Book SummaryMy Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of My Stroke of Insight

Doctors have made great strides in understanding both the functions and the illnesses of the brain, but one neuroscientist knows them better than most. On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke on the left side of her brain, and as a scientist who specialized in the study of the brain, she was uniquely qualified to observe and report the subjective experience of losing one cognitive function after another as the damage of the stroke spread through her left hemisphere.

However, despite its disabling effects, Taylor’s stroke triggered feelings of deep inner peace and a sense of connection to the world around her. With her faculties for linear logic and judgment silenced by her left brain’s trauma, her right brain’s capacity for empathy and stillness redefined her awareness of herself and the world. In My Stroke of Insight, Taylor explains that we all have the mental wiring to find inner peace and connection with...

My Stroke of Insight Summary The Science of the Brain

To understand what happens during a stroke, it’s necessary to understand how the brain works when it’s healthy. Though each part of the brain serves its own function, they all work in tandem to create your sense of self, direct your body’s movements, and generate a coherent picture of your surroundings. In this section, we’ll explain the brain’s general structure, the specific functions of its left and right hemispheres, and how the brain is physically damaged when a stroke occurs.

The Brain’s Structure

The brain is the most complex organ in the body, and Taylor explains the broad details of how it operates. The brain is an intricate parallel processor (a system that can manage many functions simultaneously) composed of billions of nerve cells that are grouped into distinct regions. Brain function depends not only on those regions, but on how the nerve cells network and communicate with each other.

(Shortform note: Not only is the brain incredibly complex, but it is also highly malleable—a quality known as neuroplasticity. In The Brain That Changes Itself, psychiatrist Norman Doidge defines...

My Stroke of Insight Summary The Author’s Stroke and Recovery

As a neuroscientist, Taylor was aware of the biological processes involved with a stroke, but it was a different thing entirely to experience one firsthand. On the morning of December 10, 1996, between the time she woke up and when she would have left for work, an undiagnosed AVM ruptured and bled into Taylor’s brain’s left hemisphere. After years of recovery, Taylor has reconstructed her actions, thoughts, and feelings immediately during and after her stroke, and she recounts the painstaking process that followed in order to regain her cognitive abilities.

During the Stroke

Even with Taylor’s professional background, the fact that she was having a stroke wasn’t immediately apparent. Once she realized what was happening, Taylor used what mental and physical strength she had left to call for help while observing what was taking place in her mind. Throughout that morning, she experienced increasing symptoms of stroke and systematically made use of the faculties she had left to plan and enact a way to rescue herself.

The first symptom she felt was a stabbing pain behind her left eye, followed by an increasing sense of disconnection from her body. As she moved around her...

My Stroke of Insight Summary Lessons Learned

Though recovering from her stroke was a long, arduous, and often painful process, Taylor says she decided to view her stroke and recovery as a gift. Her experience taught her valuable lessons about the inner workings of the mind that she wanted to share with others. These include the insight that understanding your mind lets you change the way you think, take responsibility for your emotional responses, and tap into the well of inner calm and peace that we all have embedded in the wiring of our brains.

Take Charge of Your Thoughts and Emotions

The first life lesson Taylor learned in the process of rebuilding her cognitive functions was that it was entirely up to her which parts of her past she reclaimed or left behind. Taylor argues that she’s living proof of the plasticity of the human mind—that who you were in the past doesn’t strictly define who you can be in the future. She highlights the differences she discovered between her left and right hemispheres in terms of personality and emotion, and she suggests that if you’re aware of how your different hemispheres influence your mental state, **you can make the deliberate choice to control your thoughts and emotional...

My Stroke of Insight Summary What Stroke Survivors Need

While every stroke will be somewhat different, depending on which parts of the brain are most affected, Taylor’s experience provides an important guide to how doctors and loved ones can help stroke survivors cope with the realities of their new lives. People should be mindful of stroke patients’ energy levels, their need for positive reassurance, and the importance that caregivers maintain their belief that stroke patients will recover, while celebrating every step along the way.

Taylor makes it clear in her description of her stroke that her energy levels quickly plummeted and were difficult to maintain during recovery. For someone whose brain has been traumatized like hers was, anything that requires concentration is draining. This includes any personal interaction. It’s important that doctors and caregivers be careful about the demands they make on stroke survivors’ time and energy. Rest is crucial both to healing and recharging, and it has to be taken as the body demands, not forced to conform to family members’ needs or the schedule of doctors making rounds.

Allostasis: The Brain’s Unsung Duty

One function of the brain that’s taken for granted but rarely...

Shortform Exercise: Balance Your Left and Right Brains

Taylor writes that the mental wiring for compassion, connection, acceptance, and inner peace already exists in your brain’s neural patterns, but that your left brain’s rational, judgmental nature often gets in the way.

Remember a time and place in your life when you felt most at peace with yourself and the world. Describe the setting and what you were doing. If you close your eyes, take a deep breath, and place yourself back in that moment, what feelings does the memory evoke?