Jill Bolte Taylor Quotes

To experience peace does not mean that your life is always blissful. It means that you are capable of tapping into a blissful state of mind amidst the normal chaos of a hectic life.

Emotion only lasts in our bodies for about 90 seconds. After that, the physical reaction dissipates, UNLESS our cognitive brain kicks in and starts connecting our anger with past events.

My stroke of insight would be: peace is only a thought away, and all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of our dominating left mind.

Although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think

Unfortunately, as a society, we do not teach our children that they need to tend carefully the garden of their minds. Without structure, censorship, or discipline, our thoughts run rampant on automatic. Because we have not learned how to more carefully manage what goes on inside our brains, we remain vulnerable to not only what other people think about us, but also to advertising and/or political manipulation.

When we are being compassionate, we consider another's circumstance with love rather than judgement... To be compassionate is to move into the right here, right now with an open heart consciousness and a willingness to be supportive.

For me, it's really easy to be kind to others when I remember that none of us came into this world with a manual about how to get it all right. We are ultimately a product of our biology and environment. Consequently, I choose to be compassionate with others when I consider how much painful emotional baggage we are biologically programmed to carry around. I recognize that mistakes will be made, but this does not mean that I need to either victimize myself or take your actions and mistakes personally. Your stuff is your stuff, and my stuff is my stuff.

We have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.

Please be responsible for the energy you bring into this space.

I am the life-force power of the universe. I am the life-force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form, at one with all that is.

Take responsibility for the energy you bring.

My favorite definition of fear is: False Expectations Appearing Real

Just like children, emotions heal when they are heard and validated.

In the course of four hours, I watched my brain completely deteriorate in its ability to process all information. On the morning of the hemorrhage, I could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of my life. I essentially became an infant in a woman's body.

Our right hemisphere, it thinks in pictures and it learns kinesthetically through the movement of our bodies. Information ... explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like, smells like and tastes like, what it feels like and what it sounds like.

I realized, "Oh my gosh! I'm having a stroke!" And the next thing my brain says to me is, Wow! This is so cool! How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?"

Most of the circuits in our brains run on automatic. The more you think a thought, the more energy goes into that circuit. Eventually it gets enough energy to run the thought automatically without us needing to put more energy into it.

Most of the different types of cells in our body die and are replaced every few weeks or months. However, neurons, the primary cell of the nervous system, do not multiply (for the most part) after we are born. That means that the majority of the neurons in your brain today are as old as you are. This longevity of the neurons partially accounts for why we feel pretty much the same on the inside at the age of 10 as we do at age 30 or 77.

I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner circuitries of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be.

We can all learn that we can take full responsibility for what thoughts we are thinking and what emotional circuitry we are feeling. Knowing this and acting on this can lead us into feeling a wonderful sense of well-being and peacefulness.

The left hemisphere is very interested in language; it communicates in words, it has a past, a present, and a future; it has a time component and it's all about details. The right hemisphere is more about the right now-right here experience where everything is an enormous collage of all the sensory systems flooding into our brains.

The easiest way I have found to humble myself back into a state of peaceful grace is through the act of gratitude.

I can choose to come into the world as my right brain personality, which is more compassionate, more open, more loving, and more right here, right now available.

It takes 90 seconds from the time we have a thought that is going to stimulate an emotional response. When we have an emotional response it results in a physiological dumpage into our bloodstream. It flushes through and out of our body in less than 90 seconds.

The better we understand the choices we have been making, either consciously or unconsciously, the more say we will have in the world we create. Neurocircuitry may be neurocircuitry, but we don't have to run on automatic.

My left brain is doing the best job it can with the information it has to work with. I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know.

From watching my own mind deteriorate circuit by circuit, I learned that every ability I have, from wiggling my finger to creating language, is dependent on a group of cells inside of my brain functioning in a healthy, happy way. I realized in order to get well I had to make the cells that performed those functions well again. It gave me an entirely different way to look at myself as an individual and at all of us as people.

Can we think more than one thought at the same time? Most of us know we can't do that. Both hemispheres are always working all of the time. But one of them is always dominant.

If I can choose who I am in the moment, then I can choose to come in as my left brain personality and all of the skill sets that goes with that.

Peace is only a thought away.

Then it crosses my mind, "But I’m a very busy woman! I don’t have time for a stroke!"

I love knowing that I am simultaneously as big as the universe and yet merely a heap of star dust.

I really need people to take responsibility for the kind of energy they bring to me.

I am always in quest of being open to what the universe will bring me.

We actually do generate some new cells, some new neurons. So in the case of trauma there is the potential for there to be some new neural development which gives the person the chance to create new circuitry.

Who are we? We are the life-force power of the universe.

The two hemispheres of the brain are two very different places and they don't share any cell bodies. They are completely separate entities.

I'm an advocate for whole brain thinking. I'm not an advocate for the right brain or the left brain.

chaos is the first step in the creative process.

I don't have time for a stroke!

I have the ability to make a choice in how I respond. My natural response does not have to be the only response I have.