Are you right brained or left brained?
Enter any art room today and you will here someone profess that they are a “right brain thinker” or a “left brain thinker”. Yet the truth is, all of us are neither! So before you dismiss the idea of joining an art class in Kingscliff or an online watercolour class because you aren't the correct "brain type," let me to debunk that myth for you once and for all!
Where the myth began:
The origins of this myth came from research from the 1960s where the ‘corpus callosum’ (the band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres) was cut out from epilepsy patients as a last-resort treatment, allowing scientists to experiment on how each hemisphere worked in isolation.
What current research tells us:
But the blatant truth is that while our brains remain intact inside our skulls, both brain hemispheres are inextricably connected. Current research tells us that there are actually three areas of the brain associated with creativity:
the Attentional Control Network (helps us to focus on a task)
the Imagination Network (helps us to construct mental images from imagined scenarios and memories of past events)
the Attentional Flexibility Network (monitors what’s going on around us and helps us to switch between the Imagination Network and Attentional Control.
So, what does this mean for your creativity?
So, what does that mean for you? The “left-brain, right-brain” myth can no longer be your self-deprecating excuse for a lack of creativity.
You are creative! ….or at least, you could be.
Your brain is remarkably malleable and can be taught and trained to be more creative. That’s where I come in. I specialise in teaching people who “can’t draw” or “aren’t creative” how to tap into their inner artist. Interested? I run Creative Classes at the Artory as online art classes and in-person art classes in Kingscliff, NSW and art classes on the Gold Coast, QLD.
Written by Anne Smerdon
