It is often said that we only use about 20-30% of our brains. I used to wonder how that could possibly be true when I was thinking as hard as I could.
Then I realised that you can’t use ALL of your brain at the same time but you CAN use 100% of your brain, just not all at once.
It is a little like a Swiss Army Knife. You know the knife with lots of different gadgets in the handle. A knife, a bottle opener, a file, scissors, a screwdriver, tweezers and a thingy for getting stones out of horses hooves (who ever uses that?). when you open up all of the tools they just get in each other’s way. you have to close them down and use them one at a time.
It’s the same with your brain.
We are all capable of many different types of thinking, logic, numbers, critical evaluation,communication both verbally and non verbally, spatial awareness, music, art, rhythm, intuitive reasoning and emotional thinking.
Initially, because so little was known about brain function, it was thought that different functions were exclusively in anatomical compartments of the brain. The most obvious separation of the brain was into two halves, the right and left, or dominant and non dominant hemispheres. Right handedness meant left hemisphere dominant ( mostly but not always).
It was thought that logical, analytical, reasoning,numerical thinking and other externally focused, unemotional, rational thinking was based in the dominant hemisphere. Creative musical and artistic thinking was thought to be based in the non dominant hemisphere.
In present times, much more is known about the hormones and brain chemicals called neurotransmitters which migrate through the fluids that surround the brain tissues. These “messenger molecules” allow different parts of the brain to communicate with each other and the rest of the body, separately from the previously identified direct neural pathways from the brain to the spinal cord.
So we think of brain function less in terms of anatomy and more of the overall physiology of the living brain.
However, loosely classifying thinking into externally focused logical analytical and unemotional dominant hemisphere type thinking and internally focused, emotional, artistic and creative non dominant hemisphere type thinking can be helpful.
Dominant hemisphere type thinking requires an external wakeful type of focus. Creative non dominant hemisphere type thinking requires a more internal focus where the sensory information from the environment is diminished or ignored, similiar to being in a daydream, or meditating, or close to sleep.
These many different types of thinking cannot all be performed at the same time but they all can be performed at some time and allow you to use 100% of your brain function.