20 Ways Your Left and Right Brain Sides Are Secretly Fighting for Control Right Now
The Ultimate Cerebral Tug-of-War
While you go about your daily routine, a quiet but intense rivalry is playing out right inside your skull. Your left and right brain hemispheres process the world in fundamentally different ways, constantly competing to influence your decisions, moods, and quirks. The analytical left side loves structure, logic, and order, while the creative right side thrives on emotion, intuition, and big-picture ideas.
1. Reading a Novel
Your left side automatically processes the denotative meanings of each word on the page and analyzes sentence structure. Your right side simultaneously visualizes details and picks up on emotional cues. While your left brain anxiously rushes through to learn what happens, your right side wants to slow down and savor the figurative language.
2. Navigating a City
The left side asks for turn-by-turn directions based on street names and mileage. The right side refuses to hear you, paying more attention to landmarks like the two trees that look like turtles. Whichever side you listen to, if they get mad at each other, you’ve found yourself.
3. Listening to Music
Your left side interprets the songwriter’s clever word choice and literal meanings behind the lyrics. Your right side tunes those out so it can enjoy the melody and feel every chord. When your left side points out the song is about losing a loved one, your right side just happily hums along.
4. Buying a Car
The left brain enters the car dealership armed with an Excel sheet that calculated fuel consumption rates, safety features, and budgetary constraints. The right brain spots a convertible it loves and obsesses over the paint color and fancy leather seats. Your left brain will try to convince you the car is too expensive.
5. Arguing with a Partner
Your left brain attempts to prove your partner wrong by reminding him or her of important dates, quoting past conversations, and remaining factual. Your right brain focuses on your partner’s voice pitch, defensiveness, and overall hurt feelings. You don’t necessarily want to concede, but your right brain knows your relationship needs it.
6. Organizing a Closet
The left brain section of your brain wants to organize your closet by item, color, and season. Your right brain will get bored with that task quickly and want to organize by how each article of clothing makes you feel or memories associated with it. You begin cleaning your closet with the best intentions only to get distracted.
7. Learning a New Language
The left brain will work diligently to memorize verb tenses, vocabulary, and grammar rules. Your right brain kicks into gear when you practice accents, learn slang terms, and pick up on contextual clues during conversations. If you only use the left side of your brain, you’ll sound like a robot.
8. Remembering a Face
Your right brain quickly processes facial features, allowing you to recognize that you know the person staring back at you in the checkout line. Unfortunately, your right brain can’t recall his name, which is your left brain’s job. You stand there blankly as your left brain scrambles to remember.
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9. Planning a Vacation
Your right brain tries to come up with last-minute trips featuring ridiculous itineraries and no set plans. Your left brain panics at the thought of having no structure and wants to plan your trip down to the hour. You will spend weeks obsessing over your Google Calendar.
10. Solving a Riddle
Your left brain starts analyzing the definitions of certain keywords while using critical reasoning skills to solve the puzzle. Your right brain hops in when your left brain realizes it’s stuck and looks for creative solutions or patterns. Some things just can’t be logically solved.
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11. Public Speaking
Your left brain concerns itself with speaking clearly and remembering what order to say things in. The right brain is more worried about the audience, picking up on facial expressions, and trying to prevent people from falling asleep. Talk about stressful.
12. Watching a Magic Show
Your logical left brain will not accept that these tricks are real. It will immediately try to determine how the illusionist is hiding items on their person or creating tricks with misdirection. Your right brain just wants to appreciate the show for what it is.
13. Exercising at the Gym
The left brain is your strict trainer, making you count every rep, beat, and calorie burned on your Fitbit. The right brain cares about how your body feels during your workout, the tunes blasting through your earbuds, and whether or not you’re tired. The decision to end the workout happens here.
14. Creating Art
The right brain takes the lead by dreaming up colorful paintings full of random shapes and interesting topics. Your left brain has to point out that all your lines are crooked and the shading isn’t realistic. Let your left brain win, and you’ll walk away never having started your canvas.
RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist on Unsplash
15. Managing Money
Your left brain loves when you monitor your checking account balance, track your spending habits, and deposit money into savings. Your right brain lives for spending all of your money on a concert ticket and buying your friends expensive meals.
16. Telling a Joke
Your left brain makes sure you remember the setup, comic timing, and verbatim storyline of your joke. Your right brain helps you emphasize your point with silly hand gestures, voice modulation, and personality. Master storytellers know how to utilize both sides of their brains.
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17. Experiencing Déjà Vu
Your right brain notices your current surroundings feel familiar, but your left brain can’t remember actually being here. Your left brain attempts to convince you that you’ve never been anywhere near this place before. That weird feeling you get is them not agreeing.
18. Setting Boundaries
Your right brain wants to automatically agree to help your friend move across the country because you don’t want to let them down. Your left brain calculates how much of your time you’ll lose and how much stress your schedule can actually handle. Heart vs. logic.
19. Looking in the Mirror
Your right brain evaluates your overall appearance as a whole image, noticing your general style, posture, and the vibe you project. The hyper-critical left hemisphere immediately zooms in on specific flaws, like a fresh blemish, an asymmetrical eyebrow, or a stray gray hair. You can completely alter your self-image depending on which side you lean on.
20. Falling Asleep
As you lay your head down on the pillow, your right brain wants to drift off into creative, abstract dreamscapes and peaceful relaxation. Your restless left hemisphere frequently ruins this transition by initiating a review of your entire to-do list for tomorrow or rehashing an awkward comment from five years ago.
