Be More Grateful & Creative

A simple but challenging experiment could produce gratitude in the short term and creativity in the long term.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
[ music].
Hi, this is Rob Sepich, andwelcome to Relaxing with Rob.
Today I'd like to talk about anexperiment you could conduct
that might lead to moregratitude and creativity.

(00:22):
If you search"non-dominant handfor creativity," you'll get more
than 23 million results.
And I've read them all so youdon't have to.
No, seriously, there's evidenceof increasing creativity through
this practice as it seems toactivate our non-dominant brain
hemisphere.

(00:43):
Otherwise our neural pathwaysget accustomed to us doing the
same thing in the same way, andamong other things, it can make
life kind of stale.
Here's the background.
About 10 years ago I had a bikeaccident at a high speed when my
front brakes locked and I wentflying over my handlebars.

(01:04):
I lost consciousness on impact.
Had a broken helmet, a brokenarm and a really messed up hand.

Quick PSA for helmets (01:11):
please wear one! It was a lot easier to
replace mine than it would havebeen for my family to deal with
a traumatic brain injury.
So if you won't wear a helmetfor yourself, consider wearing
one for the people who love you.
Okay, back to our topic.

(01:31):
A long time ago, I read aboutstudies where people who use
their non-dominant hand foreveryday activities had an
increase in creative problemsolving.
And I'd actually tried doingthis before, but I never stayed
with it long enough to noticeanything.
My poor dexterity with using amouse at work with my left hand

(01:52):
led me to abandon the practicepretty soon after starting it.
I was just too slow and I madetoo many mistakes.
I had also occasionally tried itjust because of some shoulder
pain on my right side, and whenI didn't mouse with my right
hand, this pain was alleviated.
But again, my poor coordinationseemed to take precedence, so I
would just give up.

(02:13):
Then with my bike accident,where it was of course my right
arm and right hand that wereinjured, I didn't have a lot of
choice.
So I started mousing with myleft hand, but this time I
stayed with it, and I improved.
That was during a time when I'dsometimes shoot baskets over the

(02:35):
lunch hour.
And this was one of my versionsof exercise before I discovered
Zumba.
And with my right arm in asling, I started using my left
arm and I improved at that too.
And my personal best reached 11made free throws in a row, and
even a few three pointers.
So over time, thanks to PT andOT where I did my my homework,

(03:00):
my right hand strength didn'tjust return to baseline, it
doubled compared to my goodhand.
And without thinking, I wentback to right-handed mousing but
my shoulder pain started to comeback.
And I thought,"Hey, I've madesuch progress on becoming
ambidextrous, why lose that?" SoI resumed my new skill of

(03:24):
left-handed mousing, and I'venever stopped.
But what I did not expect, and Ican only attribute to this
change, is that my creativityincreased.
And that's when I started tothink maybe there's something to
that research on creativity andneural plasticity.

(03:44):
Without realizing it, I had beenrewiring my brain.
A few months ago, I was talkingto a friend who was recovering
from a broken arm, also ofcourse, on her dominant side.
And she said she noticed twochanges during this period: she
started cooking and painting.

(04:06):
Both of these creative pursuitsshe got interested in only after
she started using hernon-dominant hand.
So my suggested experiment foryou has two levels of
difficulty, and each with itsown purpose.
You choose.
First, break your arm, but makesure it's on your dominant side.

(04:29):
Oh hang on, there's gotta be aless painful way! Ah, okay, I've
got it.
First, use your non-dominanthand for an entire day in as
many activities as possible.
You know, brushing your teethand hair, eating(you might need
some extra napkins), writing.
With touchpads, mousing is rare,but if it's something you still

(04:54):
do, use your other hand.
And even if you go back to lifeas normal the following day,
you'll be relieved at how mucheasier your day has become.
We usually take our coordinationfor granted until we lose it.
That's a fast way to get a doseof gratitude.

(05:14):
This level reminds me of achildren's book we would read to
our daughter:"It Could Always beWorse." Spoiler Alert: It's
where a wise rabbi advises afamily in a small house that was
bursting at the seams to take ina lot of animals--I think from
their barn as I recall--one byone, until it just got

(05:37):
ridiculous.
And they did.
And then the rabbi advised themto, one by one, release them,
put them back in the barn untiltheir home was back to normal.
And to their surprise, afterrealizing that"it could always
be worse," they felt that theyactually had more than enough
room.

(05:59):
The second purpose is forcreativity.
This level takes a lot more timeand effort.
So although it's a biggerinvestment, the payoff's much
bigger too.
It's continuing to use yournon-dominant side for a month.
There's probably no magic inthat length, but that's about

(06:19):
how long it took me to fullynotice the creativity effect.
I think you'll start to seepositive changes before then,
but even if you don't, you'regoing to increase your full body
coordination.
And if nothing else, I thinkyou'll be more grateful when you
allow yourself full access toyour dominant side, whenever

(06:39):
that might be.
So if you try it, good luck withyour experiment.
Thank you for listening, andwe'll talk again soon.
[ music].