WEBVTT 00:00:00.482 --> 00:00:08.095 - Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks. 00:00:08.095 --> 00:00:15.491 - I'm honored to serve as your president this year. Please silence your electronic devices. On this day 00:00:15.491 --> 00:00:22.814 - in history, April 21st, 1865, President Lincoln's funeral train left Washington, D.C. We didn't have 00:00:22.814 --> 00:00:28.542 - anyone sign up to deliver reflection. There are other open dates this quarter. 00:00:29.474 --> 00:00:35.694 - Please sign up if you think you have something interesting that other members would like to hear. And 00:00:35.694 --> 00:00:41.914 - if you can deliver a three-minute talk that doesn't cross political or religious lines. Katie Cerniak 00:00:41.914 --> 00:00:48.012 - will introduce our guests today. And we have a lot of guests. This is wonderful. I really enjoy the 00:00:48.012 --> 00:00:49.598 - energy in the room today. 00:00:56.770 --> 00:01:04.800 - All right. Hello, everyone. We have, as Steve mentioned, we have a lot of guests today. So first we 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:13.553 - have Joy. Oh, sorry. After I say your name, if you can please stand so that we can welcome you and recognize 00:01:13.553 --> 00:01:21.342 - you. So guests of Jim Bright, we have Joy Dixon. We also have Susan Rinne, guest of Steve Engel. 00:01:25.858 --> 00:01:40.441 - And Jesse Urie, also a guest of Jim Bright. We have Bev Baker, guest of Mike Baker. As well as Bill 00:01:40.441 --> 00:01:53.566 - Oliver, guest of Mike Baker. Next we have Mayor Kerry Thompson, guest of Michael Shermas. 00:01:56.162 --> 00:02:06.144 - And Jennifer Myers, also guest of Michael Shermas. And Leon Gordon, guest of Jim Bright. That's it for 00:02:06.144 --> 00:02:16.222 - our in-person guest. Joy, do we have any guests on Zoom today? We do not have any guests on Zoom today. 00:02:16.222 --> 00:02:19.614 - All right. Well, thanks, everyone. 00:02:24.738 --> 00:02:31.818 - Thank you all. Certainly, if you have any questions about Rotary, don't hesitate to ask someone at your 00:02:31.818 --> 00:02:38.830 - table. I do want to note that Joy Harder is our Zoom host today. She's been sick for about two months. 00:02:38.830 --> 00:02:45.706 - We've really scrambled without her. So I'm really happy that she's back for personal reasons and for 00:02:45.706 --> 00:02:52.446 - Rotary reasons. Rotary birthdays. Three birthdays to observe today. It's Peggy Frisbee's birthday. 00:02:53.250 --> 00:03:00.048 - And then on the 23rd, Connie Chakalas, and then our past president, Mike Baker, birthdays on the 23rd. 00:03:00.048 --> 00:03:06.781 - And one rotary anniversary, Claire Kest on the 26th, four years with the club. Announcements, not too 00:03:06.781 --> 00:03:13.381 - late to register for the district conference, May 8th and 9th at the Galt House in Louisville. Lots 00:03:13.381 --> 00:03:20.510 - of fun sessions Friday evening, lots of educational sessions and good networking opportunities on Saturday. 00:03:21.282 --> 00:03:28.161 - We need a volunteer to coordinate a gift basket for the district conference. I had a person in mind 00:03:28.161 --> 00:03:35.247 - to handle the role. That individual is not able to do it for good reasons. Something we do every year, 00:03:35.247 --> 00:03:42.333 - I'd hate to see the streak broken this year, so please see me if you can help. I am not the person you 00:03:42.333 --> 00:03:48.318 - want coordinating a gift basket. Also, district conference, and this is something new. 00:03:48.578 --> 00:03:55.377 - Contest to see which club can donate the most new or gently used shoes. If someone is interested in 00:03:55.377 --> 00:04:02.244 - stepping up to do this, I can get the shoes to Louisville. So if you have a closet full of shoes and 00:04:02.244 --> 00:04:09.247 - you're looking for a good home, this might be your opportunity. Plenty of volunteer meeting rolls that 00:04:09.247 --> 00:04:14.142 - need to be filled for this quarter. I already mentioned the reflection. 00:04:16.674 --> 00:04:24.172 - I think I hear Steve saying he has extra shoes. You should have received an email from Mandy with the 00:04:24.172 --> 00:04:31.523 - sign up link. You can also find the link to sign up for different roles in Roundabout. Today is Ivy 00:04:31.523 --> 00:04:38.874 - Tech Day across the state of Indiana. Ivy Tech Day is a 24 hour giving event dedicated to advancing 00:04:38.874 --> 00:04:46.078 - student success, scholarships in our communities. 11,000 students attend Ivy Tech in Bloomington. 00:04:46.498 --> 00:04:53.980 - Ivy Tech is an active organizational member of our club. Have a few save the dates. Save the date, Wonder 00:04:53.980 --> 00:05:01.604 - Lab Summer Blast Off on May 21st, which our club is sponsoring. Save the date for the fifth annual Refugees 00:05:01.604 --> 00:05:08.874 - Summer Pitch In on May 24th. Save the date for our next Meals on Wheels volunteer project on May 29th. 00:05:08.874 --> 00:05:13.886 - And save the date for Beacon Solidary Sleep Out the night of June 5th. 00:05:15.010 --> 00:05:44.158 - Tyler, if you wanna go ahead and put up the PowerPoint. Okay, we'll start by help wanted. Need a additional club. 00:05:44.258 --> 00:05:51.585 - members join the membership committee. We need help conducting an induction ceremony, reviewing membership 00:05:51.585 --> 00:05:58.433 - applications and helping with orientation. See me or contact our membership chair Laurie Garrity if 00:05:58.433 --> 00:06:05.418 - you're interested. And I mentioned the gift basket for the district conference. Reminder happy dollar 00:06:05.418 --> 00:06:12.403 - proceeds in March and April be given to the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. If we're on schedule we'll 00:06:12.403 --> 00:06:14.046 - do happy dollars today. 00:06:16.418 --> 00:06:23.882 - Now a celebration of service. We'll start with last Tuesday. We were, thanks to the generosity of one 00:06:23.882 --> 00:06:31.347 - of our members, we were a co-sponsor of the Heading Home Housing Summit. You can see a picture of one 00:06:31.347 --> 00:06:38.811 - of the panels there. It was a very well attended event and hopefully just one of the many things that 00:06:38.811 --> 00:06:43.934 - helped the city tackle affordable housing and access to the unhoused. 00:06:47.010 --> 00:06:54.165 - And then moving on to our community service committee, native tree planting. We did it in conjunction 00:06:54.165 --> 00:07:01.250 - with the DNR and Lake Monroe Water Fund last Saturday, spearheaded by Michelle Cohen. And there were 00:07:01.250 --> 00:07:08.897 - five of us members who helped, Dakir, Amy, Michael, Mike Wade, and I helped as well. Here are some pictures. 00:07:08.897 --> 00:07:15.912 - You can see the group. It rained the whole time. You can see the pickup truck. The trees are in the 00:07:15.912 --> 00:07:16.894 - pickup truck. 00:07:17.058 --> 00:07:23.422 - And the rain was actually a good thing because the DNR naturalist, ahead of time, he briefed us on which 00:07:23.422 --> 00:07:29.725 - trees we had and why these trees were good for bats and these trees were good for woodpeckers. And then 00:07:29.725 --> 00:07:35.786 - he talked about where the trees needed to be planted. And then he said, OK, and this is what you do 00:07:35.786 --> 00:07:41.907 - if you see a timber rattlesnake. And this is what you do if you see a copperhead. And then we talked 00:07:41.907 --> 00:07:43.422 - about ticks. And anyway. 00:07:43.746 --> 00:07:49.411 - finished, I didn't see any snakes. I didn't find any ticks. I think it might have been a good thing 00:07:49.411 --> 00:07:55.075 - that was pouring down rain. So on the right, you can see the field where we planted the trees. It's 00:07:55.075 --> 00:08:00.967 - a very marshy area. So the trees we planted were ideal for this type of soil. Some trees that have been 00:08:00.967 --> 00:08:06.631 - planted in the past had been uprooted by beavers. And so I think this year they have a plan to make 00:08:06.631 --> 00:08:12.126 - sure that doesn't happen again. I see Michelle crossing her fingers away at a table on the back. 00:08:14.786 --> 00:08:23.478 - Here I am resting between shovels on the right, Dakir and Michael doing the same thing. And then we 00:08:23.478 --> 00:08:32.430 - have Mike, Ray and Amy who are shoveling more in a more industrious fashion. They were more productive 00:08:32.430 --> 00:08:41.470 - employees. Picture on the left is just to get an idea of where we were. It was a really beautiful area. 00:08:41.730 --> 00:08:48.368 - After we got done, Dakir actually went for a walk just to kind of enjoy the area. And then on the right, 00:08:48.368 --> 00:08:54.880 - this is a billboard. You can see plant native trees. This is on Indiana 46. It's as you go east coming 00:08:54.880 --> 00:09:01.202 - into Bloomington. It's down in the low areas before you start to head up the hill. So if you're out 00:09:01.202 --> 00:09:08.030 - that way, if you go to Nashville and come home, look for the building or look for the billboard, excuse me. 00:09:09.218 --> 00:09:17.658 - Rotary, seven areas of focus. I show this slide often. And April is environment month. And so what we 00:09:17.658 --> 00:09:25.932 - did with the tree planning fits very well into environment month. Now we're ready for a Paul Harris 00:09:25.932 --> 00:09:34.206 - presentation. I'll say a little bit. We have lots of guests today and some new members. Paul Harris 00:09:34.206 --> 00:09:37.598 - Awards in Rotary is how we award people. 00:09:37.826 --> 00:09:46.558 - who have achieved significant milestones in their financial giving to the Rotary Foundation. And Rotary 00:09:46.558 --> 00:09:55.039 - Foundation then uses the money for projects all over the world, including here in Monroe County, and 00:09:55.039 --> 00:10:04.191 - also to help eradicate polio. So Mike, if you want to come in and come up and lead our Paul Harris ceremony. 00:10:04.191 --> 00:10:07.550 - Joy, did I see that Raj joined on? Yes. 00:10:07.874 --> 00:10:17.951 - Okay. Yes, he's here. Raj, can you come on screen? Okay. Good afternoon, Rotarians and guests. Mayor, 00:10:17.951 --> 00:10:27.831 - I'm going to scratch my political jokes here. So anyway, no, I've been busy. I just got back from a 00:10:27.831 --> 00:10:37.118 - trip to Disney World where I spent most of our retirement money. It was a fun trip. At 75, my 00:10:37.282 --> 00:10:44.477 - Grandson who's five talked me into two roller coasters some water slides and of course It's a small 00:10:44.477 --> 00:10:52.032 - world if you've ever been there. That's fun and who could resist $13 beers so the good news is the lines 00:10:52.032 --> 00:10:59.586 - were shorter than they were at TSA, so anyway Several club members are being recognized today. I'm gonna 00:10:59.586 --> 00:11:05.918 - do something a little bit different because one of them is gonna be on zoom As you know 00:11:06.306 --> 00:11:15.326 - Rotary International is our main goal of club giving. And we had a goal this year of $15,000 for our 00:11:15.326 --> 00:11:24.346 - club. We're over $20,000. So congratulations. Today, Glynda Murray, are you here? Yes, I thought you 00:11:24.346 --> 00:11:33.188 - would be. Join me up here, please. Dr. Haddawi, are you on the screen yet, or can you hear me? Oh, 00:11:33.188 --> 00:11:34.974 - I see him. Hi, Raj. 00:11:36.930 --> 00:11:46.334 - And Alon Barker, can you join me up here? I don't think I've ever done a Paul Harris on Zoom, but we're 00:11:46.334 --> 00:11:55.557 - going to try to make this work. So this is going to be Glenda's Paul Harris plus seven, Dr. Hodawie's 00:11:55.557 --> 00:12:04.871 - Paul Harris plus two, and Alon Barker, Paul Harris fellow plus six today. All terrific people, members 00:12:04.871 --> 00:12:06.046 - of our club, 00:12:06.306 --> 00:12:13.336 - who have been continuing to give. Raj, the man behind, the volunteers in medicine. Glenda, everything 00:12:13.336 --> 00:12:20.367 - from president of Bloomington Chamber, Monroe County history, past president of our club. And I think 00:12:20.367 --> 00:12:27.328 - Dr. Harawi is our longest term Zoom member. I think he's been in three different rotary clubs. He is 00:12:27.328 --> 00:12:34.910 - no longer doing orthopedic surgery, but I think he still likes either being called a bone doctor or orthopod. 00:12:38.946 --> 00:12:45.973 - I was not sure you're going to be here today, but I am happy to see that you're no longer handling the 00:12:45.973 --> 00:12:52.864 - AV. Everything seems to be working well. As you retire from that job, you will be taking on district 00:12:52.864 --> 00:12:59.892 - governor for rotary in our district. So congratulations to that. So what we're going to do here is I'm 00:12:59.892 --> 00:13:06.919 - going to do Raj. I don't know where the camera is, I guess right here. So Raj, we will get this in the 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:07.806 - mail to you. 00:13:08.194 --> 00:13:18.103 - Congratulations. Thank you. Yes. Oh, right there. Do you see that, Raj? Oh, it's just very hard to miss. 00:13:18.103 --> 00:13:27.823 - I'm going to hand this to you. Congratulations, Alon. Rotarians, would you please join me and rise and 00:13:27.823 --> 00:13:30.654 - celebrate these three people? 00:13:37.506 --> 00:13:50.748 - Thank you very much. And make sure you check out the curse hat. Are you you finally converted? 00:13:50.748 --> 00:14:05.662 - That's good. Thank you, Mike. We have a few minutes for happy dollars. Is anyone happy today? Okay, here's 00:14:05.890 --> 00:14:15.033 - One unhappy dollar and 10 happy dollars. I get both. Unhappy because my wife and I were sitting in traffic 00:14:15.033 --> 00:14:23.662 - on the overpass on 3rd Street, on West 3rd Street that goes over I-69. Sitting there minding our own 00:14:23.662 --> 00:14:32.634 - business and all of a sudden I hear a tremendous crash behind me. And within fraction of a second, there 00:14:32.634 --> 00:14:35.710 - was a second crash and that was us. 00:14:36.514 --> 00:14:42.906 - and jammed us in the back of the seat. Then I looked ahead, and there's a truck with a car in front 00:14:42.906 --> 00:14:49.425 - of me, and it's coming at me. And so we got Goldfin being slammed in the back of the car to the front 00:14:49.425 --> 00:14:55.817 - of the car. The only thing that kept me hitting the windshield was the seatbelt. Thank God I always 00:14:55.817 --> 00:15:02.528 - use that. What I'm happy about, oh yeah, the young lady that did this was driving a big GMC pickup truck 00:15:02.528 --> 00:15:04.254 - with a huge chrome bumper. 00:15:04.386 --> 00:15:10.116 - and was driving a truck where the brakes didn't work. She was using the emergency brake, and she had 00:15:10.116 --> 00:15:15.790 - to put the brake pedal to the floor just to get the stop. Well, this time it didn't stop at all. So 00:15:15.790 --> 00:15:21.577 - she hit everybody full blast. And the Honda Civic behind me was accordioned. It just looked horrible. 00:15:21.577 --> 00:15:27.308 - My car is cosmetic. Who knows? They may total it. I don't know. The guy in front of me, it just kind 00:15:27.308 --> 00:15:32.414 - of messed up the back. But I'm really happy that nobody was hurt. There was a young girl. 00:15:32.866 --> 00:15:37.913 - in the Honda Civic and her grandmother said that when they hit, she yelled, ouch. And they couldn't 00:15:37.913 --> 00:15:43.062 - figure out if anything was wrong or not because she was, I forget what the turn anyway. It said, does 00:15:43.062 --> 00:15:48.160 - your neck hurt? You said, yes. So does your toe hurt? You said, yes. Um, so they tried, they kept in 00:15:48.160 --> 00:15:53.460 - the ambulance, took her to the hospital just to see if anything was, if she was hurt. I think everything 00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:58.709 - is okay. But I'm very thankful that nobody was hurt out of that because it could have been a lot worse. 00:15:58.709 --> 00:15:59.870 - So anyway, I am happy. 00:16:11.618 --> 00:16:19.097 - On a happier note, I want to say that we had our discussions about our Rotary Scholarship folks. We 00:16:19.097 --> 00:16:26.874 - went from 2.30 to 7.30 on Friday. We had nine applicants. They were all outstanding, without exception. 00:16:26.874 --> 00:16:34.727 - And I guess the little sad part is that we couldn't give scholarships to all nine of them. But we picked 00:16:34.727 --> 00:16:35.774 - four of them. 00:16:36.162 --> 00:16:43.660 - And we're so excited to share them with you on May 12th. So mark your calendar to be here, to hear from 00:16:43.660 --> 00:16:50.941 - them. Always one of the most inspiring luncheons we have each year, hearing from these amazing kids. 00:16:50.941 --> 00:16:58.150 - So I want to give $10 each to all nine of them. So $90 of happy dollars. And thank you again to the 00:16:58.150 --> 00:17:04.350 - committee and all the hard work they did in putting this program together. Thank you. 00:17:09.474 --> 00:17:20.797 - Hi, I'm Bill Oates. I'm happy to be back in Bloomington after six months in Florida. So it was interesting 00:17:20.797 --> 00:17:31.485 - to see what appeared to be a bitter winter here that I missed on Florida television, but Bloomington 00:17:31.485 --> 00:17:38.046 - is still the best place. I am $10 happy that this week is the 00:17:38.498 --> 00:17:48.060 - On Thursday at 5.30 p.m. at Heartwork Brewing is the quarterly meeting of the 50 men that care. And 00:17:48.060 --> 00:17:57.718 - you might recall that a few weeks ago we heard from both 100 women that care and 50 men that care on 00:17:57.718 --> 00:18:03.742 - giving circles and the impact that they have in the community. 00:18:03.874 --> 00:18:11.808 - through charitable donation. And so I would certainly like to invite the men in this room and online 00:18:11.808 --> 00:18:19.977 - to come to that meeting at 5.30 on Thursday at Hard Work Brewing. Last thing is there is a competition, 00:18:19.977 --> 00:18:28.460 - a healthy competition going between 100 women that care and 50 men that care. You may notice the difference 00:18:28.460 --> 00:18:32.702 - in the name that hints at that. So if you could help, 00:18:33.186 --> 00:18:44.213 - With that competition, that would be really great. Thank you. I'm happy. $22, please, on my tab. My 00:18:44.213 --> 00:18:55.241 - son has taken all my cash out of my wallet. That's not why I'm happy. I'm happy because tomorrow is 00:18:55.241 --> 00:19:02.078 - Earth Day, so that's why the $22, the 22nd, and I'm happy for 00:19:02.178 --> 00:19:10.255 - All of you who helped with the Rotary Grant that enabled the tree planting, and for the folks who braved 00:19:10.255 --> 00:19:17.947 - the rain with me, I think that was a wonderful celebration of service. Thank you. Hi, I'm happy for 00:19:17.947 --> 00:19:25.639 - two things. One is to be back after having to miss many meetings because I wasn't feeling so great. 00:19:25.639 --> 00:19:31.870 - The other is that my daughter Hannah is giving our family a second granddaughter 00:19:32.162 --> 00:19:43.497 - sometime in September, we think. So here you go, 20 bucks. Thank you all. Now, Michael, you need to 00:19:43.497 --> 00:19:49.278 - change hats and come up and introduce our speaker. 00:20:06.530 --> 00:20:13.514 - Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor's book, My Stroke of Insight, is a profound personal story of a person seeing 00:20:13.514 --> 00:20:20.638 - the beauty of interconnectedness and how gracious, how glorious our brains are. It affected me enough 00:20:20.638 --> 00:20:27.623 - that I thought, now, that's a person I want to know. I sort of wormed my way into her life, and she 00:20:27.623 --> 00:20:34.607 - gave me the privilege of working with her by helping co-manage the big brain project that we did in 00:20:34.607 --> 00:20:35.934 - Bloomington almost 00:20:36.066 --> 00:20:41.906 - 15 years ago now. Look it up on the interweb if you want to know more about that. Suffice to say, there 00:20:41.906 --> 00:20:47.802 - are a lot of amazing individuals in Bloomington, but Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor is truly exceptional. I could 00:20:47.802 --> 00:20:53.417 - gush about all the insightful things I've heard her say and read in her latest book, but I'd rather 00:20:53.417 --> 00:20:59.088 - just give this brief personal introduction than list all of her accomplishments so we can spend more 00:20:59.088 --> 00:21:01.278 - time listening to her words of wisdom. 00:21:01.890 --> 00:21:09.634 - If you don't know of her work, I hope after listening to today, you will be more inspired to read her 00:21:09.634 --> 00:21:17.225 - books, watch her Ted Talk, and learn more as you win for a treat. Give Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor a warm 00:21:17.225 --> 00:21:24.817 - Rotary welcome, please. Thank you, everybody. Can you hear me? You can, perfect. Okay. I am Jill. I 00:21:24.817 --> 00:21:27.550 - have a long history in Bloomington. 00:21:27.746 --> 00:21:38.238 - Thank you. I grew up in Terre Haute, came to IU in 77. I was on the five-year plan, so I was here from 77 to 85. 00:21:38.370 --> 00:21:45.469 - And then I went back to Terre Haute and got my PhD in neuroanatomy. And from there, I went to Harvard 00:21:45.469 --> 00:21:52.568 - Medical School, where I was teaching and performing research. So that was my scholastics. And I study 00:21:52.568 --> 00:21:59.528 - the brain because I have a brother diagnosed with a brain disorder, schizophrenia. So that was what 00:21:59.528 --> 00:22:06.557 - made me first think about this organ. And I wanted to know more about it. And then at the age of 37, 00:22:06.557 --> 00:22:08.158 - when I was at Harvard, 00:22:08.258 --> 00:22:15.262 - I experienced a major hemorrhage in the left half of my own brain and over the course of 00:22:15.362 --> 00:22:23.090 - Four hours, I lost all ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of my life. I became an infant 00:22:23.090 --> 00:22:30.669 - in a woman's body. So it was a major hemorrhage. I experienced major craniotomy. They removed a blood 00:22:30.669 --> 00:22:38.249 - clot the size of a golf ball. And then I used what I still had in the right hemisphere of my brain to 00:22:38.249 --> 00:22:44.862 - rebuild the circuits in the left half of my brain. And what I gained was an insight into 00:22:45.026 --> 00:22:51.891 - as the traditional medicine talks about the brain, the left thinking portion of our brain is the portion 00:22:51.891 --> 00:22:58.429 - of our brain that is conscious and that the left emotion, right emotion and right thinking portions 00:22:58.429 --> 00:23:05.228 - of our brain are unconscious. And so what I gained through the eyes of a neuroanatomist is what's going 00:23:05.228 --> 00:23:12.158 - on actually, what are the skill sets? What are the performance? What's going on in our unconscious brain? 00:23:12.674 --> 00:23:21.579 - And as we look at society and we look at the condition of our left thinking dominant society, the world's 00:23:21.579 --> 00:23:30.149 - kind of skewed to the values of that left dominance, which is very different than the value structure 00:23:30.149 --> 00:23:38.718 - of the whole brain. So I'm gonna introduce you to this beautiful organ. This brain is looking at you. 00:23:38.850 --> 00:23:43.550 - It's divided into two hemispheres. We have the brainstem. 00:23:43.714 --> 00:23:50.842 - which is going to be the reptilian brain. New tissue gets added on top of that as the limbic tissue. 00:23:50.842 --> 00:23:57.970 - So if you've heard about the amygdala or the hippocampi, they're going to be in here for the emotion 00:23:57.970 --> 00:24:05.451 - in both hemispheres. And then we're going to have the higher cerebral cortex and the bumps in the grooves 00:24:05.451 --> 00:24:13.214 - of the cerebral cortex. Yours is organized virtually identical to mine. So it does have strong anatomy. Okay. 00:24:13.410 --> 00:24:19.771 - Now, let me see if the brain scientists can figure out how to push buttons. Okay, so some of you might 00:24:19.771 --> 00:24:26.009 - recognize this brain. This was one of the big brains that we had when we had 22 brains around campus 00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:32.926 - and downtown. So I love brains, brains. This was a project through my not-for-profit, Jill Bulti Taylor Brains. 00:24:33.474 --> 00:24:42.108 - This is this anatomically correct stained glass brain. Brains are my whole life. It's in my play. It 00:24:42.108 --> 00:24:50.828 - is my work. And now I am limestone carving brains. So it just thrills my soul. So this is the central 00:24:50.828 --> 00:24:54.846 - nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord. 00:24:55.490 --> 00:25:01.790 - And as we look at the hemisphere, we can see it's divided into two hemispheres, the right hemisphere 00:25:01.790 --> 00:25:04.222 - and the left hemisphere. And these two 00:25:04.418 --> 00:25:10.660 - organize these two hemispheres organize information completely opposite from one another and because 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:17.025 - of that we end up with the big picture of the right here right now present moment right hemisphere and 00:25:17.025 --> 00:25:23.390 - then the left hemisphere is a serial processor which gives information then more information then more 00:25:23.390 --> 00:25:26.974 - information than in more information so we have linearity 00:25:27.074 --> 00:25:33.412 - across time. So we end up with a past, a present, and a future in our left hemisphere. And then we end 00:25:33.412 --> 00:25:39.626 - up in the present moment, right here, right now, big picture experience of the present moment, right 00:25:39.626 --> 00:25:45.779 - hemisphere. In the right hemisphere, right here, right now, are you paying attention? You look like 00:25:45.779 --> 00:25:52.055 - you're paying attention. So in this collection, you're not thinking about what you had for breakfast, 00:25:52.055 --> 00:25:54.270 - but you can do that. So go do that. 00:25:54.434 --> 00:26:00.735 - What did you picture your food if you had breakfast this morning? How does that even happen? Have you 00:26:00.735 --> 00:26:07.097 - ever stopped to consider how can my brain step out of the consciousness of the present moment and step 00:26:07.097 --> 00:26:13.521 - into a time that has already come and gone? To me, this is a phenomenal biological feat that this human 00:26:13.521 --> 00:26:20.254 - brain does. But in the right here, right now, let's say all of a sudden, the building should start to shake. 00:26:20.322 --> 00:26:26.811 - We're not thinking about our politics anymore. We're not thinking about gender differences. We're not 00:26:26.811 --> 00:26:33.428 - thinking about age differences. We're thinking about we as a collective whole gotta save Rotary, right? 00:26:33.428 --> 00:26:39.853 - We gotta get out as a pack and we're gonna help each other do that. That's what the right hemisphere 00:26:39.853 --> 00:26:46.534 - does. It is the collective whole. We are one human family. We are we. And then the left hemisphere comes 00:26:46.534 --> 00:26:47.806 - online and it says, 00:26:47.906 --> 00:26:55.723 - But I have an identity, because I have a group of cells that tells me I am Jill Bolte Taylor. It tells 00:26:55.723 --> 00:27:03.389 - me my age. It tells me my likes and my dislikes. It tells me the details of where I live, what is my 00:27:03.389 --> 00:27:08.702 - phone number. So I, me, the individual, I live in my left hemisphere. 00:27:08.802 --> 00:27:15.663 - So, on the morning of my stroke, when I experienced the wipeout of the left hemisphere, all I had was 00:27:15.663 --> 00:27:18.622 - the collective whole of the present moment. 00:27:18.818 --> 00:27:25.917 - And I was just this big energy ball. I didn't know where I began and ended because that's what goes 00:27:25.917 --> 00:27:33.228 - on in the left hemisphere. And in the absence of knowing where I begin and where I end, energetically, 00:27:33.228 --> 00:27:39.262 - I take the whole room. I become a part of you, and then we become the consciousness. 00:27:39.330 --> 00:27:46.519 - of the collective. So we have these two very different ways of looking at the world. And one of the 00:27:46.519 --> 00:27:53.851 - things about neurons is that the more they run a circuit, the more you run a circuit, the more you do 00:27:53.851 --> 00:28:01.111 - something, the more you learn something, the more automatic that circuitry becomes, and then it runs 00:28:01.111 --> 00:28:07.006 - on automatic and it just becomes a part of your normal way of being. So we end up 00:28:07.106 --> 00:28:12.993 - based on the values of these two very different hemispheres. So again, this is the right hemisphere, 00:28:12.993 --> 00:28:18.997 - the left hemisphere. This is the front of the brain, the back of the brain. Each of these bumps, those 00:28:18.997 --> 00:28:24.942 - are called the gyri. The lines in between are the soul shy. You never know when you need that kind of 00:28:24.942 --> 00:28:29.022 - information. Tonight at dinner, we will be talking gyri and soul shy. 00:28:29.506 --> 00:28:36.362 - The two hemispheres do not share any cell bodies, but they are communicating with one another so that 00:28:36.362 --> 00:28:42.814 - each hemisphere knows what's going on. And they communicate with one another through the corpus 00:28:42.882 --> 00:28:50.369 - colosum of some 300 million axonal fibers. So this group of cells and this group of cells that both 00:28:50.369 --> 00:28:58.080 - do comparable things, one is reaching over to the other and inhibiting it so that only one perspective 00:28:58.080 --> 00:29:05.118 - happens at a time. The brain does one thing at a time when it comes to these groups of cells. 00:29:05.442 --> 00:29:12.955 - But each of these gyri are going to be labeled, very specific names. And if I experience a problem with 00:29:12.955 --> 00:29:20.179 - cells here and you experience problems with those cells, we will experience similar symptoms. So it 00:29:20.179 --> 00:29:27.620 - is structurally and functionally organized. So here we have the brain stem, spinal cord was down here, 00:29:27.620 --> 00:29:35.422 - brain stem here, and then we have the limbic tissue on top here, and then the thinking tissue above in each 00:29:35.554 --> 00:29:44.498 - So the rock star of the nervous system is the neuron. We have some 800 billion neurons inside of our 00:29:44.498 --> 00:29:53.354 - brain. Each one of those cells is capable of communicating with 10 to 15,000 other cells all at the 00:29:53.354 --> 00:30:02.210 - same time. So there is this massive social organization going on between the different neurons. And 00:30:02.210 --> 00:30:04.158 - every ability we have 00:30:04.514 --> 00:30:11.218 - is because we have brain cells somewhere in our brain that is performing that function. So I can wiggle 00:30:11.218 --> 00:30:17.664 - my finger. You can wiggle your same finger because of a group of cells in a comparable place in our 00:30:17.664 --> 00:30:24.110 - brains. I can speak language. You can understand language because of brain cells that perform those 00:30:24.110 --> 00:30:26.302 - functions. So these are precious. 00:30:27.266 --> 00:30:34.349 - And they communicate with one another through the chemicals. And this was actually my work at Harvard 00:30:34.349 --> 00:30:40.946 - right before I had that hemorrhage. And this is a GABA neuron. This is a GABA cell, which uses 00:30:40.946 --> 00:30:47.891 - the neurotransmitter GABA. This is a serotonin cell in red. And this is a dopamine fiber in yellow. 00:30:47.891 --> 00:30:54.974 - So which cells are communicating with which other cells, with which chemicals, and in what quantities 00:30:55.106 --> 00:31:02.620 - of those chemicals was my research when I was at Harvard, because I would take normal control brains, 00:31:02.620 --> 00:31:10.060 - compare those two brains with schizophrenia, brains diagnosed with schizoaffective, OCD, and bipolar 00:31:10.060 --> 00:31:17.426 - disorder. So this was the, I'm a cellular neuroanatomist, this is what I care about. Okay, quickly, 00:31:17.426 --> 00:31:20.446 - a few myths about the brain. Number one, 00:31:20.578 --> 00:31:26.844 - We only use 10% of our brain. That's not true. That was said back in 1910, long before we understood 00:31:26.844 --> 00:31:33.358 - anything really about the brain. If it's alive and it's in your head, you're using it. Trust me on that. 00:31:33.358 --> 00:31:39.624 - And if you're not using it, it means other cells are not communicating with it, and then neurons are 00:31:39.624 --> 00:31:45.829 - like humans. They tend to, no stimulation, curl up into a little ball and die. So if it's alive and 00:31:45.829 --> 00:31:48.062 - it's in your head, you're using it. 00:31:48.642 --> 00:31:55.254 - Myth number two, the brain cells you are born with are the only cells you get. We also know that this 00:31:55.254 --> 00:32:01.737 - is not true. We are capable of converting some stem cells into new neurons and they tend to migrate 00:32:01.737 --> 00:32:08.414 - towards area of trauma, which is the only reason I'm speaking to you today because the cells that were 00:32:08.414 --> 00:32:15.155 - destroyed in my brain were mathematics and language. Number three, our brain is not capable of recovery 00:32:15.155 --> 00:32:15.998 - from trauma. 00:32:16.642 --> 00:32:23.050 - Of course, no, this is not true. Not just do we have neurogenesis, but we have neuroplasticity, which 00:32:23.050 --> 00:32:29.520 - is which cells are communicating with which other cells. And if I'm not getting any feedback from you, 00:32:29.520 --> 00:32:36.053 - then I may withdraw from you and reach out to you instead. And that's how neurons are coordinating with 00:32:36.053 --> 00:32:40.702 - one another. Our left brain is thinking and our right brain is emotional. 00:32:40.866 --> 00:32:48.150 - No, absolutely. Anatomically, we have emotion here in yellow and then here in green is thinking. We 00:32:48.150 --> 00:32:52.958 - have thinking and emotion in both hemispheres. They simply do it. 00:32:53.122 --> 00:33:00.202 - differently based on their time frame. So the right hemisphere will take fewer cells, send that information 00:33:00.202 --> 00:33:07.086 - to more cells, to more cells, to more cells, and biologically program to go from information to a bigger 00:33:07.086 --> 00:33:14.232 - picture. And then the exact opposite is true for the left hemisphere. Lots of different cells will converge, 00:33:14.232 --> 00:33:20.788 - converge, converge, converge, and this is how we can study details, details, and more details about 00:33:20.788 --> 00:33:22.558 - those details by that left 00:33:22.658 --> 00:33:29.956 - So thank goodness we have these two very different ways of perceiving and we perceive information into 00:33:29.956 --> 00:33:37.112 - the brain stem and then from there it goes first to the emotional tissue and then from the emotional 00:33:37.112 --> 00:33:44.126 - tissue up to the thinking tissue. So what this means is we humans are feeling creatures who think. 00:33:44.354 --> 00:33:51.795 - We are feeling creatures who think. So as we consider, so many of us intellectually like to think about 00:33:51.795 --> 00:33:58.950 - ourselves as thinking creatures who feel, we need to experience things, we need to feel things, and 00:33:58.950 --> 00:34:06.177 - then we can organize them in our higher thinking brain. And the thing about these emotional cells is 00:34:06.177 --> 00:34:09.182 - they never mature, and they are not meant 00:34:09.314 --> 00:34:17.234 - to mature because emotions gives us a filter through which information comes in so that we can protect 00:34:17.234 --> 00:34:24.923 - ourselves because this is going to be our fight, flight, free, fight, fight, danger, danger, threat 00:34:24.923 --> 00:34:33.150 - at the level of our emotions. So this is our emotional reactivity and our emotional reactivity is designed 00:34:33.218 --> 00:34:39.916 - to take information that already happened in some previous time, compare the consciousness flow of the 00:34:39.916 --> 00:34:46.680 - right brain as it brings in new information, and if it sees something that looks like danger or threat, 00:34:46.680 --> 00:34:53.378 - to push it away. So we actually want this system to be immature, but we don't want this group of cells 00:34:53.378 --> 00:35:00.011 - to always have the microphone. And we don't want this group of cells to lead a committee meeting. And 00:35:00.011 --> 00:35:03.198 - we don't want this in our politics, because this 00:35:03.682 --> 00:35:10.593 - is chaos. And chaos serves its function to save our lives, but it does not serve us as humanity because 00:35:10.593 --> 00:35:17.437 - we have higher thinking and we want to be able to get to our higher thinking. So the 92nd rule is that 00:35:17.437 --> 00:35:24.083 - from the moment I think a thought, I think a thought, it stimulates an emotion. Let's say I think a 00:35:24.083 --> 00:35:29.598 - thought of someone from 20 years ago who did me wrong, and it stimulates my anger. 00:35:30.210 --> 00:35:37.622 - and my anger stimulates a physiological response and I get furrow in my brow, my shoulders go up, I 00:35:37.622 --> 00:35:45.107 - move into more attack or fight or flight or whatever. From the moment I think the thought until it's 00:35:45.107 --> 00:35:49.406 - completely out of my bloodstream is less than 90 seconds. 00:35:50.050 --> 00:35:56.287 - I know you're thinking, oh, I can stay mad for a whole lot longer than 90 seconds, right? Every single 00:35:56.287 --> 00:36:02.827 - one of you, you're thinking that. But what you're doing is you're rethinking the thought that re-stimulates 00:36:02.827 --> 00:36:09.306 - and you're rerunning the circuits over and over and over again. So the next time you feel yourself getting 00:36:09.306 --> 00:36:15.543 - angry or getting really sad or getting even happy, your joy, it is only biologically going to last for 00:36:15.543 --> 00:36:17.662 - 90 seconds. So look at your watch. 00:36:17.826 --> 00:36:24.016 - and see. And when we master the 90 second rule and an understanding about our circuitry, then it's like 00:36:24.016 --> 00:36:29.968 - we can let things flush through us and flush out of us and we can go back to feeling peace. So this 00:36:29.968 --> 00:36:36.099 - was my hemorrhage. This is where it began on the morning of the stroke and then it ended up wiping out 00:36:36.099 --> 00:36:39.134 - the whole left hemisphere and the emotional system 00:36:39.234 --> 00:36:46.549 - in the right hemisphere. And so in the process of rebuilding this circuitry, what I realized was that 00:36:46.549 --> 00:36:53.937 - when certain groups of cells came back online, those cells resulted in skill sets and those skill sets 00:36:53.937 --> 00:37:01.252 - packaged together as personalities. And it was like, wow, isn't that interesting? And then it becomes 00:37:01.252 --> 00:37:08.926 - a whole part of my identity. So there are four of us. There is left thinking, left emotion, right emotion, 00:37:09.122 --> 00:37:15.595 - and right thinking groups of cells. And each one of them, we're gonna talk about what they give us and 00:37:15.595 --> 00:37:22.068 - the personality that comes out of it. And I call this whole brain living. And the power of whole brain 00:37:22.068 --> 00:37:28.478 - living is that I have the power to choose in any moment which of these four characters I wanna be in. 00:37:28.770 --> 00:37:36.231 - Which one is it appropriate for me to be in? Which one do I want to step into based on a scenario of 00:37:36.231 --> 00:37:43.914 - a relationship now in my external world? Because if there's four of me in here and there's four in you, 00:37:43.914 --> 00:37:50.046 - every relationship has eight character profiles. Some of us get along really well. 00:37:50.306 --> 00:37:57.564 - One and character one might go together, but a character two, left emotion, pain from the past, and 00:37:57.564 --> 00:38:04.895 - left emotion, pain from the past, will never find a resolution. So someone has to be willing to step 00:38:04.895 --> 00:38:12.371 - out of the pain from the past and step into and embody one of the other three that are healthier parts 00:38:12.371 --> 00:38:19.774 - of who we are. So as you navigate your world, I want you to consider these four parts of who you are. 00:38:20.002 --> 00:38:27.044 - And ultimately, I want you to consider, do you recognize this character inside of you? What does it 00:38:27.044 --> 00:38:34.369 - feel like to be in your body? Under what circumstances does this character come out? Give the character 00:38:34.369 --> 00:38:41.411 - a name. Name your four identities. They're you. Who around you appreciates and identifies with this 00:38:41.411 --> 00:38:44.862 - part of you? And who runs from this part of you? 00:38:45.282 --> 00:38:52.957 - because you will be able to create a network of who's who inside of you and your external world so that 00:38:52.957 --> 00:39:00.853 - the world makes so much more sense. So, character one, left thinking. This is what our medical traditional 00:39:00.853 --> 00:39:07.569 - medicine says is the conscious part of our brain. This is the part of us that is the boss. 00:39:07.569 --> 00:39:10.078 - It's our ego. The focus is on me. 00:39:10.434 --> 00:39:17.040 - It likes structure in the external world. It's judgmental, detail-based, organizes and categorizes 00:39:17.040 --> 00:39:23.713 - everything. It loves order. It thinks linearly across time, critically analyzes everything, defines 00:39:23.713 --> 00:39:30.520 - the social norm of what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is bad. It's language-based. It's 00:39:30.520 --> 00:39:37.259 - pretty much my way or the highway. I be the boss, dictates what is right, what is wrong. It is neat. 00:39:37.259 --> 00:39:40.062 - It believes in what is proper and what is 00:39:40.226 --> 00:39:46.481 - the perfectionist inside of me. This is the part of us that plans well. It respects authority and expects 00:39:46.481 --> 00:39:52.500 - your its authority to be respected as well. And it needs to be right. When was the last time you were 00:39:52.500 --> 00:39:58.519 - in a verbal conversation with somebody that really was, I really don't care about this fight anymore, 00:39:58.519 --> 00:40:01.470 - but I need to be right. And I need the last word. 00:40:01.858 --> 00:40:08.014 - It fixes things, and it likes to control people, places, and things. We all have to have this part of 00:40:08.014 --> 00:40:14.050 - ourselves. This is how we survive in society. And thank goodness for this character one, because it 00:40:14.050 --> 00:40:20.387 - is the hierarchy of our government. It is the hierarchy of our school system. It is the hierarchy inside 00:40:20.387 --> 00:40:26.604 - of our family units. So somebody needs to be the boss, and it would be your left thinking. I call mine 00:40:26.604 --> 00:40:28.958 - Helen. Helen wheels. She gets it done. 00:40:29.922 --> 00:40:36.029 - She's busy. People know. They call me up. Friends call. They say, oh, hi, Helen. And then it's like, 00:40:36.029 --> 00:40:42.076 - oh, well, do you think maybe somebody else might call me later today? Because Helen's busy. Helen's 00:40:42.076 --> 00:40:48.122 - got a to-do list. And she doesn't want to be interrupted. And she shows up in the office. And she's 00:40:48.122 --> 00:40:54.229 - the only part of me that puts in earrings. And none of my other characters wear earrings. So you can 00:40:54.229 --> 00:40:59.006 - always tell just by looking at me if I'm being a character one. Character two. 00:40:59.458 --> 00:41:04.966 - is the left emotion. So these cells are miraculous. These are the cells that have stepped out of the 00:41:04.966 --> 00:41:10.473 - present moment. First of all, let's talk about the present moment. Present moment, pretty good, huh? 00:41:10.473 --> 00:41:15.981 - What's the temperature feel like? Feel it. What does it feel like to have your clothes on your body? 00:41:15.981 --> 00:41:21.598 - Think about that. Feel the weight now? So you weren't thinking about that before. Are you comfortable? 00:41:22.658 --> 00:41:29.911 - We don't have a reason to not be happy in the present moment, because all our reasons for not being 00:41:29.911 --> 00:41:37.165 - happy are in our past. Right here, right now, it's a perfect moment. So emotionally, these cells in 00:41:37.165 --> 00:41:41.662 - the left hemisphere step out of the present moment perfectly. 00:41:41.794 --> 00:41:49.443 - perfect, feels great into the pain from the past. So this is all of our pain from the past. Our emotional 00:41:49.443 --> 00:41:56.802 - pain, our physical pain, any physical trauma that we're experiencing is going to be in this Character 00:41:56.802 --> 00:41:58.462 - 2 tissue. Character 2. 00:41:58.562 --> 00:42:05.449 - It's the alarm alarm alert alert based on past experience. Oh, I had a bad experience with a guy like 00:42:05.449 --> 00:42:12.606 - you before, so I'll never date another dude that looks like you because I'm remembering that and bringing 00:42:12.606 --> 00:42:19.425 - past information to inform my present. It's my self-focus. This is my survival. We have to have this 00:42:19.425 --> 00:42:24.286 - group of cells to knee-jerk, kick stuff away that feels unsafe. It can. 00:42:24.386 --> 00:42:31.062 - look angry or aggressive it may worry or complain this is the part of us that holds a grudge this can 00:42:31.062 --> 00:42:37.672 - be a victim mentality it likes to blame others for our stuff it's all of our past emotional pain and 00:42:37.672 --> 00:42:44.413 - it is the craving circuitry for our addictions well isn't that interesting if i get rid of the craving 00:42:44.413 --> 00:42:50.238 - do i still have the addiction that's another story we'll talk about that some other time 00:42:50.690 --> 00:42:57.617 - This part of the brain loves conditionally. Oh, sweetheart, I love you so much. Yes, I'll marry you 00:42:57.617 --> 00:43:04.751 - as long as you stay in the box of ABCD. But as soon as you do EFG, we are so done, right? So this part 00:43:04.751 --> 00:43:12.094 - is conditional love. Present moment anxiety, fear of the future, because it's not here. It's past trauma, 00:43:12.094 --> 00:43:17.150 - self-loathing and deprecating. It may be our feelings of guilt or shame. 00:43:17.250 --> 00:43:24.459 - This is our most vulnerable self. This is the part of us, when we move into this part of ourselves, 00:43:24.459 --> 00:43:31.957 - we're potentially suicidal, situationally happy or unhappy. The thing about this information is we have 00:43:31.957 --> 00:43:38.662 - this character two information for in formation. And as soon as we turn it into a lifestyle, 00:43:38.662 --> 00:43:45.150 - we're in trouble. So we can't let our pain from the past dominate what's happening in our 00:43:45.346 --> 00:43:52.184 - moment, and it is necessary for healing. But because of this, we can reflect upon our pain, we can heal 00:43:52.184 --> 00:43:59.614 - our pain, we can transform our lives back into a present moment experience that is healthy. Okay, character two. 00:43:59.746 --> 00:44:05.427 - Character three is going to be the right brain emotional system. Right here, right now, information 00:44:05.427 --> 00:44:11.222 - streaming in through our emotional cells. This is a very excited part of who we are. You can feel it. 00:44:11.222 --> 00:44:17.017 - You can see it in my body. I call mine Pig Pen. She's just going to make a mess, and then she's going 00:44:17.017 --> 00:44:21.278 - to play, and it's going to be with you because we're the collective whole. 00:44:21.378 --> 00:44:26.907 - So this is present moment alarm, alarm alert, alert, fight, flight, or freeze. It's right here, 00:44:26.907 --> 00:44:32.896 - right now, collective whole, we rather than me. It's experiential. What does it feel like to be in your 00:44:32.896 --> 00:44:38.137 - body when you dive into the water and you feel the pressure of the water against your body 00:44:38.137 --> 00:44:43.550 - and the temperature of the water in the present moment and we can feel the sensation of what, 00:44:43.550 --> 00:44:45.278 - oh my gosh, it's so exciting. 00:44:45.378 --> 00:44:52.224 - And it's compassionate and forgiving and playful because why would I not be compassionate with you when 00:44:52.224 --> 00:44:59.004 - you are a part of me? It's adventurous and curious and intuitive and it's possibilities based because, 00:44:59.004 --> 00:45:05.586 - oh my gosh, we're not in the box of the left hemisphere. So it's innovative and entrepreneurial and 00:45:05.586 --> 00:45:09.470 - it accepts what is as it is non-judgmental. It's friendly. 00:45:09.570 --> 00:45:16.606 - It's team-based, enthusiastic, and it can be explosive. And if it's explosive in the present moment 00:45:16.606 --> 00:45:23.853 - and it makes a bad decision, it may well end up in jail, right? Oh, the neighbors aren't home and they 00:45:23.853 --> 00:45:31.100 - have a pool in their backyard and it's 3 o'clock in the morning. Come on, Michael, let's go skinny-dip 00:45:31.100 --> 00:45:38.910 - in the pool at the neighbor's house. And then we end up in jail because, of course, they have an alarm system. 00:45:39.106 --> 00:45:45.926 - This is literally, our prisons are filled with people who had a bad moment in their character three. 00:45:45.926 --> 00:45:52.746 - And if you're an adrenaline junkie, you know this part of you well. And then character four is going 00:45:52.746 --> 00:45:59.498 - to be the right thinking. And in the right thinking, it's in the present moment. And in the present 00:45:59.498 --> 00:46:06.385 - moment, there is this precious gift that we call life. And oh my gosh, we have life and then we don't 00:46:06.385 --> 00:46:09.086 - have life. But the gift of the universe 00:46:09.282 --> 00:46:17.916 - is life and as life I have awe that I exist at all and I live in a state of grace and gratitude because 00:46:17.916 --> 00:46:26.716 - in an instant boom it can be gone and then it's all over so there's this there's this beauty about simply 00:46:26.716 --> 00:46:34.686 - being alive and where we're open and we feel that we're as big as the universe and we are aware 00:46:34.786 --> 00:46:42.061 - of the fragile nature of what we are with celebration in our heart. And it's the big picture, collective 00:46:42.061 --> 00:46:49.336 - whole, the we rather than the we. It is empathic, not judgmental. It's generous of spirit and supportive 00:46:49.336 --> 00:46:56.542 - and nurturing and connected because we are and we are wired to be this. It's our authentic or self, our 00:46:56.642 --> 00:47:04.789 - honesty it's we can be humble and humane intentional and this part of who we are feels like love because 00:47:04.789 --> 00:47:12.549 - on you know when we move into our deathbed and character ones two and three are all offline because 00:47:12.549 --> 00:47:20.385 - we lived the life that we lived and now all we have is presence this is the consciousness of what we 00:47:20.385 --> 00:47:22.558 - have that separates us from 00:47:22.882 --> 00:47:30.562 - from life and no life. So this is a beautiful, beautiful, magical part of who we are that is blissful 00:47:30.562 --> 00:47:38.091 - and ever-present. So we have all four. Each one of us has all four. And I encourage you to consider 00:47:38.091 --> 00:47:39.070 - that because 00:47:39.298 --> 00:47:46.037 - You have the power to choose moment by moment who and how you want to be. And in this world of consternation 00:47:46.037 --> 00:47:52.282 - where character twos are coming in and poking us, whether that's with our political conversations or 00:47:52.282 --> 00:47:56.734 - just in the family unit and it's your little brother, poke, poke, poke. 00:47:56.802 --> 00:48:03.178 - I don't have to respond, I don't have to react. I can simply look at you with love in my heart as a 00:48:03.178 --> 00:48:10.000 - character four, recognizing, okay, we are humans, we are humanity here together, and we're all functioning 00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:16.439 - with different circuitry running inside of our brain, and the conversations of the pain and the fear 00:48:16.439 --> 00:48:22.815 - of little character two, I can observe your character two, I can wrap my love around your character 00:48:22.815 --> 00:48:26.768 - two, but I don't have to tit for tat with your character two, 00:48:26.768 --> 00:48:33.332 - because I had the capacity to step into my character one. And when it ultimately comes back to what 00:48:33.332 --> 00:48:40.027 - happened to our politics, let's go back to being the character ones in the world. And I can guarantee 00:48:40.027 --> 00:48:46.722 - you that as you look at the world and you look at who you are in relationship to it and the news that 00:48:46.722 --> 00:48:53.549 - you're listening to and which part of you are you influencing, you have the power to choose, not today, 00:48:53.549 --> 00:48:55.518 - I'm not gonna listen to that, 00:48:55.650 --> 00:49:03.250 - I'm going to listen to this instead. And this is the part of who I am that I'm going to bring out with 00:49:03.250 --> 00:49:11.071 - my neighbors because I live in Bloomington. And Bloomington is a neighborly place to be. It's a beautiful 00:49:11.071 --> 00:49:12.030 - place to be. 00:49:12.162 --> 00:49:19.028 - We're a special unit of people. And when we really come together and we recognize that part of ourselves 00:49:19.028 --> 00:49:25.567 - and we own that part of ourselves, then Bloomington is what we want Bloomington to be. So I'm going 00:49:25.567 --> 00:49:32.303 - to end with the brain huddle. This is bringing all four of parts of who you are into conversation with 00:49:32.303 --> 00:49:37.534 - one another. Breath. Why focus on breath? It brings us into the present moment. 00:49:37.634 --> 00:49:44.033 - And the present moment is a perfect moment. And then recognize which one of my characters was I who 00:49:44.033 --> 00:49:50.431 - called this brain huddle. It could be any of my four characters calling a huddle in order to have a 00:49:50.431 --> 00:49:56.958 - communication. Always appreciate there are always four inside of me. And this is so beautiful because 00:49:56.958 --> 00:49:57.790 - if my little 00:49:57.858 --> 00:50:04.668 - character two feels any pain or any isolation or any loneliness or any grief because someone I love 00:50:04.668 --> 00:50:11.615 - is dying or has died, my own character four can come in and hold me. We have the power to self-soothe 00:50:11.615 --> 00:50:18.562 - ourselves and be whole humans because we're wired for this at the level of our brain. And then moment 00:50:18.562 --> 00:50:25.781 - by moment, inquire, which other four do I want to be in this moment? Well, in this moment, you're getting 00:50:25.781 --> 00:50:27.824 - my character one. In an hour, 00:50:27.824 --> 00:50:34.515 - I'm going to be playing with my puppy dogs as a character three. I have the power to choose who and 00:50:34.515 --> 00:50:41.540 - how I want to be. And then we navigate life moment by moment, character by character. You have the power 00:50:41.540 --> 00:50:47.629 - to choose who and how you want to be in the world. And the evolution of humanity is waking 00:50:47.629 --> 00:50:54.386 - up your unconscious brain and becoming a fully conscious person. And that's the power of what we are 00:50:54.386 --> 00:50:56.862 - and where we are in time. Thank you. 00:51:08.738 --> 00:51:16.480 - I'm mainly just a fan of yours, Jill. My daughter studied under you in medical school, and I knew your 00:51:16.480 --> 00:51:24.222 - father was an outstanding Episcopal clergy who served. So I'm going to ask you a really hard question, 00:51:24.222 --> 00:51:31.739 - theological one. How do our human brain brains are different from those of the animals? What is the 00:51:31.739 --> 00:51:38.654 - difference between a typical mammal and a human is that that outer layer of cerebral cortex 00:51:38.754 --> 00:51:49.168 - Ours is six layers thick. In some places, only four. But in a typical mammal, it's only three layers 00:51:49.168 --> 00:51:59.582 - thick. So we have twice the amount of intellectual tissue to work with at the level of our character 00:51:59.582 --> 00:52:05.150 - one and character four thinking brains. I'm friendly. 00:52:11.170 --> 00:52:18.547 - If one of those character areas is damaged through a stroke or some other traumatic brain injury, and 00:52:18.547 --> 00:52:25.851 - we use more than 10% of our brain to use the quote, how does the brain make up for the damaged part? 00:52:25.851 --> 00:52:33.517 - You know what I mean? So the damaged area is going to be cells that have been traumatized. They're either 00:52:33.517 --> 00:52:35.614 - now dormant or they're dead. 00:52:35.810 --> 00:52:43.812 - or they're rearranged a little in there. So because of the neuroplasticity and the neurogenesis, the 00:52:43.812 --> 00:52:51.735 - brain tends to grow new neurons, turn stem cells into neurons. They will migrate naturally to areas 00:52:51.735 --> 00:52:52.606 - of trauma. 00:52:52.674 --> 00:53:00.177 - and network themselves into the tissue that is now damaged and then because of neuroplasticity, they 00:53:00.177 --> 00:53:07.605 - can actually fill in local problem areas. It's much easier for the brain to do that than now I have 00:53:07.605 --> 00:53:15.182 - a developmental problem and so an entire system is offline and because we can't tell neurons where to 00:53:15.182 --> 00:53:18.302 - go, they instinctively will follow trauma 00:53:18.402 --> 00:53:26.819 - And then they will reconnect a local zone. But getting this area to communicate with that area, we haven't 00:53:26.819 --> 00:53:34.922 - figured out how to prime the knowing of the neurons to do something like that. But we are growing some 00:53:34.922 --> 00:53:42.946 - new neurons. Did you have a question? No? OK. I'm just amazed that you fully recovered in the way you 00:53:42.946 --> 00:53:47.902 - have. And I'm just curious about the journey. Did you do this? 00:53:48.034 --> 00:53:54.326 - because you just willed it so, or did you have a whole team of friends and family around you? How did 00:53:54.326 --> 00:54:00.555 - you do this, and how did you keep your spirits up and be where you are today? Well, let's start with 00:54:00.555 --> 00:54:06.847 - how I kept my spirits up. The part of my spirits that would not keep up was my left brain, and it was 00:54:06.847 --> 00:54:12.830 - all fine. So I was just thrilled to be alive. And my mother came to Bloomington, came to Boston, 00:54:12.898 --> 00:54:19.675 - and moved in with me, and then was with me for three weeks before I had surgery, and then three weeks 00:54:19.675 --> 00:54:26.452 - after that, and then she took me to Terre Haute. So she was my primary hands-on, but I used, but what 00:54:26.452 --> 00:54:33.296 - my mother did, which was the greatest gift, was she watched me, and if I was tired, she put me to bed, 00:54:33.296 --> 00:54:40.073 - and if I was hungry, she fed me, and then she taught me, and we went back to children's books, and so 00:54:40.073 --> 00:54:42.864 - she exposed me, but respected the healing 00:54:42.864 --> 00:54:49.418 - power of sleep and the healing power of what she was actually feeding me. And like I was a newborn, 00:54:49.418 --> 00:54:56.365 - she took me through the different stages of development. But I was using what I still had in my knowledge 00:54:56.365 --> 00:55:03.247 - of how neurons are, because they had been my whole life and for study and my whole research and my whole 00:55:03.247 --> 00:55:09.998 - education, what I was teaching. So I think in terms of circuits and tracks. And so I could tell on the 00:55:09.998 --> 00:55:12.816 - morning of the stroke, oh, that's offline. 00:55:12.816 --> 00:55:19.472 - that's offline, that's offline until it was all offline. So I used what I understood about neurons to 00:55:19.472 --> 00:55:26.453 - recover and re-heal new circuits one at a time. And my world started very, very small, and then eventually 00:55:26.453 --> 00:55:33.240 - it grew a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger. But I wrote a book, My Stroke of Insight. And that 00:55:33.240 --> 00:55:40.156 - takes you moment by moment through the process of recovery. First, it takes you through who I was before, 00:55:40.156 --> 00:55:41.918 - the morning of the stroke. 00:55:42.018 --> 00:55:47.816 - And I thought the morning of the stroke was the gift, because if people would read that and watch my 00:55:47.816 --> 00:55:53.958 - own brain deteriorate through the eyes of a scientist, then it would give other people a real appreciation 00:55:53.958 --> 00:55:59.871 - for how their brain is organized. And then everybody wanted, well, why did you recover? And so I wrote 00:55:59.871 --> 00:56:05.727 - about that recovery, and then I threw in a few chapters at the back about what I thought I had gained 00:56:05.727 --> 00:56:11.984 - from this experience. So it's a beautiful book. It spent 63 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list back 00:56:11.984 --> 00:56:20.731 - And it's still usually in the top 10 of strokes of books on stroke on Amazon. I mean, it's a beautiful 00:56:20.731 --> 00:56:28.798 - story. And then, but it was it, but then it was, I wrote Whole Brain Living in 2021, because I 00:56:28.866 --> 00:56:34.930 - I better understood how to communicate with other people about how can you identify these parts of who 00:56:34.930 --> 00:56:41.111 - you are so you can live a more peaceful life. My ultimate goal, I spend very little time in Bloomington, 00:56:41.111 --> 00:56:47.116 - which is why I'm here because I just finished six months of traveling and now I'm here and it's like, 00:56:47.116 --> 00:56:53.298 - well, why wouldn't I come and talk to my people in Bloomington, right? But I'm out in the world teaching 00:56:53.298 --> 00:56:58.832 - systems about whole brain living so that people can find more peace. I believe the more of us 00:56:58.832 --> 00:57:06.304 - who can look at a very hostile and angry or sad person and love that person in spite of themselves in 00:57:06.304 --> 00:57:13.995 - a gracious way and still be the best part of who I am in the presence of them and help them out of their 00:57:13.995 --> 00:57:21.760 - pain into the more peaceful parts of their brain and the more peaceful the planet will become. And that's 00:57:21.760 --> 00:57:26.814 - kind of my whole mission in life. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you everybody. 00:57:27.810 --> 00:57:35.670 - You might stick around for some questions afterwards. You might stick around for some questions afterwards. 00:57:35.670 --> 00:57:43.021 - OK, I will. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. This quarter to Wheeler Mission, I'd like to 00:57:43.021 --> 00:57:50.227 - thank today's volunteers, Diana Hoffman, Katie Cerniak, Michael Shermis, Joy Harder, Marilyn Wood, 00:57:50.227 --> 00:57:57.214 - Mike Baker, Jeff Richardson. Next meeting will be here next week in the Georgia Room, April 28. 00:57:57.378 --> 00:58:05.586 - Efrat Rosser, Bloomington Township Trustee, will bring us up to date with developments in Indiana regarding 00:58:05.586 --> 00:58:13.262 - townships. Lots of things have happened in the state legislature regarding townships. So please join 00:58:13.262 --> 00:58:21.090 - us. Tyler, if you'd put up the graphic for the four-way test, and please stand if you are able. Of the 00:58:21.090 --> 00:58:25.118 - things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? 00:58:25.570 --> 00:58:32.865 - Second, is it fair to all concern? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will 00:58:32.865 --> 00:58:36.798 - it be beneficial to all concern? And fifth, is it fun?