Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Becoming Ambidextrous

14:26 / 16.03.06

I have decided to try to become ambidextrous. I'm currently very right handed, to the point where I find doing many things left handed really quite a challenge. I'm also right legged and right eyed.

So I think I will try to even things out by forcing my left side to do jobs my right hand would normally do, like using a mouse or writing.

Seems like this is possible, given the poor left handed kids in the earlier part of the 20th century that were forced to use their right hand in schools.

I wonder if it will also change how the left and right hemisphere's of my brain function? I often consider myself too caught up in logical and technical stuff, and not emotional enough - could this alter at the same time, I wonder?

Has anyone else done such a thing to themselves successfully?

14:51 / 16.03.06

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous. Seriously though - I remember reading about this recently on 43things.

15:51 / 16.03.06

I would think it's possible, but you may reach an upper limit with your non-dominant hand. I used to practice writing and drawing with my left hand as a teenager, and I saw rapid progress, though certainly it was never as neat or easy as what I could do with my right. Still, though, it afforded me some extra control with my left hand that comes in handy as a painter/finisher, since sometimes I have to get at odd angles and can use my left to do it.

Not sure, but I think the whole concept of left brain = logical, right brain = creative is a myth, or at least a gross oversimplification.

15:58 / 16.03.06

Not sure, but I think the whole concept of left brain = logical, right brain = creative is a myth, or at least a gross oversimplification.

You're almost certainly right, but I thought it might be another thing to look for if my brain starts changing itself to be more symmetrical.

17:28 / 16.03.06

To avoid irritating RSI (which may also be a myth, but damn, it can be a painful myth) at work, I switched to using the mouse in my left hand. After a few months I don't even notice the difference.

I can't, however, write or draw with the leftie yet.

But there is time, still!

paranoidwriter waves hello

17:38 / 16.03.06

Not sure, but I think the whole concept of left brain = logical, right brain = creative is a myth, or at least a gross oversimplification.

Your right. More info about Hemisphere Lateralization on the wiki, here.

20:49 / 16.03.06

Fuck my left hand. I'm going to start using my feet for everything.

23:46 / 16.03.06

our centre does work with concepts of right / left brain (lateralisation) and we find that left brain is the concepts part - big picture - while right brain is details. and that there are complementary areas in each - so when you are considering options towards a decision (say, which meal to order from a lengthy menu) your right brain is most active, then when you actually make the decision, this is the realm of the left brain and the right is actually inhibited by the left's activity. our research, though, is more directed at unlocking the skills associated with literalness... and enhancing creativity

'logical' and 'creative' are terms that seem to best, and most greatly, occur in an individual utilising both hemispheres.

as for becoming ambidextrous, dunno how successful you might be, but it seems that there is an inherent disposition for about 80-85% of people to favour their right side for manipulation - drawing, throwing, etc - so be 'right handed' and this is consistent with the left brain being 'in control' (as it were) for most of the time you employ your handedness... all very interesting. a colleague has a site that gives some information on interhemispheric switching.

good luck - i rekkun you should be able to do a pretty reasonable job of mimicing your talents at right handedness with your left if you try hard enough and in the right way, whatever that might be... but i wonder if it can become second nature.

that said, people lose limbs all the time and do well at recouping skills with their remaining side.

Brigade du jour

09:53 / 17.03.06

I'm not sure if this is any help, but I do different things with different hands (although I understand that lots of people do, so boo, I'm not special after all ...). I write left-handed, and generally consider myself a left-handed person (although that's more an 'identity' thing than a practical consideration), but I play guitar and drums, use a knife and fork etc. right-handed. But then I live in a dextrarchical society with little or no civil rights or political representation for my poor, oppressed minority, so what are you going to do?

I suppose in a way we're all ambidextrous, but then maybe that's a bit like saying that in a way we're all bisexual - it may be a scientifically or culturally defensible argument, but not everyone will identify themselves with such ambivalence, will they?

10:19 / 17.03.06

Just doing things with my left hand seems to be working quite well - using my left hand for my mouse seems to become completely natural after half an hour, the same with using a highlighter.

This has been quite interesting, so far.

It also makes me more aware of what I'm doing, and therefore more mindful.

10:19 / 17.03.06

Just doing things with my left hand seems to be working quite well - using my left hand for my mouse seems to become completely natural after half an hour, the same with using a highlighter.

This has been quite interesting, so far.

It also makes me more aware of what I'm doing, and therefore more mindful.

14:44 / 17.03.06

it seems that there is an inherent disposition for about 80-85% of people to favour their right side for manipulation - drawing, throwing, etc - so be 'right handed' and this is consistent with the left brain being 'in control' (as it were) for most of the time you employ your handedness

I'm curious about this... I've always wondered, if this were true, wouldn't we notice obvious personality (or speech pattern, or something) differences in left-handed people then? I don't think you can "tell" a lefty until you see them use their left hand (at least I can't), so can there really be that much connection between handedness and lateralization? Or is it that left-handed people's brain adapt or compensate in the way of stroke victims or people who've had brain tumors removed?

23:44 / 17.03.06

the fundamental clock regulating all our systems seems to have a particular given switch rate, so that our brains tend to switch between left or right dominance. for some stimuli, this switch might be as short as fractions of a second, for others hours or longer (circadian rythyms, etc) but the ratio of the switch rate seems to be consistent across all stimuli at a given time; though the rate may change within a given person over time and so [among other things] seems to be a good marker to diagnose particular mental states... a slow switch rate, for instance, seems to be symptomatic of depression, on a sliding scale, and yes, mood swings do seem to alter the rate.

anyway, that's jack's theorum as i understand it and our centre is interested in the correlation we seem to have that when in left brain, things are more conceptual and when in right brain, more literal. early stages and much to understand - but the data we have is quite astounding and puzzling...

isn't collaboration a beautiful thing!