LivinGology

LIMBWARE

I've started piano lessons recently. It was there where I realized that I had a left hand. It might sound stupid, but just think about it for a while. When did you last use your left hand? Most of us are right handed and we completely forget that we can develop our left hand to the same extent as its right buddy and thus creating new structural brain networks. As a matter of fact, most left handed people do not write with their left hand. Instead they use it for completing other tasks, such as cooking or getting dressed. It's a common conception that left handed people are more intelligent and creative than right handed people and studies DO confirm that. Left-handers' brains are structured differently in a way that widens their range of abilities, and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centers of the brain. Just a few of us were born with that kind of genes but for theb rest of us who are not, there is another way. The ability of using the our right hemisphere (right part of the brain) is a matter of practing. When I started to learn to play the piano I had no other option but do so, as pianists use equally both their hands. I started using my left hand for other purposes too, say writing. Surprisingly I found out that it was a way too easier than I thought it would be. An hour practicing with the left hand was equivalent to one year right hand practicing in first grade. That's probably because the left hand learns from what the right one already knows. To sum up, we have much greater abilities than we think we do. And if such a simple thing like becoming aware of a limb at the age of 22 is possible, just think how many other unexplored territories are there within us.