Customer Rating: 
Summary: My Stroke of Insight
Comment: For those of us who loved The Secret, this book totally explains from a scientific point of view what it is like to live totally in the positive. Just the extra push I needed to stay on track. This book was written to help stroke survivors and their families understand what is going on in their lives, but to me it was written for those of us want to know how to stay in the moment and be totally happy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Reading
Comment: This book has great insight and understanding of a person who is brain injured. If you know someone who has had a stroke and cannot communicate, this book helps you to understand what the person needs to heal. The only thing I found to be negative for me was the scientific explanations for everything that was hard to understand and not fast reading. The actual story of Jill's experience is fascinating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Stroke of Brilliance!
Comment: I first came across Jill Bolte Taylor, Phd when her speech at TED (an annual conference devoted to Technology, Entertainment, Design) went viral. In it, she describes how she witnessed herself having a stroke and the subsequent feeling of peace that enveloped her when her logical left brain shut down and her right brain became dominant. I became intrigued after watching the video and then read the book.
The book expounds on her experience while having the stroke and her subsequent recovery. It was amazing on many levels:
(1) She gives a 1st person narrative of her experience of the stroke and recovery but she doesn't portray it as something we should all pity and feel sorry for. Instead, she lays it out not unlike an explorer discovering new territory, full of suspense and wonder.
(2) She gives incredible tips on how to communicate with and care for stroke victims. For e.g., some people would yell at her after they saw she didn't understand what they were saying. However, she wasn't deaf. She could only process one word at a time. If those people would have spoken more slowly rather than loudly, she would have been able to understand them. This is something that would never have occurred to me if I hadn't read this book.
(3) She takes us on a tour of the 'mystical' right side of her brain which little is known about and whose capabilities in today's world seem to be dismissed. She says the right side of the brain is the gateway to enlightenment and nirvana. She shares tips on how to 'tend the garden of your mind' and to interrupt or stop those stories we all tell ourselves over and over again (usually about how we are deficient, not good enough, etc.). She calls them loops.
Dr. Taylor's tips about how we can all achieve nirvana by accessing the right side of the brain as a conscious process is worth the price of the book many times over. We all have a "loop of deep inner peace" wired into our neurological circuitry in our right brain and we can consciously choose to run this loop whenever we wish.
Closely related to this topic are books by Ariel & Shya Kane. They've written three outstanding books: Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life, How to Create a Magical Relationship: The 3 Simple Ideas that Will Instantaneously Transform Your Love Life & Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment. The Kanes have been teaching about accessing the magic of the right-side of the brain for over 20 years and their book is chock full of tips, and stories on how to recognize those loops Dr. Taylor talks about and how to bypass them. If you're serious about getting enlightened, get Dr. Taylor's and the Kanes' books NOW!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: My Stroke of Insight
Comment: The writing in this book is very basic, even primitive. The story behind it is important and I heard the author interview on the radio and found that exciting. As written, the salient messages would have made a good essay but there is insufficient substance here for a book. I was happy for the author who is reporting her success and certain insights but the book itself was a disappointment.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Now I know what everyone has been raving about!
Comment: People have been telling me to read this for months. I needed something for the plane so I finally got it. It is a beautiful book, a fascinating tour of the brain that will totally alter how you think about your mind and about the primacy of the intellectual side. It is beautifully written, heartfelt and inspiring, the kind of book you are grateful to have read. Totally recommend.
|
