It’s late Sunday afternoon, and after having spent the last five days painting, last night I decided I needed a break. So this morning I slept in then took my time making and eating breakfast. Then I read a book–No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism by Chris Niebauer, Ph.D. The book officially comes out in a few weeks, but I received an advanced copy in exchange for writing an online review. And whereas I haven’t written the review yet, I really liked it. The author does a fabulous job explaining the two halves of our brains and how the left half–because its job is to recognize patterns and categorize things (as good or bad, right or wrong)–is responsible for most of our suffering. Additionally, its responsible for not only the judgments you have about yourself (I’m fat, I’m handsome, I’m oh-so desperately lonely), but also the idea that YOU, as in I or ME, exist as a separate entity in the first place.

I know, I know, we all thing we exist. I’m Marcus Coker. I like cheddar cheese and need a new pair of pants (because I like cheddar cheese).

Niebauer says the right side of your brain tells a different story. It’s the side that focuses on SPACE instead of OBJECTS, and also the side that feels connection to rather than separation from. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neurobiologist who had a stroke on the left side of her brain, says the same thing in her book My Stroke of Insight. When only her right brain was online, she felt “at one” with everything in her environment. She couldn’t tell where she ended and the floor started. Granted, she couldn’t make a phone call or immediately communicate her experience to anyone because the side where she had the stroke is responsible for language, but still, it was good trip. This state of bliss is what the Buddhists refer to as Nirvana or other traditions call Enlightenment. The goods news, Niebauer says, is you don’t have to have a stroke to experience the positive benefits of the right side of your brain. Whenever you’re so absorbed in what you’re doing (reading a book, creating an art project, making love) that you lose track of time, you’re in the right side of your brain.

Later, when you think, I really should have been working out at the gym, you’re in your left side.

Since I spend A LOT of time in the left side of my brain (hanging out with my inner perfectionist and inner completionist), my new motto is, “Right brain, take the wheel.”

The right side of your brian, apparently, is in the moment, which is where life encouraged me to be this afternoon. I’d planned to go to the library to do some things on their high-speed internet, but just as I was finishing Niebauer’s book it started raining cats and dogs, so I decided to stay home and work on a personal writing project I recently started instead. This was absolutely the best thing that could have happened. For two hours I got absorbed in my work, then I read it out loud to myself over and over again so I could check the pacing and iron out the kinks. And whereas writing can often feel like a have-to, this felt truly exciting.

I had so much fun, in fact, that I lost track of time (thanks, right brain!), which means that now my left-brain is pushing me to finish tonight’s blog in a hurry, before I meet a friend for dinner. (My left-brian’s a planner; yours is too.) One of Niebauer’s suggestions for getting into your right brain is to do something just because–not because it’s smart or healthy or wise, but just because you had the thought to do it. So in an effort to follow that advice, rather than trying to wrap this up neatly like I always do, I’m going to simply stop typing and get on with my life. Right brain, take the wheel.