THE HAND IS THE CUTTING EDGE OF THE MIND

While surfing the net today, I have stumbled onto the website of The FireFly Group (a training & facilitation consultancy led by Brian Remer, a designer of interactive strategies for training, facilitation, & performance improvement) & read the August 2009 issue of their newsletter.

Here's the link to the abovementioned newsletter.

In it, one of their articles, entitled 'Grow Your Brain', caught my personal attention.

In a nut shell, the article has highlighted the fact that our hands dominate our brainpower.

To demonstrate just how much your hands can dominate your brainpower, it has recommeded that you try out this experiment right now:

"Sit flat footed.

Lift your right leg and rotate your foot clockwise in a big circle. Keep it moving and, with your right hand, draw a huge number six in the air.

Notice what happens.

Your foot changes direction to follow the movement of your hand!

Why does your foot get out of sync?

Is it because you are trying to complete two opposite motions with the same hemisphere of your brain?

(Try the same movements with our opposite hand & foot. Notice a difference?)

Or is it because the hand commands more neural real estate?

Whichever the reason, the will of the hand dominates – hands down!

So why not take advantage of what your hands can do?

Build something, take something apart, mold clay, kneed bread, feel the texture of different cloth in a fabric store.

Then, while your hands are busy, notice how they can move into any position you need, & how your marvelously dexterous fingers can exert just the right amount of pressure.

Notice that when your hands are busy & productive, your brain is calm but alert. Perhaps you can enter a state of flow where your thoughts make their own surprising connections."

Does it mean that staging a hand-sized playground e.g. juggling a few balls or playing the X-Ball from Roger von oech, is definitely going to boost our creativity?

Come to think of it, the following observation now becomes more resonant to me:

"We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye... The hand is the cutting edge of the mind."

(by Jacob Bronowski, 1908-1974, Polish-born British mathematician & man of letters who eloquently presented the case for the humanistic aspects of science; was also the presenter of the BBC documentary series, 'The Ascent of Mind', which inspired Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' series.)

I have noted that, apparently the article has drawn its inspiration from the book, 'Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, & Invigorates the Soul', by Dr Stuart Brown, a medical doctor, psychiatrist, clinical researcher & founder of the National Institute for Play.

I am intrigued. The book is now in my shopping basket with Amazon.