young children. And it can be fun!
Energy
Each brain is believed to have an energy advantage in one of the four divisions. Studies by Richard Haier MD suggest that the brain expends more energy (e.g., requires more oxygen, glucose, rest, micronutrition) when using non-lead functions.
When the brain is engaged in something that matches it biochemical energy advantage, it doesn’t have to work as hard and consequently tends to use much less energy. The skills that you tend to learn most easily, enjoy doing the most, and that use the least energy over time, usually match your innate giftedness. Regardless of how much you develop or use a skill, if it doesn’t use your innate energy advantage, it tends to be more draining than energizing.
Most people are capable of developing skills throughout the brain and this is desirable. If it is possible to develop skills through practice, why not aim for equal skills in all four cerebral divisions? Because there is a price to pay—in energy.
Following are examples of how individuals might use energy from a position of innate giftedness.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division tend to use energy more efficiently when:
- Making difficult decisions that involve resource allocation, money, and structure; when priorities need to be understood and identified
- Setting goals and discovering ways to achieve them.
- Delegating operational implementation, routine maintenance or follow-up, and the tracking of details to others.
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division tend to use energy more efficiently when:
- Something is beginning, getting startedfor the first time, or when it’s beingturned around or reinvented
- Anticipating and making changes, brainstorming and innovating
Note: Once a project is working as envisioned, it needs to be passed to others to maintain. Otherwise, they can be tempted to tinker with the project and, in a push to improve, reinvent, or change it, may actually cause ruin.
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division tend to use energy more efficiently when:
- Something concrete needs to be dependably sustained, whether the something involves service or production
- Following routines/maintaining projects as long as they understand why it’s important to do so
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division tend to use energy more efficiently when:
- Building connections, harmony, good will, and peaceful foundations and can do this in a wide variety of settings
- Encouraging, helping to build consensus, and complying (as long as the “reason for” is understood)
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Orchestra Metaphor
Although no metaphor is perfect, imagine that your brain resembles a large orchestra with string, brass, woodwind, and percussion sections. You have the ability to play instruments in each section, although some instruments require more energy to play. The sound will differ depending on which instrumental section is being featured or taking the lead. Your comfort level, fatigue, and overall success relate to the specific instrument you are playing, the amount of time you played, and the energy that was expended.
Think of each cerebral division as a specialist in its own field, with valuable strengths to help you to accomplish specific tasks. Through practice you can hone requisite skills to allow you to complete many different tasks and activities successfully. However, you cannot excel at the same level in everything you do. It is different strokes for different folks! One activity may be an energy drain for one person but require so little energy for another that it’s like falling off the proverbial log.
While you can and do use all cerebral divisions of your brain, one section tends to function more energy efficiently. You can typically achieve higher levels of competence in tasks/activities that use functions associated with your brain’s innate energy advantage.
Perhaps 95% of what goes on in the brain happens at an unconscious or subconscious level. That means that only 5% of the behaviors a person exhibits are self-directed at a conscious level. You really can only manage something effectively when you become aware of it and can identify and label it. Some suggestions for increasing your awareness follow.
- Pay close attention to your emotions. According to Candace Pert PhD, emotions link the unconscious and conscious. Notice whenever you overreact to a trigger or stimulus and dig to identify the unresolved issue.
- Learn to evaluate your relative energy expenditures and connect them to specifics activities, environments, persons, and time of day / week / month / year
- Develop positive energy rituals (e.g., habits) that can automatically assist you to manage your energy effectively. These habits or brain software programs can reduce your need to consciously rely on will power and discipline.
Examination Style Preferences
Examination questions are often developed with the so-called “average” student in mind. Some students, often those who fall outside that average range, may give a “wrong answer” when they focus on an exception to the general rule (an exception these students often can discover if one exists).
Following of examples of the examination style an individual might prefer based on his or her brain’s innate energy advantage.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may prefer:
- Oral presentations
- Abstracting and summarizing
- Essay questions
- Reports involving investigative writing
- Multiple choice questions
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may prefer:
- Essay questions (generally want to use a computer)
- Submission of a project (e.g., art, writing)
- Reports involving innovative or unusual topics
- Composition questions (e.g., creative writing, music, poetry, novels, short stories)
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may prefer:
- Matching questions
- True or false questions
- Precise memorization
- Predictability in exam schedules to help reduce the stress
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may prefer:
- No examination at all
- Practical questions (e.g., portray, demonstrate, role-model)
- Conversation and collaboration around examinations to help reduce the stress
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NOTE: When examinations contain questions and testing methods that represent styles preferred by all four divisions of the cerebrum, each exam-taker would theoretically be able to excel at one style and, at the same time, get to practice the other three.
Exercise Styles
Unless impaired, most individuals can choose to exercise on a regular basis. The preferred routines and the way in which exercising is approached or maintained can differ dramatically based on the brain’s energy advantage.
Following are examples of the way in which individuals might approach exercising based on his or her brain’s energy advantage.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may gravitate toward decision-based and/or competitive exercise and may:
- Emphasize control, precision, regularity, and goal achievement
- May become exercisaholic
- Like competition in exercise and want to WIN
- Lean toward golf, skeet, tennis, skiing, running, racquetball, jogging
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may gravitate toward spontaneity-based exercise and may:
- Emphasize high-risk, thrilling, adventurous, or unusual exercise activities
- Exercise sporadically rather than regularly, go in fits and starts, or rotate exercise types to avoid boredom and routines
- Compete with self or others based on type of activity and other personal brain characteristics
- Lean toward skeet, spelunking, skiing, hiking, biking, swimming, walking (or more unusual sports such as rock climbing)
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may gravitate toward scheduled or prescription-based exercise and may:
- Emphasize team orientation, rules and regulations, and habitual activities
- Lean toward aerobics, routines, health club membership, fitness class, baseball
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may gravitate toward collegiality-based exercise and may:
- Emphasize “fun” exercise with friends (conversation must be involved)
- Lean toward jazzercise, dancing, exercise to music or with a video presentation
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Four Gospels
Many individuals have questioned the reason for four Gospels. Although admittedly conjecture, from a brain-function perspective this may relate somewhat to authorship. What if each author represented a different brain lead? Regardless of the reader’s own preference, each could find a “language” that was comfortable for his/her own brain.
Following are examples of how each gospel might align with the four cerebral divisions.*
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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- A physician has been credited with writing the Gospel according to Luke. He recorded facts after a thorough investigation, used a variety of medical terms rather than colloquial euphemisms, and traced Christ’s ancestry back to Adam.
- The Zealots – a fanatical sect with the goal of repelling Roman domination.
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- Mark wrote the Gospel according to Mark with innovation and dramatic vitality. He emphasized the unusual (e.g., miracles, signs, wonders), and presented Christ as a man of action.
- The Essenes – monastic brotherhood that lived in seclusion and prepared the Dead-Sea Scrolls.
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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- Matthew, a tax collector wrote the Gospel according to Matthew as a historical narrative. He reported several sermons in their entirety and presented Christ as a teacher of “how to do it right.”
- The Pharisees – in an effort to do things correctly, they emphasized strict observance of rites, oral traditions, and ceremonies.
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- John, known as the beloved apostle, wrote of connection and faith in the Gospel according to John. He emphasized the coming of theComforter, and presented Christ as the Word.
- The Sadducees – a dislike of conflict led to compromise, which eventually resulted in the loss of hope and in differences of belief.
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*Note that in conversation with Benziger, she has indicated a different opinion; that Luke is associated more with the Basal Right (Harmonizing division) as he was a physician, and that John is more associated with the Frontal Left (Prioritizing Division).
Four-Room House Metaphor
It’s usually easier to retain new information when it can be connected with something the brain already knows. Some find it helpful to imagine that each of the four divisions has its own built-in
scanner to collect the type of data it pays attention to most easily and prefers to receive.
You may find it helpful to compare the contributions of each division to the objects often found in a four-room-house. Better yet, create your own internal picture of a four-room house and place objects in each room to help you recall key functional contributions made by each cerebral division. Notice that some rooms may contain similar types of equipment but the reason for using the equipment and/or the emphasis placed upon its functions may differ rather dramatically.
Remember that all parts of the brain are designed to work together at some level even though some portions manage or orchestrate specific functions in a lateralized manner.
Following are examples to get you started and stimulate your thinking.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Left Upstairs Room Contains
- Mechanical tools
- Research equipment (e.g., computer, test tubes, imaging equipment)
- Charts and graphs, and reading materials about great leaders or about people who “won,” along with research papers and abstracts of articles
- Framed awards
- Trophies from winning
- List of goals and objectives
- Written 5-year plan
- Abstract photographs of arrows
- Collected art objects that are expected to appreciate in value
- High-tech equipment for use in research, analyzing financials , and achieving goals (computer, iPhone, iPad)
- Accessories for accomplishing goals (e.g., clock, time table, electronic calendar, e-mail)
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Right Upstairs Room Contains
- Plenty of flat surfaces on which to stack things (wants everything in sight as out of sight is out of mind)
- Wide range of reading materials
- Large sheets of paper with a variety of pencils and markers
- Caricatures and cartoons
- Bulletin board with pins
- Furniture for meditation and dreaming
- Sculpture, paintings, and unusual art
- The latest in equipment to assist with innovative creativity and brainstorming (e.g., computer, camera, easel, iPhone, iPad)
- Access to the internet to search for the latest in research and futuristic ideas
- Binoculars and telescopes (e.g., panoramic view from the windows)
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Left Downstairs Room Contains
- Filing cabinets with folders and labels
- Equipment and or furniture for life-sustaining activities
- Equipment for keeping track of information (e.g., computer, to-do list, address program, telephone listings)
- A selection of how to books and manuals, including histories of how things were done in the past
- A desk with helpful items each in its own place (e.g., pencils, paper clips, calculator, dictionary, calendar, clock)
- Service awards
- Equipment for organizing, tracking, and retrieving information (e.g., computer, iPad, iPhone)
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Right Downstairs Room Contains
- Photos of family and friends
- Furniture for comfort and collegiality (e.g., cozy afghan, overstuffed chairs, sectional furniture, bean bags, or La-Z-Boy recliners)
- Equipment for connection (e.g., writing materials, anniversary and birthday cards telephone, fax machine, computer for email)
- Inspirational pictures and books of stories about people
- Objects from nature (e.g., plants, pets, sea shells)
- A variety of musical instruments and/or equipment for listening to and/or playing music
- Equipment for staying connected with and communicating with others (e.g., computer, iPad, iPhone)
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Differences between the upstairs rooms and the downstairs rooms may be even more pronounced than differences between the left and right rooms. You can enter any room and move from one room to another through connecting doorways and via stairs. You will tend to be more comfortable in one of these rooms over the other three, however, and prefer to spend more time there.
A given function, however, even though the primary impetus is housed in one region of the brain, may work most effectively when supported by a variety of other systems (or even not at all unless in combination with other functional systems). When testing modalities show areas of high metabolism, oxygen consumption, and blood flow, this doesn’t necessarily indicate complete lateralization to only one region, either. For example, the hands assist each other even when one hand takes the lead.
Understanding the purpose of each cerebral division, the way in which each interacts with the environment, and its functional specialization can help to reduce misunderstanding and enhance all your relationships—personal and professional.
Upstairs rooms
Abstract, geared for and energized by problem solving
When you pay careful, conscious attention to something, the frontal lobes are exercised. They also show increased activity during some types of meditation (prayer is a form of meditation).
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Its functions help you to:
- Set/achieve goal
- Make objective and timely decisions
- Set and pursue goals
- Perform logical analysis (inductive/deductive reasoning)
- Process small elements and details (e.g., one flower in the garden, one instrument in the orchestra, the weather at the ground level versus that in the outer atmosphere)
NOTE: Tends to understand the word “no” even though it may not like its goals thwarted |
Its functions help you to:
- Envision and innovate
- Anticipate and make changes
- Imagine and innovates
- Identify trends and patterns
- Brainstorms options
- Gets the gestalt of something
- Process large elements/big picture/balcony view (e.g., the entire garden, the forest, the orchestra, the satellite-weather picture)
NOTE: Tends to want a “yes” or a “yes if” response as it is interested in possibilities |
Downstairs rooms
Concrete, here-and-now
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Its functions help you to:
- Supply services needed for maintaining life
- Follow routines dependably
- Follow the rules
- Maintain the status quo
- Handle point-to-point links, sequential steps, and details
- Accomplish precise hand and tongue movements (e.g., speech, handwriting)
NOTE: Tends to understand “no” even though it may not like it |
Its functions help you to:
- Build trust
- Gravitate toward harmony
- Promote peace
- Gets the gist of something
- Read nonverbals
- Recognize faces
- B e sensitive to emotion in the self and in others (there may be more connectors to the emotional brain)
NOTE: Wants a “yes” or a “yes, if” response especially in relation to promoting harmony and collegiality |
Friendship Choices
Human beings tend to pursue friendships (or not) for a variety of reasons. While everything from opportunity and availability to one’s position on the EAI Continuum undoubtedly impact choices, lifetime best friends tend to share similar brain function.
Following are examples of the way in which individuals might go about selecting friends based on his or her brain’s innate energy advantage.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may:
- Make logical choices about a few select friends who are usually associated with work, career, or organizational boards
Their friends must be capable, useful, successful, goal-oriented, and relatively unemotional |
Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may:
- Make spontaneous choices about unusual friends but may be unpredictable about maintaining connection, easily bored
Their friends must be interesting, stimulating, visionary, and have a great sense of humor |
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may:
- Make practical and habitual choices about friends who are usually drawn from club members, team members, or are work-related
Their friends must be dependable, predictable, traditional, and conservative (e.g., not too boisterous, don’t draw attention) |
Individuals with an energy advantage in this division may:
- Make emotional choices about myriad friends and like to share activities (e.g., music, drama, potlucks, holidays, vacations, spiritual retreats) but may get feelings hurt rather easily
Their friends must be expressive, loyal, affectionate, touch-oriented, and loyal |
Goal Setting
Viewing goal setting as a distinct function, individuals with a brain bent in the Prioritizing division may engage in goal setting and goal achievement most energy efficiently. There may be some gender differences, as well:
Males are more likely to set goals and then give it everything they have to achieve those goals, even becoming workaholic, if necessary. They are not particularly interested in the quality of the experience on the way to the goal, being willing to sacrifice personal comfort, even relationships, to win. The type of goals they set are often based on what is important to them innately (based on brain bent) or what is expected of them by their job, society, sometimes by their family, or by affiliation with a specific religion/ideology, club, or organization.
Females do set goals but they may be equally interested in the quality of the experience on the way to goal. Consequently, they may take longer to achieve the goal but will have managed the process more experientially. The type of goals they set are often based on what is important to them innately (based on brain bent) or on what is expected of them by their family, society, job, affiliation with a specific religion, club, organization, and so on.
Habit Formation
Habits are simply a form of internal brain software, a natural brain phenomenon. Think of them as neuron highways. Human beings develop habits. The motivation behind their development and the regularity of their implementation, however, can differ dramatically based on one’s innate preferences (as well as other factors including past experience).
The following observations reflect input during conversations with Benziger and others.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to approach the development of habits from the perspective of functional analysis (e.g., repetitive systems/methods designed to assist in goal setting and achievement, or in winning)
- Likely to implement habits consistently if they appear to contribute to success, whether or not the habit is particularly pleasing (e.g., exercise to keep weight down for health/longevity, to make a good career-related impression)
- May try to coerce others into developing similar habits “to help you to be more successful,” or “to help ensure that you will reach your goal”
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to view the development of habits as helpful, but may struggle with the repetitiveness of the routines (e.g., exercise, brushing teeth, taking food supplements)
- Likely to be somewhat inconsistent in the implementation of habits and may struggle with an up and down course (e.g., exercise routines may wax and wane unless it becomes clear that one’s health absolutely depends upon consistency and, even then, it may be a struggle!)
- May be initially enthusiastic about a habit and charismatically encourage others to jump on the bandwagon, only to abandon the habit and move on to something else in a few months when repetition becomes monotonous
- May try to make the existing environment fit into their habit patterns
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to perpetuate habits that were developed in childhood, often basing them on learned rules and expectations (e.g., brushing teeth, going to bed at a specific time, exercise schedule)
- Likely to be somewhat rigid and stubborn about maintaining their habit patterns
- May try to fit habits into their existing environment
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division tend to adopt existing habits of others who are in their immediate environment in order to promote harmony and connection
- May be fairly consistent about implementation of habits when within their immediate environment and somewhat inconsistent about implementation if outside their immediate environment or if others change their habits
- May try to persuade a loved one into developing a specific habit “because I care about you,” or “for your own good,” or “to keep me company”
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Hobbies
While not everyone chooses to develop a hobby, many people do and enjoy their hobbies during free time. Remember that Extraversion-Ambiversion-Introversion, gender brain type, sensory preference, available opportunities and finances, living location, and friendships (to name just a few) can impact one’s choices.
Following are examples of activities that might appeal to individuals based on their brain’s energy advantage.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with their brain’s energy advantage in this division might gravitate toward:
- Repairing things
- Puttering in a workshop or hobby room
- Woodworking, carving
- Photography
- Hobbies that utilize tools (e.g., golfing)
- Debate club
- Campaigning
- Reading (especially if introverted)
- Woodworking
- Golfing
- Chess
- Chairing a community board
- Some types of video games
- Some types of investigative writing
- Golf
- Trophy fishing or hunting
- Skeet shooting
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Individuals with their brain’s energy advantage in this division might gravitate toward:
- Daydreaming
- Hiking
- Photography
- Skydiving
- Painting
- Drama
- Woodworking, carving
- Magic tricks
- Puzzles (3-D, Sudoku, Brain Benders)
- Writing, composition
- Technovision, Surfing the net
- Some types of video games
- Travel
- Cooking innovatively
- Interior designing
- Designing clothing and some types of crafts
- Writing short stories, articles, or books
- Fishing or hunting, especially if it involves travel to new destinations
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with their brain’s energy advantage in this division might gravitate toward:
- Team sports (e.g., bowling, baseball)
- Civic clubs
- Collecting stamps
- Crossword puzzles
- Card games
- Knitting
- Crocheting
- Crafts
- Season tickets to team/sports events
- Membership on a community board
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Individuals with their brain’s energy advantage in this division might gravitate toward:
- Potlucks
- Social clubs
- Music, dancing
- Knitting and/or crocheting
- Crafts
- Drama
- Interior decorating
- Shopping or window shopping
- Vacationing with friends
- Cooking that tastes GOOD (for friends)
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Language Facility
A whole-brained use of language requires (no surprise) use of the whole brain. Each cerebral division is believed to contribute functions that, when taken together, handle most aspects of language. Individuals may, however, exhibit a greater facility with specific aspects of language based on their brain’s own innate energy advantage.
Following are examples of functions thought to be contributed by each cerebral division.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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- Spoken language in Broca’s Area
- Language structure (e.g., grammar, syntax)
- Literal meaning of words
- Focus on a single and/or the precise meaning for a specific word
- Interested in syntax and the best choice of word(s)
- Laughter, a sound believed produced in Broca’s Area
- Word play (e.g., wit)
- Grammar of native and non-native languages
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- Gestured language (e.g., tears, pointing, waving, body position, American Sign Language gestures)
- Context and related appropriateness, global view
- Focus on metaphoric or symbolic meanings
- Sensing multiple meanings
- Innuendo
- Prosody (irony, sarcasm)
- A sense of humor (often off-the-wall, or bizarre)
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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- Written language
- Heard language and the decoding of speech sounds in Wernicke’s Center (including decoding of gestures related to American Sign Lanuage)
- Language form:
- Punctuation
- Spelling
- Sentences
- Labels for speech forms (e.g., noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition)
- Learning to speak native language(s)
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- Emotional language
- Affective speech
- Sensitivity to the music and color of speech:
- Rhythm
- Rhyme
- Speed and volume
- Voice inflection (the music of speech)
- Reading nonverbal body language
- Learning to speak native language(s)
- Learning to speak a non-native language after about the age of 9 or 10
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Leadership Styles
Almost any brain can
lead when it is necessary to do so. The way in which the individual
leads, however, and the behavioral characteristics that hold sway over time may reflect the person’s innate brain
bent. Certainly a myriad of other factors can impact how people really behave when trying to
lead.
Each cerebral division provides key leadership functions that can lead toward success. Taken to the extreme, however, those same key functions can turn into huge liabilities. (Refer to
Balance and Brain Lead for additional information.)
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Exhibit an authoritarian leadership style and may even be willing to go to grave lengths to achieve compliance (e.g., bribes, threats, coercion, punishment, shaming, dismissal from the organization, or abuse if not healthy and balanced)
- Have high concerns for goal-setting, goal-achievement, and profitability and have less concerns for people and their “feelings”
- Facilitate making logical choices, timely and decisive decisions, stabilizing performance, and evaluating financials
- Want to win at almost any cost (especially if extraverted) – as a consequence they may miss the big picture and ride roughshod over others, which can lead to them take risks that are outside standard practices (e.g., outside established regulations or in a gray area of business), which can have negative financial and legal implications for the organization
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Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Exhibit an entrepreneurial leadership style and may employ inspiring rhetoric, charismatic presentations, and promises of future rewards to obtain compliance
- Have high concerns for problem-solving, processes, trending, innovation (less for routines, details, maintaining the status quo)
- Facilitate inventing, beginning, starting, or birthing a project and moving quickly at the cutting-edge margin of an idea
- Dislike conflict and, after a few attempts at resolution, may distance themselves emotionally and/or physically from the conflict – as a consequence they may be perceived as uninterested and out-of-touch, or they move ahead with the innovations regardless of regulations or environmental realities, which can lead to eventual chaos within the organization
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Exhibit a maintaining leadership style and may invoke rules, regulations, and laws to obtain compliance
- Have high concerns for routines, rules, regulations (less for spontaneity, problem-solving, or brainstorming)
- Facilitate storing and retrieval of information with the view to meeting deadlines for product and/or services
- Attempt to avoid change and innovation and maintain the status quo and may dig in their heels – as a consequence they may miss desirable opportunities and “not move forward,” (which can have long-term negative implications for the viability of the organization)
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Individuals with a brain bent in this division may:
- Exhibit an accommodating leadership style and may resort to manipulation, cajoling, or bribery to achieve compliance and harmony
- Have high concerns for people (less for results, quotas, budget compliance)
- Facilitate processes, collaboration, feedback, and conversation
- Attempt to avoid conflict and controversy through overcomplying and overconforming and, as a consequence, fail to “get the job done” (which can lead to serious negative implications for the financial viability of the organization)
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Marketing Strategies
Marketing efforts are likely to be more successful across the board when advertisements contain components that appeal to each cerebral division, or when the ads are targeted to a specific cerebral division.
Some industries use a “shotgun” approach, trying to include components that would appear to each division. The automobile industry, for example, often inserts multiple-page foldouts in magazines or creates multiple-page brochures–usually in full color and designed to appeal to every type of prospective buyer. They are typically prepared by marketing professionals who have done costly research to determine who likes what, and which market segment is most likely to purchase which vehicle. The objective is, of course, to appeal to a buyer’s fantasies and to create a desire for a specific item. The ads may be in hard copy and/or on television or other form of technology.
Other industries use a more “targeted” approach, trying to appeal to a specific cerebral division. Following are stereotypical examples of the types of advertisements that might appeal to a person based on in his or her brain’s energy advantage.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Advertisements that have to do with financial aspects such as investments.
The ads may:
- Black and white
- Straight forward
- Goal oriented
- Somewhat crowded (e.g., very little “white space”)
- Be crammed with numbers
- Emphasize percentages or return on investment
The ads may be found in the opening pages of news reports or magazines such as Business Week or Forbes or on any type of business-related media |
Advertisements that have to do with travel, vacations, and adventure. The ads may:
- Contain three or four colors
- Portray exotic scenes
- Contain curvaceous females
- Be displayed against backgrounds that show hot air balloons, sunsets, vehicles, or sports equipment with lots of “white space”
The ads may be free-standing posters or fliers, or a foldout in popular reading magazines or papers or on any type of media |
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Advertisements that have to do with “how to” do something accurately and successfully or how to maintain the status quo, as in a security system for a home or office.
The ads may be:
- Black and white
- Straightforward
- Realistic examples
- Conservative in language
- Contain step-by-step details
The ads might be placed in an area and/or on media that appeal to conservative individuals. |
Advertisements that have to do with health and well-being of family and friends.
The ads may be:
- Filled with soft-focus pictures of people
- Set in collegial environments (e.g., home, restaurant, sea shore)
- Designed to elicit emotion and tug at one’s heartstrings
- Aimed at caring for parents, children, or pets
- Centered around promoting harmony
The ads might be placed in magazines and/or on media that deal with family life, people, relationships, eating, and so on. |
Following are examples of marketing strategies that tend to appeal to each cerebral division.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Marketing efforts to individuals with an energy advantage in this division might be wise to emphasis:
- Research data
- Study reports and conclusions
- Functionality
- Cost/benefit ratios
- Relationship to goals
- Financial viability
These individuals tend to be impressed by the convincing as evidenced by the presentation of hard data |
Marketing efforts to individuals with an energy advantage in this division migh be wise to emphasis:
- The global picture
- Cutting-edge equipment, technology, processes, procedures, and treatment modalities
- Timeliness and speed
- Future trends
- Successes that can be realized through innovation (e.g., areas of surgery, treatment of illnesses, prevention of disease, avoidance of chronic illness, retarding the onset of aging)
These individuals tend to be impressed by the innovative, unusual, and cutting-edge |
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Marketing efforts to individuals with an energy advantage in this division might be wise to emphasis:
- Past track record
- Clear directions
- Step-by-step details
- Avoiding change
- Maintaining the status quo and carrying on tradition
These individuals tend to be impressed by the established |
Marketing efforts to individuals with an energy advantage in this division might be wise to emphasis:
- Harmony
- Connection
- Emotions and feelings
- Collaboration and collegiality
- Celebrating
- Care for others (or nature, or creatures, or the environment)
These individuals tend to be impressed by the meaningful |
Meditation - Prayer
Individuals often approach meditation or prayer (a form of meditation) very differently. Studies have shown that individuals often engage in meditation/prayers regardless of any affiliation with established religion.
These following examples include Extraversion and Introversion comments (Ambiversion would fall somewhere between those two extremes).
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division:
- May gravitate toward formal, directive, liturgical, meditative prayers
- Extraverts: May meditate/pray for the purpose of demonstrating to others how it is to be done or because they may want to be in charge
- Introverts: May engage in meditative/prayerful activities (e.g., research on prayer, archeology research, read quota of selected religious writings, meditate on an element of theology or doctrine) and may avoid any connection with public prayers
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division:
- May gravitate toward unusual, spontaneous, non-tradition, and/or symbolic meditative prayers
- Extraverts: May meditate/pray with religious writings as metaphor (e.g., Bible, Koran, may take a pilgrimage with a guru
- Introverts: May engage in meditative/prayerful activities (e.g., walk by the ocean, meditate in nature, hike in the mountains, ponder ideas or philosophies)
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Maintaining Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division:
- May gravitate toward conservative, established, ritual, traditional, or memorized meditative prayers
- Extraverts: May meditate/pray according to scheduled, habitual routines often following specific guidelines (e.g., prayer wheels, prayer beads, memorized prayers, sung or chanted prayers)
- Introverts: May engage in meditative/prayerful activities (e.g., silence, walking alone in a garden or on a roof-top, copying written prayers, reciting prayers, reciting memorized scripture or holy writings as prayer, cloister prayers)
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this cerebral division:
- May gravitate toward informal, conversational meditative prayers, and prayer songs that are played instrumentally or sung
- Extraverts: May meditate/pray in sharing situations (e.g., coffee hour, reading/prayer group) that includes expression of emotions, singing, touch, and intense spiritual experiences
- Introverts: May engage in closetmeditative/prayerful activities (e.g., alone, religious orders, walking, gardening), and study how others expressed and lived a prayer life
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Money Management
Managing money is a learned skill and different individuals possess differing levels or skill, to say nothing of education, experience, and interest.
Following are examples of hypothetical comments about money and finances that might be made by individuals based on their brain’s innate energy advantage.
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Prioritizing Division
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Envisioning Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division might be heard to make comments such as:
- I know how to make money work for me
- I like to see my bank account growing, especially based on sound investments I’ve made
- I do a cost-benefit analysis before I make purchases because I want the very best value for my money
- When I invest, safety is a priority as I work to achieve the highest return on investment (ROI)
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division might be heard to make comments such as:
- I have a general sense of the state of my finances
- Fortunately, things seem to turn out all right much of the time. When I do make an unwise investment, however, it’s usually a humdinger!
- Balancing my checkbook personally is definitely not a priority and I do much better to hire that task out
- When I invest I like to get it on the action early and I’ve been known to put money on rather high-risk options based on my intuition (which sometimes panned out and sometimes did not)
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Maintaining Division
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Harmonizing Division
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division might be heard to make comments such as:
- I have a conservative budget and stick to it meticulously
- I know where my money goes
- I balance my checkbook each month to the penny and work at it until it does
- Invest? Only in something that is very secure like insurance or savings bonds
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Individuals with an energy advantage in this division might be heard to make comments such as:
- I need money as a medium of exchange for gifts for family and friends
- I often run out of money before the end of the month or before my next pay check
- People are far more important than money and things
- Invest? I prefer to invest in friendships and relationships
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