Is Left Handedness a Symptom?

Many of us are plagued with problems with scissors, spiral notebooks, chainsaws and guitars. Science has never answered the question of why people are left handed, and what it means. So here it goes…

Is being left handed nurture or nature?

It’s a result of how you’re wired, but that is something you control, and something you can change. It’s your nature that is defined by your environment and experiences. So it is nature and nurture.

What comes with being left handed?

• shorter life expectancy
• greater risk of dyslexia
• greater risk of autoimmune disease
• strong link to ADHD
• a variety of neuropsychiatric and developmental disorders like autism spectrum disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and alcoholism 
• lower-birth-weight and complications at birth
• more likely to become alcholic
• higher risk of psychosis
• more affected by fear

Those are some terrible things. Why would these things all happen to the same group of people? 

So being left handed is a brain disease? No, but it is a symptom. It’s a symptom of flawed logic. It’s a symptom of being out of the flow and ground state. It’s symptom of how you view the world based on your mindset and your experiences.

Is it curable? Yes.

What about the whole left brain/right brain theory?

Complete bullshit. Yes, the brain will learn to operate with the restrictions you place on it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s optimized.

What about left handed athletes?

• Phil Mickelson [otherwise right handed]
• Lionel Messi
• Sandy Koufax
• Rafael Nadal [otherwise right handed]
• Barry Bonds
• Martina Navratilova
• Bill Russell
• Babe Ruth

Being left handed definitely doesn’t mean that you can’t play professional sports. It won’t even keep you out of the hall of fame. Some people succeed in spite of themselves. And some use their different mindset as an advantage.

You can change your handedness. You can change your brain.

For decades, we forced people to learn to write or eat with their right hands. I’m not saying that. Your dominant hand is a symptom of the state of your mind, so forcing yourself to write with the other hand is not going to change anything. [It actually will just stress you out.]

It’s about a different perspective of the world. And that perspective sets your mind. And your mind controls your body, and in this case what hand you’re going to pick up a fork with.

The real question is: how do you change your perspective? I would start with our brain model that views the human mind as a perfect computer. To change your perspective, you need to rewrite some of the logic in your brain. Doubt some of your fears. Challenge your own mindset. 

What about all the brilliant and talented left-handers?

I’m definitely not saying that you can’t be talented as a lefty. Some of the most famous, brilliant, and talented people in history have been left handed. It’s just correlated with some negative health risks, so this is about tackling the unanswered question of why.

Sources

1. https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_55d39e97e4b0ab468d9ec794/amp
2. http://www.dailyinfographic.com/left-handed-facts-and-statistics-infographic
3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness
4. https://www.nature.com/news/2007/070716/full/news070716-4.html
5. https://news.psu.edu/story/141241/2006/02/20/research/probing-question-can-you-change-handedness-you-were-born
6. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/19/science/some-disorders-appear-to-be-linked-to-being-left-handed.html
7. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204083204577080562692452538

Genetics doesn’t explain everything

Nature vs. Nurture. The age old debate. In the past couple centuries,  geneticists came around and proved that our DNA has a lot to do with how we end up. Here’s my theory, we need to take it back a little bit. We control a lot more about our lives than you ever thought possible.

If we control our brains, and our brains control our vision, and our body, and how fast we age. Then we we play a huge role in our own development. I think it goes much deeper than that too. Think about all the mental disorders that aren’t genetic. They don’t just fall out of the sky. We need to stop forcing the genetic model on diseases when it doesn’t fit. “Potentially recessive genetic predisposition” or “partial genetic component” should cue you in. Perhaps if they aren’t pre-programmed into your being, then they are learned. Just because we don’t know how they are learned, doesn’t mean that they aren’t.

Nurture.

I’m not saying that if you top out at 150 pounds you could be an NFL running back, but I’m not ruling it out. Don’t let science get in the way of what you want to do. We have no clue how the brain works, so don’t base your life around it.