One morning, brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor realized she was in the midst of a massive stroke. As she began to slip away, losing her movement, speech and cognition, she had what she now calls “a stroke of insight” about how we live our lives.
Her stroke marked a functional loss from which it took her eight years to fully recover. It also marked an unleashing of creativity that continues to drive her today.
In this TED video, Jill Bolte Taylor will make you laugh and cry as she shares her central message: “We have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.” It’s 18 minutes long and worth every second:
[Note: If unable to view the video in your feed reader or in email, click on my post title to be taken to it.]
Thanks to Nancy Hudgins for alerting me to Taylor’s talk.
Conflict Zen by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at ConflictZen.com.
I’ve been recommending a book by Jill Bolte Taylor called “My Stroke of Insight” to everyone I know. It’s an amazing story, both uplifting and powerful on three levels: physical, emotional, and spiritual, but the spiritual aspect alone makes this the best book I’ve read all year.
How often do you get to hear a neuroscientist describe having a stroke, nearly dying and finding Nirvana, and then making a miraculous recovery so that she’s back to teaching medical students!?!
I came away with a renewed sense of understanding, wonder and hopefulness about the capabilities of the human brain. I give “My Stroke of Insight” highest marks!
Thanks for the recommendation, Ellen. I hadn’t realized Taylor had written a book and I know I’ll check it out.
The New York Times Sunday Newspaper on May 25 had a great two page article on Jill Bolte Taylor and her book, “MY STROKE OF INSIGHT”. Her book is a must read and this NY Times article – called “A Superhighway to bliss” is worth checking out too.
It was an interesting article, Mitchell, and thanks for the reminder that I should have mentioned it here. The article’s titled A Superhighway to Bliss and I’ve pasted a link below:
http://tinyurl.com/55ndz4