This Week’s Tweak: Mirror, Mirror
Watching my husband eat can make people crazy.
No, it’s not that his table manners are *that* bad (though admittedly he does slurp his soup horrifically).
It’s that he’s ambidextrous - neither hand is clearly dominant, and he’s as likely to hold a fork in his left hand as his right. Seeing him switch back and forth just looks…. well… it looks wrong. It sometimes takes people a little while to figure out what is triggering their sense of “something’s just not right, but eventually, the inevitable conversational exchange happens:
“Are you left handed, or right??” they ask, staring.
“Yes!” he replies, torturing them with his best deadpan expression.
I have to admit, it can be a bit disconcerting sitting across the table from him, when he nimbly switches hands without thought. In one moment, I’m watching the expected mirror image of my own motions, and then, not so much.
One poor right-handed fellow at work is so fascinated by this ambidextrousness that he’s decided to take up eating with his left hand as a hobby. So far, it’s lead to a disturbing number of fork-stabbings of his lips, cheeks and tongue, but he’s determined to master it!
What he doesn’t know is that the challenge of using his non-dominant hand to eat is exercising his brain very effectively, forcing multiple new connections in hand-eye coordination, shifting the active hemispheres in the brain, all sorts of things. It’s sort of like a mini-mental Nautilus machine!
And just how is THIS a “brain exercise”?
See, the idea behind brain exercises isn’t *just* to train specific skills like working memory or reaction times; the most important goal is to encourage the brain’s neuroplasticity - or it’s ability to rewire and change itself.
By stimulating the growth of new neural pathways with even seemingly silly exercises, you’ll increase your brain’s ability to lay down new pathways for more serious purposes, like forming new memories, developing new skills, and building positive new habits.
Even more importantly, encouraging neuroplasticity will help your brain to work around any pathways that may become damaged in the future, whether through injury, normal aging or disease. So while this latest Tweak may seem silly and even annoying - it forces your brain to ignore some of your most habitual mental pathways, and forge new ones… it’s pretty powerful from a neuroplastic perspective!
So as you’ve probably guessed, this week’s challenge is to use your non-dominant hand as much as possible. Try mirroring your ordinary actions on the “wrong” side of the body…. as opposed to the “right” side!
Ok, Ok, I apologize for that one. I didn’t mean for all of you left-handed folks to be “left” out. (Go on. Groan. I deserve it.)
But seriously folks….
You don’t have to go so far as risking repeated self-stabs with a fork to do this. You can mirror simpler, safer motions, things like which hand you hold a drinking glass in, or which hand you use to apply lip balm. Try switching the mouse to the other side of the keyboard for just a few moments at a time. If you normally turn a doorknob with your right hand, turn it with your left. Try shaking left hands with your coworkers, operate your cell phone with the wrong hand. Any motion or action which you habitually do with one hand, do with the other.
Outside of breaking the old habit and training a new one, you’ll also be working on mindful awareness of your motions. If you focus on this exercise for a week, you’ll likely become far more aware of how you use your body, and which side is dominant during what tasks. Do you nearly always step first with your right or left foot? When crossing the street, which direction do you habitually look in, first? (You do look both ways before crossing, right? Good. I hate the thought of squished MindTweakers)
Whatever you’re doing, notice all of your body-side quirks and habits, then consciously disrupt them. You’ll force your brain into a new awareness of self, increase brain plasticity, form new neural networks, and as an added bonus, wind up laughing as ordinarily simple tasks become impossibly awkward.
And laughing is good for the brain! (even if that doesn’t justify my very bad jokes)
So go on. Off with you!
To start you off on the wrong foot (so to speak!) I want you to reach across the keyboard for the mouse and close this browser window with your left hand on, rather than your right! (or versa-vice, if you’re left handed)
MindTweak: Mirror, mirror on the wall… who’s the clumsiest of us all?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ll admit to driving my husband crazy when we go mini-golfing because I’m just as likely to hold the club “right-handed” as “left” (I’m left-handed). I also starting playing the piano at age 4 and I think that has done quite a bit to eliminate much of the “dominance” of one hand over the other. That thing about which foot you start off with though, my feet definitely know who’s the leader!
Thanks for the great site!
Ahhh! I love Neurobics! I’m currently brushing my teeth with my left hand (as I am right handed.) Your post has given me my next assignment - apply pretty pink lipgloss with left hand — try not to develop clown face.
Hmm. You have reminded me of something. My dad was a coal miner who set explosives. A very precise job. He did everything with his left hand, except write. He was born in 1910 and went to school at a time left handedness was consider wrong. So, the “teachers” forced him to do his school work with his right hand. No wonder he only went to the third grade!
Sounds like dinner time at your house is a treat…
Good Post!
Kevin
Isn’t that archaic about school! I went to school at the age and I felt badly for the lefties in my room
I will have to try the switcheroo to writing. I think I am getting arthritis in my right hand and I journal by hand only. Agggh I know it sounds bizarre but I would die if I could not write by hand. Not to say I don’t write via computer, I do but there is a big mind-body connection between physically writing and typing letters on a keyboard.
@Mary McRae You make a good point about the piano playing… and I’m laughing a little at the mini golf story, because it sounds so familiar. Thanks for the compliment and welcome to MindTweaks!
@ Erin that’s what I love about you, always eager to experiment (even if it means wearing clown face lipgloss!) And this switching sides things is called Neurobics? Who knew. I thought we were all just making this up as we went along!
@Reg I think, hope and pray that *everyone* in the school system now knows not to try and force right-handedness! It definitely does help explain why his education was cut so very short.
@Kevin Oh, meal times are wild here, for multiple reasons! Welcome to MindTweaks, and glad you enjoyed the post!
@MsWhizmo Please comment about the left hand journalling! I’m willing to bet it leads to a different sort of journal experience (even if it isn’t legible at first). Maybe experiment with a paragraph in your left hand, then switch to your right for the rest of it?
And I definitely agree about writing long hand… it engages my mind in a different way. When working on various projects, I often switch back and forth between handwriting and ewriting.
You’re on! Alternating hands here I come. I will let you know the results. I never read what I write anyway so it doesn’t matter. I taught a class on journalling and one woman couldn’t hold a pen or pencil so she journalled “on her lap”. Very cool idea. She loved the class.
I often write in my head. I make it as visual as possible so I don’t forget the phrasing when I want to actually record it.
whizmo’s let me know she’s been doing the left handed journaling… so far, she’s declared it “interesting”. I’m hoping she’ll come back and comment again : )
Hmm, very tricky! I am left handed but use the mouse in my right hand. I tried it. My mouth went crooked and my tongue was sticking out. With great difficulty I managed to get the browser closed. Funny thing, the pointer went round and round like it was going down the drain.
Yikes about the longhand journalling! So brave too.
Okay here it is. A week of switching back and forth whilst journalling. I’ve written with my left hand before when I was in a cast for 8wks. The thought of NOT journalling is a form of withdrawl for me. I tried just randomly switching back and forth but my mind would come to a screeching halt every time I switched. So I decided to at least switch after 10-15 sentences. That wasn’t so bad but I tell you it was like having my mind go off in completely different directions with each switch. Every time I came back to what I was writing with one hand my mind would continue on. It was like having a split personality. Very very weird. I got a great idea for writing with my left and a lot of the day to day mind dump got written with my right. I don’t usually re-read what I write unless it is something I want to remember then I underline it so reading it was not a big issue. Anyways it was bizarre. I’ve decided to keep doing it because it seemed to get the creative juices flowing.
@Jackie LOL… I have this wonderful image of you with your tongue out, mouse in the wrong hand, trying like heck to get the browser to do what you tell it… Thanks for sharing that
@whizmo How very fascinating! It makes sense though. Your right hand is linked to the left side of the brain - where day to day organization, details and “mind dump” stuff would likely be processed. The left hand is linked to the right side of the brain, where a lot of the more creative processes go on, so its interesting that you’d get writing ideas while using it.
Sometimes, too much is made out of the differences in the hemispheres… but still, they ARE different, and they don’t seem to operate well at once, rather, there’s a sort of constant switching back and forth.
Anyway, very fascinating, and I’ll consider this one a successful Tweak!