This is a continuation of an article that can be found here. You should read that article first to get the most value out of this post.  Enjoy!

Ken Ritchie

Intuitively, I’ve grown up rather “creatively” so I don’t tend to reach intentionally for L or R, but rather interplay and balance.

R-Mode Accessing Techniques:

• - draw, sketch, doodle, diagram, flowcharts
• - listen to music
• - I drive and carry a voice recorder to capture the words (but it doesn’t capture the visualizations)
• - I walk around (bodily-kinesthetic or haptic but spatial none the less)
• - Analogies come easily, and I look for parallels and similes
• - I seem to favor the visual-structural modeling and sketching as my break- from-L-mode tactic

Comment: I met Ken many years ago and find him to be very right brain or at least able to go to extreme right brain when needed. Its nice that he still has lots of R-Mode shifting exercises he uses.  Ken tells me that he is very visual but others have assessed him as being very even L-Mode / R-Mode.

Robert Poulk

Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (P.S.) by Robert Pursig. It’s not a  self-help book by any stretch of the  imagination, but his writings on the two ways to sense the world around us are foundational to this discussion.  It is one  of the 3 books that are required reading  for all analysts/troubleshooters. There are 2 ways to assimilate the world around us, the way engineers do and the way the other 99.99% of the population does. This is about learning to grok your customer’s context so you can solve the problem rather than just fix the symptom.

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (Sherlock Holmes) — we spend 75% of our time troubleshooting our own assumptions. These stories are all about not doing that. \

The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions (1st book) — Technologists and troubleshooters especially are not always so smart about the world of people. This book contains everything you need to know to survive the world in which we practice our craft.

The trick is in seeing that every problem  can be solved with linear methods only at the micro level, and then only if you  understand the macro context that  surrounds the symptoms. Performing  tests to refine the symptoms is actually a  way to generate points that  help define  the context.

Michael Spayd

I like Hermann’s http://www.hbdi.com/home/ work on brain stuff (wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrmann_Brain_Dominance_Instrument.

I don’t think per se about going right brain, but I do think a lot about getting myself and others into their body, which I think has fundamentally the same effect.

I use  these practices:
- meditation
- shamanic journeying
- simple body-based exercises
- systemic constellations
- drumming - chanting
- dancing, acting/theatre exercises (e.g., Lee Devin who wrote Artful Making and teaches theatre),
- playback theatre (a form of improv)
- and in general just create my own rituals.

Martin van Laerhoven

The best way to enhance and improve both sides is by meditation. Not only will meditation help you synchronize and improve the use of both hemispheres, search for whole brain function or see example link

Meditation will also help you to use the brain over a wider range. Where mostly we are in the awakened state in Beta, with meditation you become capable to also utilize Alpha, Theta and Delta while in an awakened state.

I have used Holosync Meditation for more then 6 years and I can tell you it has helped me tremendous. See last link, here also more on the previous issues:

Links:
http://www.guide-to-self-help-techniques.com/brainwave-synchronization.html
http://web-us.com/brainwavesfunction.htm
http://www.centerpointe.com/

Comment: I meditate and it helps me more than I  can attest here, so I know thew value of meditation. Two of the three links above refer to products for sale. I have not used these and cannot attest to their value. So buyer beware. However, if you try them, please let me know what your opinions are about the products.  I do use some guided visualization audio CDs for helping me meditate at times and find them to be wonderful. The ones I use are locally made (in Richmond VA) and as well I make my own custom guided visualization CDs (not for sale, just for my use).

Michael Haskell

I also draw as a hobby, something I recently rediscovered from grade school and earlier and something that I had forgotten about completely until taking a drawing class in college. I’m more of a right-brainer by nature, so it’s the left braining that I’m more apt to try to focus on.

That said, one exercise I’ve found to be helpful in “getting the whole picture” of things is Edward De Bono’s ‘Thinking Caps’ (Six Thinking Hats). I try to exercise his paradigm when planning or troubleshooting things.

I don’t mind the questions, I think people should communicate as much as possible, especially in cases of development and understanding.

Comment: I’ve read several of De Bono’s books and love the concepts. I practice some modified versions of these when I brainstorm as an individual. I’ve not been successful applying the six hats in teams. My teams tend to have problems that need solutions that seem to benefit from other types of contrast brainstorming.

Next Up

I’ll continue to post on this topic as I learn more and as others provide their input. I will write a post about my practices for Brain Lateralization but that may be in a week two.

Book’s Mentioned In This Article

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (P.S.)

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (Sherlock Holmes)

The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions

Six Thinking Hats

Its been nearly 11 months since I’ve written a blog post here at Vital Journey. My reluctance to blog has been a series of pure unadulterated excuses. Its easy to let the time slip by, living life and frittering away time in so many uncountable and unappreciated ways and not getting to the really stretch goals in your life. Nevertheless, in the end, blogging reluctance has manifested in my head like an ongoing series of mosquito bites. Each one not so bad, but the shear number of irritations has kept me away.

So you might ask, irritated at what? Well I’ve fallen into a trap that I have warned my kids about and my life coaching customers. I’ve compared myself to other friends and twitteriees that blog. You see, I work in IT in Higher Education. Many of my friends on twitter and elsewhere are well-established faculty or long standing members of the Higher Education community. There can wax elegantly about topics of passion. Many write and speak publically as part of their profession. Consider the excellent blog at Gardner Writes as the standard-bearer.

You see, I’m a technical geek that has a science and engineering background. Society tells us we are not good at writing, social skills and other forms of living in the community. I may be a geek, but I’m a full fledged member of the community and those stereotypes just don’t exist in my existence anymore. They are no longer part of my universe.

As I tell my life-coaching customers, don’t be denied by your self limiting beliefs. The more I believe I can’t blog, the more I can’t. I’m no longer going to compare myself to others in the blogging community. As Leo Babauta says, Life’s Enough: Stop Comparing Yourself to Others.

Today is the beginning: I’m making a commitment to tear down my self limiting geek beliefs and begin again. Knowing that with practice, my written expression will improve. There is no reason I can’t become a blogger extraordinaire.

So go identify some of your self limiting beliefs and tear them down. Dream big. You just might achieve something extraordinary.

While researching related blogs I came across Zen Habits by Leo Babauta who seems to be on the same type of journey I’m one.  He appears to be a year or two ahead of me in getting the word out that You Can Change Your Life for the better. Happiness and inspiration are your destiny.  In a recent post he talks about Design Your Life: What Would You Do If You Had Nothing To Do? Give Zen Habits a read and visit back here as I continue to provide insight into how be on a Vital Journey.

Technorati Tags: alignment, inspiration, zen

Some people wonder all the time if they should be doing something better with their time.   A better job, a better relationship, a better hobby, a mission in life! Are you one of them or are you already in the zone or flow?

Walt Whitman described being in the zone this way:

“Well, every man has a religion;
has something in heaven or earth which he
will give up everything else for - something which
absorbs him - which may be regarded by others
as being useless - yet it is his dream, it is his lodestar,
it is his master. That, whatever it is seized
upon me, made me its servant, slave - induced
me to set aside the other ambitions - a
trail of glory in the heavens,
which I followed, followed with a full heart….
When once I am convinced, I never let go…”

If this passage resonates with you then you are one of the lucky ones.  You are operating in the flow and dare I say are inspired to do what you do!  You should know, if his words don’t resonate with you then you haven’t found that one special thing you need to devote your time, energy, passion and most of all your love to…

Fret not!  There is hope!  More than I year ago I was in what most people would call a very successful career. But I was unfulfilled.  My health was suffering, my relationships were suffering and I was flat out unhappy! Don’t get me wrong. I did a good job and was rewarded. But I dreaded going to work and came home tired and unable to recharge my energy. My kids thought I was a crump!

So I set out on a journey to discover what I should be doing. To find my passion, to get inspired, to be one with infinite capacity…  

The journey has only just begun, but alone the way I have already gotten my dream job and discovered my mission outside of work.  So when I first heard this passage by Walt Whitman, I knew instantly that it was written for me. It spoke to my head and heart. You see, most of my day at work and at home feels like flow. And the more I focus on that feeling, the more I operate in the zone. What I do every day is now my oxygen, my nutrient, my life blood!

I’ve started this blog, Vital Journey, to help inspire you to find your passions, to be in the flow, to be in the zone. I hope to teach, coach and outline some of what has worked for me.  I’ll try to make you laugh, sometimes make you cry and hopefully outline some of the steps that you can take to find your place!  And from time to time I’ll just complain about things as well.

As we take this journey together, let me know what’s working for you and what’s not. Let’s elevate each other, to be all that we can be and more!

Technorati Tags: inspiration, career, flow