beauty and the brain.

Over the last year, as I wrestled with anxiety and fear over health concerns, I memorized a verse that has snapped me out of many spirals. It's in the 2nd letter of Timothy, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, and love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 What I love about this verse is the hint that we are given, by God, sound minds. I don't need to be a slave to anxious thoughts when He has already given me sound thoughts. We also get another hint of neuroplasticity in Romans: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2 This confirms what science has shown - that we can retrain our thoughts and rewire our brains. Through scripture we know that He has given us a mind that is to be treated as something to guard and direct, it is not just a passive organ.

I’ve been studying a bit in neuroscience and how God designed our brains with both right and left hemispheres. Each having a specific purpose and utilizing some intricate operating system designed with our whole health in mind: physical, mental, spiritual. They function very differently but are so complimentary. It’s a beautiful and exquisite collaboration.

To get us all on the same page, we need to know that the left hemisphere is responsible for analytical thinking; verbal communication, mathematical calculations, decision making, reasoning, planning, technical details, logical sequencing and rationale. It operates our right side motor skills. The left hemisphere keeps us cautious, structured, and objective.

The right hemisphere of our brains is primarily a creative expression center; impulse, emotional thought, feelings, random sequencing, imagination, non verbal communication, intuition, spatial awareness, and non-literal thinking. It operates our left motor skills. The right hemisphere keeps us mentally available, adventurous, and connected.  

For those who follow Jesus, left brain usage keeps us narrowed on the details at hand. Right brain usage opens us to see a big picture. I liken it to the comparison between Mary and Martha. Mary clearly engaged her right brain to sit still, in awe of Jesus, while Martha made sure she tended to the details of cleaning the house with her broom and left brain.

Another contrast to consider is that left brain thinking is a convergent (structured, assimilate) and right brain thinking a divergent (unstructured, varying) thinking space. Both can work well together when intentionally integrated. Right brain people can brainstorm well and cast visions, explore possibilities and foster creativity and then the left brain folks can step in and tidy it up, focusing on the “best” option through analyzing and evaluating. Both are beautiful, intricate designs.

In the book The Master and His Emissary, by Ian McGilchrist, it’s said this way: “The two sides are meant to work together; the right hemisphere understands the context, while the left analyzes the components. These two functions need to go on separately, but also need to be integrated and there is no sense in which one is better than the other. However the left hemisphere is unable to appreciate anything new unless it has been presented to it by the right. Information processed by the logical left needs to be returned to the right side for it to be integrated into the bigger picture.” McGilchrist argues that while the left brain has been thought to be the more rational side with which we rely on, it is actually the right that’s more insightful and reliable, and without its dominance our world would be stripped of any color and depth.

We know God created our brains, and wired us in ways we may never fully understand. He is the designer of wondrous things! But what if there are other implications of the brains processes that can help us see how God wants us to relate to Him? Relate to others?

Knowing God is a source of relationship, and desires us to be in intimate relationship with Him and others, we can see these intentions through all of creation. He speaks to us using creative means - just glance out at the sky filled with randomly shaped clouds, or the trees, or colorful flowers. Listen to the birds speak to one another while flying as freely, as they wish. I see glorious demonstrations of right brain design in the way the ocean moves, the way the sky transitions to watercolor as the sun sets, or the way a storm can rip and roar with no logic whatsoever. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1” The heavens preach to us without words and the skies illustrate His glory, all right hemispheric illustrations, and He uses creation to call us to Himself. To know Him. God wants us to revel in the beauty, the art of His hands, and uses it all to draw us closer. Mary operating in her right brain, knew Jesus. Martha with her left brain, missed him altogether.

One reason this is important is because whatever side of our brain is operating at any given moment determines how we are relating to God and others in that moment.  If we are resting in right hemispheric space, we can see and appreciate His beauty, see His glory everywhere and will marvel at the awesome power of a creative God. We will see with a lens that reveals the big picture, a kingdom perspective. We will be emotionally connected to others and able to engage fully with them. We will be more open minded, willing, and compassionate.

If however we are occupying left brain space, we will examine His word intellectually, see things in black and white and demand answers. We can become consumed with the details of our circumstances and lose the big picture. We will want to fix and correct. We keep people at a distance so we can analyze and protect. I can’t help but think to have the ‘faith like a child’ one must first enter the right brain space God has created for us. For those under the influence of the left brain ‘faith like a child’ is a foreign language.

I have connected all of this fascinating learning to how I relate to God, and how it impacts my worldview. In my earlier years, before I knew Jesus, I was plagued with debilitating perfectionism and overanalyzed every decision to the point of being frozen. Struggling with control, anxiety, guilt, rigidity, and regret. As an enneagram 1, I thought it a gift to be able to walk in the room and quickly point out every single thing in the room that was off center or crooked. Attention to detail was my thing.

For me, those were all coping mechanisms of conditioning from my childhood. In those thinking patterns I worked tirelessly to maintain control; creating my own standards, judging others and myself, relying on myself and making sure I could read a room well enough to stay ahead of everyone else. Interestingly, I was also very creative. Creative writing began for me as soon as I could hold a pencil, and my imagination truly had a vivid life of its own…and still does. I held this dissonance in my mind as I got older noticing I could get stuck on details (feel stifled) yet what I really longed for was to paint the world on a canvas and poetically write myself into it (feel free).

None of those mechanisms were in cooperation with a holy, sovereign God. Thankfully, once I was saved and my life began to change, I began to understand how to submit to many things for the first time, including Jesus Christ. Surrendering myself, my standards, my expectations, my control over to God was in direction opposition to my left brain patterns. My right hemisphere began to come alive again. More importantly I knew it was ok, good in fact, for that part of me to flourish. It was ok, good in fact, for imperfection to be embraced.

An amazing book I recently read, The Soul of Desire by Dr. Curt Thompson, has opened my mind to the ways in which God speaks to us through our brains design. Jesus taught in creative parables and deflected from closed, direct answers to most things. We can see Jesus using the right processes to relate to us. Dr. Thompson explains that Jesus expanded the imaginations of his followers, not using logical linear left hemisphere teaching. Notice how even when Jesus provided the ‘facts’ to the people about his impending death and resurrection, it brought no confidence or comfort to them. What made the difference was His embodied encounters with them. God did not send Jesus to ‘explain’ to the left brain but ‘show’ to the right.  Jesus was not a follower or assimilator (left brain) but a revolutionary - definitely right brain. God is not a linear God. Thinking back on the characteristics listed earlier for the right brain: random sequencing, imagination, non verbal communication, intuition, spatial awareness, and non-literal thinking, I see Jesus.

When it comes to being in relationship with others and living out the greatest command, to love one another, right brain activation is necessary. We cannot love from the left hemisphere. Awareness and understanding of love lives in the right. When we engage with our left brains, we analyze and assess, and even if we do see the beauty in the world from a distance, we’re not doing so in the present moment. We will see people as problems that need to be fixed and solved, rather than created ones who long to be loved. In the left brain we struggle to receive love, because the left side is short circuiting the right hemisphere where our attachments actually live.

Today as I continue to grow in Christ and mature in my faith, I am learning the value in utilizing  more of my right hemisphere. To live there more. I can see how Mary related to Jesus and how Martha missed out, and I don’t want to miss out on Jesus. When I am focused on details, I tend to get tunnel vision and begin to rely on myself, seeking control and answers I may not need to have. I tend to count my plan, rather than God’s, as the best plan. In this headspace I am turning from God and will inevitably encounter my pride. But, if I zoom out, release the details, to see the whole expanse and not just the tightly wound thing at hand, I can sense God so much more. I can marvel at His beauty. I can see all the ways He is present and working His plans, and I am free to grow. It is in the right hemisphere I can grow my capacity to love others and God.

The key for us is to be able to recognize where we are operating and adjust accordingly. If we need to stay in our analytical brains for our work day, we also need to shift into our creative side after the work is done. The world would rather us stay in an isolating, analyzing mode, where we don’t realize our need for connection with others. There is always the next breaking news piece available that can throw us into panic/fix/solve/argue mode. The devil would rather we think we are too smart for God, ready to usurp His plans, overanalyze His word, or outperform His grace.

Here, the verses from Romans and Timothy come to mind again - we can guide our brains, our thoughts, toward where we can best serve and honor God. If we stay aware of how our brains function is impacting what we are doing and how we relate to the world, God, and others, we can shift it to experience breathtaking beauty. If you are stuck in left thinking and want to spark the right, pull out some markers and paper and doodle; listen to some music; stare at the clouds for a moment and see what shapes you find. Using our right hemisphere, we will then relate to others and God with our whole selves, in a deeper way. We can enter intimacy and experience freedom.