My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

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My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 9,508 ratings · 1,975 reviews

Jill Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of a curious scientist, she watched her mind deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of the brain, her respect for the cells in her body, and an amazing mother, Jill completely r...more

Paperback, 188 pages

Published November 1st 2006 by Lulu.com

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Sep 20, 2008 Lena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

Jill Bolte Tayor was a 37-year old neuroanatomist when she experienced a massive stroke that severely damaged the left hemisphere of her brain. My Stroke of Insight is her account of what happened that day, her subsequent 8-year recovery, and how these events changed her life for the better.

The most interesting part of the book for me was Bolte Taylor’s discussion of what happened to her on that morning in 1996. With her scientific background, Bolte Taylor was in a unique position to observe the...more Jill Bolte Tayor was a 37-year old neuroanatomist when she experienced a massive stroke that severely damaged the left hemisphere of her brain. My Stroke of Insight is her account of what happened that day, her subsequent 8-year recovery, and how these events changed her life for the better.

The most interesting part of the book for me was Bolte Taylor’s discussion of what happened to her on that morning in 1996. With her scientific background, Bolte Taylor was in a unique position to observe the progressive breakdown of her own functioning as the blood from her burst AVM spread throughout her brain. As new areas were affected, different functions were lost, and reading about her experience is a strange kind of real-world brain anatomy lesson.

A significant portion of this book is devoted to the process of Bolte Taylor’s recovery. She realized early on that the attitude and pacing of her caregivers made a big difference in how willing and able she was to respond, and she speaks in detail about what she, personally, found was most effective in helping her heal. There is some useful information in this section for those involved in stroke victim care.

What has catapulted this book onto the bestseller list, however, is the spiritual message underlying Bolte Taylor’s experience. When the language processing areas of her brain shut down, Bolte Taylor found herself bathed in a kind of peace and bliss that was previously unknown to her. With the section of her brain that controls physical boundaries offline, she felt fluid, open, and one with everything around her.

Bolte Taylor considers these experiences to be the result of her right brain suddenly being given the chance to run the show while her left brain was incapacitated. She speaks quite a bit about how she made a conscious decision during her recovery to retain access to these states and to keep these pathways open as she brought her left brain back online. In the latter section of the book, she offers a list of techniques she feels anyone can use to help open up pathways to the expanded capacities of their own right brains.

I learned a number of interesting things while reading this book, and there is no question that Bolte Taylor’s story is a very inspiring one. Ultimately, however, I was disappointed by a number of things about this book. To start, it would have benefited from better editing. Some sections are highly repetitive, I was confused about certain aspects of her level of functioning and recovery, and the flow of the narrative was very uneven. Hers is a great story, and good editing would have made that even more obvious.

My main criticism of this book, however there is a very sloppy blending of hard, scientific information about the brain with Bolte Taylor’s anecdotal experience and personal theories about what happened to her. It was not always obvious which was which, and I suspect many readers will be confused and assume her personal theories are more scientifically grounded than they actually are.

Though Bolte Taylor does not specifically mention religion in the book, her numerous allusions to prayer, visualization, energy, and oneness make it clear that she subscribes to a certain kind of belief system that her experiences are filtered through. While this is to be expected, her inability to see the contradictions in her beliefs was frustrating to me. For example, she speaks about how, after the stroke, she floated in a place of bliss, at one with everything. Yet just a few paragraphs earlier, she refers to a harried, inexperienced medical student as an “energy vampire.” She does not address why her feelings of being at one with and connected to everything did not extend to this person. In addition, she is critical of how the judgmental function of the left brain keeps us shut down from the more expanded perspective of the right brain, yet doesn’t seem to notice her own preference for right-brain dominated experiences seems, well, kind of judgmental.

I’ve had personal experiences of peace and bliss that are similar to what Bolte Taylor describes, so I can certainly understand her preference for them. I also think she gives some good advice to help people find those states themselves without having to have a stroke to get there. But I think this book would have been much more valuable had Bolte Taylor used her scientifically trained left-brain to more clearly separate her anecdotal experience and beliefs what science actually tells us about our fascinating brains.
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Feb 20, 2009 Books Ring Mah Bell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: work, memo-auto-bio, brainz

The author, an accomplished neuroanatomist, suffers a massive CVA at the age of 37. She takes the reader through the events of her stroke and the recovery. (8 long years of recovery!) She gives basic brain science for understanding, and speaks from the heart.

The grouch in me wanted to poo-poo the whole book when she started in with how she uses "angel cards" to start her day. I ignored the alarm in my head, screaming, "New age kook! Abort! Abort!" But it was too late. I was suckered in. And rea...more

29 likes · like · see review

May 10, 2010 Janet rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Janet by: I did. Why, oh why?

Shelves: book-club

I closed this book today with such a sense of relief. This is, in essence, a self help book marked by the author's inflated (with due reason, I know) sense of self and a few interesting tidbits about brain chemistry.

Let's get a few things straight:
1. I love reading about the brain.
2. I was really, really wanting to love this book.
3. I, like the author, believe that--in most cases--happiness and peacefulness can be choices for every person and that our brain can become wired to react more positiv...more

27 likes · like · see review

Jul 14, 2008 Cindy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone dealing with the injured brain

Shelves: memoir

This book wasn't what I was expecting. I expected to read a memoir of sorts. Maybe a before and after or even a during the process what was happening. And JBT does write "lightly" about those things. But mainly she is writing a self-help book that seeks to influence the rest of us to embrace the right side of our brains. As a brain scientist, she has a stroke then discovers she is one with the universe. Her brain and her cells are beautiful! Oh how lovely the world and everyone in it! The inform...more

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Dec 01, 2011 Sarah Pi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brains, memoir

Four stars for the accessible explanations of brain function and warning signs of stroke. Four stars for the fascinating walk through the day of Dr. Taylor's stroke, and for her descriptions of the recovery process. Four stars for her observations about medical care and the attitudes of doctors and nurses and visitors. Three stars for the lengthy exercises in right brain exploration, which were fascinating but a little too fluffy for me. I listened to the audio version on a lengthy drive, and th...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Mark Picketts rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In a nut shell: I control my brain, my brain controls how I interpret the world - I am in control of my world.
(so choose a good world - for everyone's sake)

I thought this book was really great. It had moments of greatness, and moments of "really?", but I thought the message was solid and something worth being reminded of. Particularly Dr. Taylor's experience while her stroke was happening was really an intense and one of the powerful sections i have read in a long time. The physiology and knowle...more

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Jul 21, 2008 Happyreader rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: health-and-diet, bio-and-memoir

For me, the most fascinating part of this book is the description of the actual stroke and the immediate aftermath. To have suffered such a traumatic brain injury and live to tell about it in such detail is amazing. Doubly amazing for verbalizing what a brain is like when it goes non-verbal.

One funny detail during the stroke is that, while she's rapidly losing the ability to conceptualize numbers and language, somehow part of her brain still knew she needed HMO approval prior to using emergency...more

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Dec 08, 2008 Natalie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-essay

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I wanted this book to be several other books than the one it actually was. I found it alternately fascinating and incredibly irritating.

Taylor is a brain scientist who had a stroke and recovered enough to write about it. The chance to learn about what that experience was like seemed compelling enough to me to start reading the book. When her left brain went offline due to the stroke, she experienced only living in her right brain --what she d...more I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I wanted this book to be several other books than the one it actually was. I found it alternately fascinating and incredibly irritating.

Taylor is a brain scientist who had a stroke and recovered enough to write about it. The chance to learn about what that experience was like seemed compelling enough to me to start reading the book. When her left brain went offline due to the stroke, she experienced only living in her right brain --what she describes as a blissful nirvana. She's spent years getting her left brain back, and as a result has a unique perspective on the relationship of the two halves.

I stuck with the book because I'm sympathetic to at much of what she was saying -- that if you can turn down the volume on the ego's chatter to attain a sense of calm, your life is better off. It's just that most of us approach that goal through meditation, yoga, spiritual practice, or philosophy. Her writing resolutely avoids any such discussion. So it was kind of like reading a book about God written by an autistic person -- it seemed incredibly flat, devoid of emotion, even when she was talking about feelings.

I suspect that this book is the result of divided intentions about its goals and audience -- perhaps between the author and her editor, or between the author's two brain halves, I don't know. It's one part pop-science, 1 part survival memoir, 1 part oddly cold narcissism, and 1 part new age metaphysics. The audiences for these things are really different, and to successfully blend them would take a much more compelling writing style than Taylor's. It's unfortunate that a book that should be the demonstration of her recovery kept making me wonder whether she was expressing herself so badly because of her brain injury.

There are grains of interesting stuff in here, and it's a quick read. It's definitely been on my mind for the past few days, despite my irritation with it. I've heard from friends that audio interviews with Taylor are very warm and charming, which is the exact opposite of my impression from reading the book. Maybe that would be a better place to start if you're curious.(less)

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Sep 15, 2008 cat rated it 1 of 5 stars

whoa. i probably should have paid more attention to the little tagline under her name that proudly proclaims "the singin' scientist" and put it down immediately. but that wasn't how it worked.

see, the author is a brain scientist who had a stroke. i heard her speak on NPR and she was insightful and funny and had very interesting things to say about the brain, so i put the book on hold at the library and a eagerly picked it up a few days ago.

i loved the section of the book that gave us an intro c...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Ken rated it 3 of 5 stars

You couldn't invent a more interesting premise: Dr. Taylor, a brain scientist, has a major stroke and goes through years of rehabilitation after the left hemisphere of her brain is severely damaged. She ultimately recovers and records her detailed memories of the stroke and its aftereffects.

Dr. Taylor has given a talk on this subject at a TED Conference -- see the video at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ji...

This is what drew me to reading My Stroke of Insight, and the book does deliver on...more You couldn't invent a more interesting premise: Dr. Taylor, a brain scientist, has a major stroke and goes through years of rehabilitation after the left hemisphere of her brain is severely damaged. She ultimately recovers and records her detailed memories of the stroke and its aftereffects.

Dr. Taylor has given a talk on this subject at a TED Conference -- see the video at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ji...

This is what drew me to reading My Stroke of Insight, and the book does deliver on its promise before it veers off into territory that I couldn't quite appreciate.

Dr. Taylor begins with some basic, fundamental brain science, to set the scene. It's written to be understandable to the layperson, and succeeds on that account. She then describes the day of her stroke, combining recollections of her experience with reminders of the science behind the events that occurred.

This is fascinating stuff, allowing us to satisfy our curiosity and learn something at the same time.

Then, Dr. Taylor spends the rest of the book sharing her recovery experience, including the epiphany that she had as a result of the stroke. She explains that her damaged left hemisphere gave her right hemisphere a chance to flourish, and thus taught her the value of her right hemisphere. She contrasts her blissful experience of right-brained living with our culture's emphasis on the left hemisphere's reason, task-orientation and linear thinking.

She has a point -- but I didn't really warm up to the feeling that I was reading a self-help book with no clear path to actually helping one's self! This part of the book features too much repetition, and too many shiny promises of bliss awaiting us, if we only knew how to get there. Short of having a stroke, all we get is advice that amounts to: meditate, and tell your left hemisphere to be quiet. Prune it back. It sounds good in theory, but this is slippery stuff.

I recommend this book for its unique look into how our brains work and what happens when they go wrong. Just know, going in, that you may or may not appreciate the unusual combination of science, memoir and self-help.
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Oct 23, 2008 Joyce rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: skimmed, science

Thought I'd be more engaged than I was in this book. The writing is pretty flat. Her blow-by-blow description of her thoughts and physical sensations mid-stroke were astonishing, though. How did she retain her memory of all the details? Eh, guess I shouldn't have skimmed.

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 07, 2009 Kari rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jill Bolte Taylor has a stroke at the age of 37. As a neuro-anatamist, she was in the unique position to understand what was happening when the bleeding in her left brain began. She also had a wonderful mother who helped aid in her recovery, although Bolte Taylor doens't think of it as "recovery," because she does not go back to being the person she was before the stroke.

A good look at the symptoms of her stroke, her recovery process, and the patience and persistance it took for Bolte Taylor to...more

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Apr 21, 2013 bup rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, science, susan

I liked the book. Perhaps putting it on my science shelf is questionable, but I thought it belonged on there more than not. But it's perhaps a 55/45 proposition.

Taylor's writing voice is somewhat bland, and full of stock phrases and cliche, but the woman's story is incredible. If a woman can recover - basically completely - from the size of a stroke she had, then there's hope for everybody. That's what makes the book so much worth reading. On the other hand, everything is so positive - she's not...more

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Feb 14, 2009 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: adults

Recommended to Anna by: Samina

Shelves: nonfiction, memoirs, read-in-2009

I really enjoyed reading this book, even though I didn't always agree with her 100% and I felt like she became a bit preachy towards the end. It was an extremely engaging read and it helped me understand a lot more about how the brain works. Prior to reading this book (which was required reading for a graduate education class), I really had very little interest in learning about the brain and/or the differences between the left and right brain. This book changed that. Jill Bolte Taylor's account...more I really enjoyed reading this book, even though I didn't always agree with her 100% and I felt like she became a bit preachy towards the end. It was an extremely engaging read and it helped me understand a lot more about how the brain works. Prior to reading this book (which was required reading for a graduate education class), I really had very little interest in learning about the brain and/or the differences between the left and right brain. This book changed that. Jill Bolte Taylor's account of her stroke made learning about the brain much more meaningful and relevant to me. The book was addicting and the chapters about the stroke and the recovery were particularly fascinating. I felt like I learned a ton about the difference between the two hemispheres of the brain and now have a much deeper understanding of the two and how they work together. So, I really have to thank her for making learning about the brain very interesting.

I liked the writing style a lot because it started off kind of like a mystery and then it became a personal narrative and I started to feel really close to Jill and wanted to know all about how is doing now. The only chapters that started to annoy me a bit were the last three. She kept talking about the greatness of the right brain and the importance of not letting the left brain control you (especially when it comes to anger, frustration, or fear) and while I think this is important, it was starting to sound a bit too spiritual for my liking. However, I think this book had an impact on me, my life, my health, and my way of thinking to the point where I feel like I'm actually kind of a changed person. I also have to thank her for making her recovery process so explicit, as I think those chapters have helped me to reflect and become more aware of my level of empathy and sensitivity when it comes to working with students of various backgrounds (special ed kids, struggling learners, ELLs, etc.).

After reading this book I wish there was a similar kind of story that I could read about epilepsy so that I could learn more about the disease that my dad is suffering from. If anyone knows of such a book, please let me know...

Lastly, I think anyone who reads this book is much more likely to be educated on the signs of a stroke and is much more likely to respond quickly and appropriately when a) someone else is having a stroke and b) if that person ever has a stroke. Since time is of the essence when one is having a stroke, it is important to recognize the warnings signs (which we never ever talk about anywhere!) and to seek help immediately. (less)

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May 10, 2010 Stephy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone who has had a stroke, or knows someone who has had a stroke

Shelves: autobiography, health, drama, have_to_be_able_to_think, life-and-living, non-fiction, reference, self_help, survival

Everyone who has ever had a stroke must have this book read to them, slowly. Everyone who ever knew anyone who had a stroke must read this book. The author was a brain scientist with a Ph.D. in neuroanatomy. She described her experience of having a stroke, the loss of her faculties, her surgery, and recovery over a period of almost a decade, to someone like the woman she was before the stroke.

Her description of how to help a stroke victim on their return from a hospital are remarkable. The relat...more

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Nov 15, 2008 Osho rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

The 37-year old Dr. Taylor, a neuroscientist, was simultaneously horrified and fascinated to realize that she was having a stroke. Though many reviewers and interviewers focus on the insights she gained from her stroke, I was riveted by her descriptions of the physiological and behavioral processes she experienced in the first hours of the experience. The science is presented simplistically, which makes it generally accessible but may not satisfy a more sophisticated reader. Taylor's musings on...more

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Aug 01, 2008 Rob rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Health Professionals. Those *really* interested in spiritual personality transformation.

Recommended to Rob by: Stan Keely and NPR.

Shelves: medical-narritives

This is, perhaps, not my type of book. Dr. Taylor's story is an amazing one, and a fascinating one. And her take on her experience is packaged in a way to give the reader a good number of lessons learned from her recovery; both pratical for anyone who's life or work brings them in contact with mentally affected people, and metaphysical for those who want to better their lives in general. But it's probably pretty thin for a number of readers. If you're not the type of person to appreciate appeals...more

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Jun 14, 2008 Ruzz rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: The Brain Injured (no really) and people interested in the duality of our minds.

Shelves: 2008

I think my view of this book lacked a dimension and that lacking sullied what might have been a marvelous book. The angle I approached the book was--having watched her video on ted--about the mind and it's two halves and their role in cogitation and bliss.

The idea of a more concrete delineation between the thinking mind and the feeling mind from someone who had one half turned off for a time seemed really appealing.

What turned me off then was 120 of 170 pages devoted to what happened (AVM stro...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Jordan Wagge rated it 2 of 5 stars

Interesting story. Do not read this book in search of anything empirical. This is more like a self-help manual for stroke survivors or those associated with one, and, while extremely poignant and lauded by the scientific community, is not an academic text. The descriptions of the hemispheres' respective behaviors should be considered skeptically and regarded as anecdotal. I still found it to be a worthwhile, interesting read for feeding the humanist in me (Taylor might call that my "right-brain"...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Tammy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Tammy by: heard an interview with the author

This is a fascinating book about a neuroscientist who, at the age of 37, has a stroke. Because of her background, she's able to explain and chronicle the event and describe what happens when her left brain goes offline. Just realizing that our anger response, basically a chemical reaction, only takes 90 seconds to form, circulate and dissipate and that when we stay angry longer than that is just our left brain repeating an old story is eye (mind) opening. I've heard you can see her on YouTube an...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Jackie Gamber rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book attracted me as an intriguing study of a woman able to reteach her brain to wire itself! But, although there is some information about that, most of the narrative is a repetitious, almost stream-of-conscious sort of telling. If you can get past the weird attempts at humor (such as a scrabbled drawing of a bulging vein saying "Oh no! It's going to blow!") and the "Strokes for Dummies" sort of instruction, there are moments of insight from this woman who suffered a terrible blow and mana...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is an autobiography and gives a detailed 1st hand account of the author’s experiences while suffering a debilitating stroke. It is amazing how she is able to recall the clear details about what was happening before, during and after her stroke. The story is even more interesting because the author herself is a brain scientist and has extensive knowledge about how the brain works. It is truly fascinating to hear her thoughts about the stroke while it is happening, as she struggles to ma...more

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Jan 14, 2009 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I hadn't planned on reading this book. Actually, I was unaware of it until I saw it on the New Books shelf at the library. I thought My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey looked like it might be interesting, so I grabbed it.

Definitely interesting. Dr. Taylor, a researcher and teacher at Harvard Medical School, suffered a stroke at the age of 37. This book relates the story of her observations during her recovery and the process of her recovery. After a couple of short chapte...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Adih Respati rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 03-memoir, 08-brainscience, 05-sciencewriting, 11-biology

In a morning of December 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor had a stroke attack. A prominent neuroanatomist as she was, she analyzed the attack real-time and confessed the experience is, to borrow her word, cool (how many brain scientist get to study this inside out). For eight more years, her scientific skill is what guides her self-rehabilitation.

My Stroke of Insight is managed into three parts: 1) an introduction-for-dummy on how the brain principally work; 2) the morning of the stroke and rehabilitatin...more

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Nov 19, 2008 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jill Bolte Tayler, a neuroscientist whose resume includes working for the Harvard Brain Bank, describes the radically altered states of consciousness she achieved after having a stroke. The stroke incapacitated much of the left hemisphere of her brain, which she had allowed to dominate and inhibit the perceptions from her right hemisphere for most of her adult life. Freed from the tyranny of her inner chatterbox's worries and negative thought patterns, she experienced bliss and a sense of onenes...more

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May 28, 2013 Teresa Chang rated it 4 of 5 stars

Most astonishing account on how two sides of our brains can be so disparately different. Dr. Taylor has shed a brilliant and groundbreaking light on how our right hemisphere-the center of the more "primitive", emotional part of our brain can be the key to ultimate peace and joy.

It all started on that fateful morning when Dr. Taylor was 37, she woke up feeling her movement awkward and soon discovered she had a rare case of brain hemorrhage on the left side. Within minutes, she is disintegrated, l...more

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May 14, 2013 Denise rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews-by-denise

This is one of those rare books written by a member of the scientific community who doesn't doubt or question her experiences. The author, a brain scientist, doesn't spend the entire book giving you a doctoral dissertation of the conditions of the brain. She delivers a compelling first person narrative about her hellish experience of what it felt like to suffer a massive stroke and come out on the other side.

I love how she engages all of the senses to give the reader a sense of what brain traum...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Monica Wesolowska rated it 2 of 5 stars

Though this is a fascinating read, I’m wary of the ending and would love to hear what others think. Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist who suffered a debilitating stroke. While the stroke was taking its toll, she was able to observe and understand what was happening to her brain. Thanks to her own ability to recognize a stroke and call for help, she was able to get herself to a hospital. In the hospital, unable to speak or move, she was still able to observe the way the medical staff treated...more Though this is a fascinating read, I’m wary of the ending and would love to hear what others think. Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist who suffered a debilitating stroke. While the stroke was taking its toll, she was able to observe and understand what was happening to her brain. Thanks to her own ability to recognize a stroke and call for help, she was able to get herself to a hospital. In the hospital, unable to speak or move, she was still able to observe the way the medical staff treated her and to take note of how they could have treated her better. Thanks to the attentions of hospital staff and, later, the amazing, loving attention of a mother who moved in with her, Taylor was able to make an almost full recovery.

What bewilders me is the larger story that surrounds this book. Taylor explains that she got into studying the brain out of a desire to understand her brother’s mental illness. This mental illness had taken a toll on her as his sister. She had grown into an adult full of anger. At the peak of her stroke, when she was reliant almost entirely on her right brain, she experienced a euphoria and connection to all beings that she’d never experienced before. Almost with regret, she had to relearn how to use her left brain with all of its judgments, but she hoped to retain the lessons of the right brain.

Because she was able to relearn how to use both sides of her brain, because she was able to retain some sense of peace, especially when playing music or making art, Taylor concludes that people with mental illness should have the same control over their brains. I’m not arguing that people don’t have some control over their thought patterns. But ultimately, though Taylor describes the peaceful and connected state we can all achieve when using our right brains, she seems to have failed utterly to learn compassion for her brother and others who suffer from mental illness. Though she obviously learned much from her stroke, she does not seem to have learned anything at all about a relationship which originally set her on this path. I suppose I read this book as the sister of someone who suffered mental illness, but I wonder why her editor didn’t push Taylor to write even more from the right brain.
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Apr 06, 2013 Linda Ethier rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found this book to be both fascinating and inspirational. Taylor, herself a brain scientist, describes what happened as she experienced a hemorrhagic stroke at the age of 37. She then describes the following eight years, as she worked to regain the function of her damaged left brain, becoming a different, and she feels, far better person in the process.

She spends much of the last half of the book explaining the difference between the two halves of our brains, and how tapping into the power of...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Elizabeth Blake rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: living, non-fiction

This book gives more depth to our understanding of the brain and how it works. As the author had an unusual cranial hemorrhage when a young adult. It lead her to understand how important the right brain is, not only for creativity, present moment, senses, connectedness and enlightened, non-judgmental, peaceful, expansive, and able to see the world as one. Like Buddhists who meditate to release ego, live in the present, be peaceful and be one with the world, now neuroscience shows this works beca...more

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About Jill Bolte Taylor

Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist who specializes in the postmortem investigation of the human brain. She teaches at the Indiana University School of Medicine, is the national spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, and is the consulting neuroanatomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute.

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Quotes from My Stroke of Insight: ...

“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.” — 35 people liked it

“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.” — 24 people liked it

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title link	preview: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142292.My_Stroke_of_Insight?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172136738l/142292.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142292.My_Stroke_of_Insight?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor[/url]

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

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