Left-brain, right-brain relatingWe carry within us two kinds of consciousness, two ways of knowing:
1. Lunar - instinctive and participatory, mediated through feeling (the heart) and the right hemisphere of the brain
2. Solar - rational, intellectual, mediated through thinking (the mind) and the left hemisphere of the brain*
Modern society and therefore, the field of psychology elevates solar relating. This includes talk therapy and other top-down modalities. We are only recently seeing more focus placed on lunar relating. This includes bottom-up (body based, intuitive) modalities.
In the end, we need both. However, because of the importance placed on the left-brain approach and the tendency for those in the western world to disconnect from our bodies, many of us would benefit from strengthening the right-brain way of relating to ourselves and the world.
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*words in italics taken directly from Anne Baring, “
Reconnecting with the Feminine”