10 Jun BE AMBIDEXTROUS…IF YOU WANT MORE POISE, CREATIVITY, AND BALANCE IN YOUR LIFE
SUMMARY
Physiology effects function. Every time you strengthen your non-dominant side, you not only balance your physical body, but also become more mentally and emotionally poised and balanced. Subsequently, ambidextrous people are usually more adventurous and have more fun.
OVERUSE(Sidedness)
As I chiropractor I see so many people in pain.
A professional painter came to me with a herniated disk. He’d been to a handful of the best doctors in the city. They were trying to treat the problem by addressing the disk itself. However, no one was addressing the imbalance in the I.T. band, Gluteal muscles, external rotators, or Illiopsoas, which was putting a constant torque on his low back and hips, keeping the vertebra rotated, and the nerve chronically impinged.
I asked him to show me how he works, the way he stands. He held the roller and brush with the same hand, and stood on the ladder with his legs in the same position for many hours. The constant overuse of specific positions strengthened the muscles required to hold that position, and weakened others, resulting in imbalances. This happens to all of us. The pressure of gravity, along with injuries, and anatomical inequalities effect our anatomical balance. Is it any wonder why we develop alignment problems? I call this phenomenon “sidedness.”
However, sidedness goes much deeper than physical pain conditions. Our lives get into ruts, physically, mentally, and emotionally. We perform the same activities in the same way, physically and mentally, everyday for years. One gets crystalized into the way they move. One feels comfortable with certain movements and uncomfortable with others.
FINELY TUNED NEURAL PATHWAYS
The more you practice an activity, the more dexterous you become. For example, a professional golfer has developed a finely tuned connection of muscle, brain, and nerve in her golf swing. However, it is one sided. If she performs the swing on the nondominant side—even a professional may feel clumsy and awkward. The connection of brain, muscle, nerve, sometimes referred to as proprioception, is not fine tuned in the non dominant side.
CREATE NEW NERVE PATHWAYS
The more we can break out of our crystalized patterns the more alive we become. This entails moving differently in new ways. The more we develop activities on the opposite side, the more finely tuned our potential abilities. Ambidextrousness creates more poise in the physical body, which I believe translates into mental and emotional poise. Ultimately ambidextrousness makes you a more balanced and creative person.
TRAINED IN RIGHT HANDED DOMINANCE
There seems to be many more right handed than left handed people.
However, in reality, people are born about 50% lefty.
Society trains us to be right handed. Right handed people fit better into the world.
Right handers tend to be more left brained. They approach life from the left hemisphere of the brain. Left brained people do well with science, math, and worldly endeavors. They are analytical, competitive, and basically fit into the male model of life. They can be the scientists, politicians, physicists, thinkers, philosophers, etc.
Left handed people are more right brained. They are the feeling people, the poet, healer, intuitive. Right brained people tend to be more feminine. They can relax, surrender, go with the flow.
Ultimately we want to be balanced between the two.
HOW TO TELL WHAT SIDE YOU REALLY ARE
CLAPPING HANDS
When you clap your hands the hand that is naturally on top is usually your dominant hand.
HAND AND EYE
Your dominant hand is the same as your dominant eye.
1)Keep both eyes open. Point your finger directly at a small object, such as a doorknob. First close the left eye. If the finger moves from alignment with the object it’s pointing at, you are left eye dominant, and naturally left handed.
To double check, just close your right eye. Looking though only the left eye, the alignment of the finger and the object will be the same as when both eyes are open.
TRAINING AMBIDEXTROUSNESS (SWITCH IT UP)
Do as many things as possible differently. Cross a different leg while sitting. If you’re working in the garden, change your side when using the rake and shovel.
Perform any activity with the hand or side of the body that feels awkward.
Brush Your Teeth with your non-dominant hand.
Eat with your non dominant hand.
Practice Yoga Tai QI or Martial arts: these arts tend to work both sides.
If you play a sort such as golf or tennis, at least do some practice swings on the non dominant side.
WRITING
Writing with the non dominant hand is said to help to bring out material in the unconscious mind. Of course it is difficult and tedious to write with the non dominant hand, but it may be the best way to train the mental and emotional pathways of your non-dominant side.
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