Whole Brain Thinking

In the 1960’s, Professor Roger Sperry was amongst the first scientists to discover the left and right sides of the brain performed different functions. His work was primarily based on studying people with mental illness or physical brain damage.

His research won him a Nobel prize.His research papers had great titles that indicate where he was coming from:

“Interhemispheric relationships: the neocortical commissures; syndromes of hemisphere disconnection.”

“Lateral specialization in the surgically separated hemispheres.”

… this was pioneering stuff !!

Nowadays, scientists can temporarily anaestasise sides or parts of the brain while normal and healthy ‘patients’ are awake and then they can study what functions are affected. With MRI scanners, we can see which bits of our brain ‘light up’ when we perform certain tasks or think certain types of thoughts. Neuroscience is truly entering a Golden Age.

In his phenomenal book, The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrist describes how a chicken uses its right eye to look for grain while its left eye scans for predators and danger. He also postulates how left and right brain functions have changed over time influenced, as they are, by cultural advances and education – i.e. brain training.

Remarkably, several mystics ‘knew’ about the hemispheric differences years before the advent of brain scanners. It was thought the left brain worked inside space and time and was the ‘generator’ of consciousness. They ‘knew’ the right brain operates as a ‘receiver’ of thought and acts everywhere and ‘everywhen’ else.

It has been discovered recently that the corpus collosum, which connects the two sides of the brain, actually suppresses one side of the brain while the other gets on with its ‘job’.

It’s generally agreed that Whole Brain Thinking is a ‘good thing’ and I can testify that when you do it that 1+1 equals at least three if not more.

In this next blog series as part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, I’ll be introducing simple techniques we can all do to activate and integrate both sides of our brain.

I’ll be covering:

  • The Inspirational Breath
  • Cross crawling
  • Mind Mapping
  • Food for thought
  • Which side are you on?

To get you started and warm you up, read this blog and listen to the free audio visualisation on Getting in the Zone

So tune in for the next week of blogs if you want to increase your creativity and productivity by leaps and bounds.

If you would you like to learn more about these techniques, make sure you get a copy of Tom’s new book to find out where ideas really come from and how you can make sure yours actually happen …

The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments

Related blogs:

The Inspirational Breath

Cross Crawling

Mapping your Mind

Food for Thought

Which side are you on?

The Golden Age of Self-publishing

It’s simply never a better time to be an author. You can go from edited manuscript to publishing it globally as an ebook within a couple of days and in print within just a few days.

My guest this week on the Barefoot Book show was Joel Friedlander who has written an amazing book called A Self Publisher’s Companion which, in my opinion, is the new bible for both authors and publishers who want to get in print and share their message with the world.

Have a listen to this week’s broadcast to find out more …

Listen on the iPhone and iPad here

A Self Publisher’s Companion

No matter what kind of book you want to publish, you’ll find advice, inspiration and down-to-earth tips from an expert designer who has spent years helping self-publishers launch their own life changing books.

Today’s author needs to get up to speed with so many things that are very new. Do you know your way around:

  • Print on demand and digital book production?
  • Typeface selection and how it impacts the readability of your book?
  • Ways to monetize your content, spread your word and gather your tribe?

Get this fabulous book in print or for your Kindle, iPhone or iPad … more details here

 

Jackie WalkerCalling all Authors

If you have a book you want to promote, by far the best way to do it is to have someone interview you about it.

I can highly recommend a great way to do this and that’s to use Jackie Walker’s Soundwave Interview service.

Jackie can also organise a slot on the Barefoot Book show as part of the service – details here

Getting in the Zone

Over the course of a day, you breathe through different nostrils, The left nostril oxygenates the right brain and the right nostril the left.

Neurons don’t store oxygen, they need to be fed it.

This visualisation is a great way to prepare for any creative project.

It both energises and balances both sides of the brain.

Once you learn the sequence, you can do all or part of it at any time to give you an extra boost throughout the day.

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS WHILE DRIVING, FLYING A JUMBO JET OR OPERATING MACHINERY


Getting in The Zone

Before you listen to this visualisation, stare at the infinity image for 30 seconds so it is impressed on your Mind’s Eye.

If you have an iPhone, iPad or MP3 player, you can download it here …

If you would you like to learn more about these techniques, make sure you get a copy of Tom’s new book to find out where ideas really come from and how you can make sure yours actually happen …

The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments

Related blogs:

Whole Brain Thinking

The Inspirational Breath

Cross Crawling

Mapping your Mind

Food for Thought

Which side are you on?

Recipes for your Thoughts

Jackie WalkerLast year I uncovered, or rediscovered, the amazing toolset which has manifested itself in the form of the book Flavours of Thought and a gastronomic recipe called the Cube of Karma.

I can think of no better way to summarise what it’s all about than this wonder-full testimonial from Master Chef, and soon to be Cube Tour Guide, Jackie Walker.

iPad, iPhone or no Flash? Listen here …
To buy the book, visit Flavours of Thought

Find out more about the Cube of Karma here

Bespoke Recipes

If you have an issue, an opportunity or something you need some enlightenment on, let me craft a bespoke recipe for your thoughts. I will craft a new concoction from the Flavours of Thought that will open new doors for you.

How does this work?

In just 45 minutes over the phone anywhere in the world, I can give you an insight and direction that will change your world forever. By tuning into your words and messages from your Higher Self at the same time, incredible insights come in. When we then tap into the raw intelligence of the Flavours of Thought, we get straight to the heart of the matter.

It is like accessing an Oracle.

Satisfaction guaranteed

Sessions are just £99 and you are guaranteed an insight you are happy with. To book a session, just pay a deposit of £33 with PayPal below and I will contact you to book a session and guide you through the process.

In the interest of karmic balance, you only have to pay the balance of £66 when you are happy with the recipe you receive.
Buy now

ePublishing

So you’ve written your ebook but how do you get it out to the world and even start making money from it?

Option 1: PDF

Well the simplest way is as it has always been – to create a PDF file. This not only preserves the formatting of you source document but ensures it can’t [easily] be tampered with.

Most word processors have “Save as PDF …” as standard nowadays. If you don’t have one, there are loads of free or cheap plugins and online conversions tools. I won’t list any as they change all the time, just do a Google search.

Armed with a PDF, you can upload it to your site and make it the landing page for a Buy Now button or an email sign up form.

Option 2: Syndicate your PDF
There are many sites where you can now post your PDF to give it a wider readership. Here’s a few with some tips on what they are best used for.

www.bookbuzzr.com – upload PDF (with selective page control) and generate a page turning version of your book you can embed in any site

Here’s one I did earlier – Goal Setting that Works

www.issuu.com – this site allows you to embed selective pages from you book in external websites like Bookbuzzr but more geared to magazine-style formats

Here’s an article I wrote for WeCollaborate

www.myebook.com – this site doesn’t do embedding but has the amazing ability to include audio and video. This is a great way to storyboard a book before you convert it to be an Enhanced Edition book for iPad. Myebook also allows you to sell access to your book and make a controlled number of pages free as a sample.

Here’s an example of a free one I did to market test an idea I had for a book on writer’s block called Wordlube

Option 3: ePublish your eBook
The third, and most exciting and profitable method however, is to create an ebook you can sell via one of the online stores like the Amazon Kindle and Apple iBookstore.
As I mentioned in the earlier articles in this series, some years ago a PDF was synonymous with ebook but now an ebook refers to a book you can read on an ereader or iPad. Just to confuse matters, you can read PDF’s on all ereaders and tablets. There is nothing to stop people copying and forwarding ‘PDF ebooks’. If however you convert upload your book to the Amazon Kindle Platform or the Apple iBookstore, they add copy protection in the form of Digital Rights Management.
This means the reader can read it on any of their devices but can’t share it with others. For this service, and others, Amazon and Apple retain 30% of the revenue.
Note that anyone can easily get an account with Amazon Kindle but only publishers of many titles can get Apple iBookstore accounts. The best route for the latter is to use an assisted or traditional publisher or an aggregator like www.smashwords.com or www.lulu.com. Of course, they will take additional margin from sales for providing this service.

Get your free Amazon account here

There are a few hoops to jump through to professionally format books for ereaders and tablets which anyone with reasonable IT or HTML skills can master.

Alternatively, you may also like to look at a wonderful new UK-based company called CompletelyNovel who have a fab and inexpensive service for both print and ebook publishing.

Finally, if you want your ‘book’ to have real go-faster stripes, you can create a dedicated app for iPhone, iPad or Android. Here you can embed rich functionality by giving the user the ability to interact with the book. For example, you can include user input into the book in the form of journalling or even interaction with the author. Content can also be dynamic where external ‘live’ content such as news feeds or geo-coded information. The limits are ones of imagination and budget.

Also see Do iApp or do iBook? for more information and watch this video which is almost vintage being a year old but still shows some of the possibilities available very well …

Related posts

eReading

eWriting