My Stoke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

At age 37 Jill Bolte Taylor was a neuroanatomist working at Harvard's Brain Bank when she suffered a massive stroke that flooded the left hemisphere of her brain with blood. She was amazed at what was happening to her and thought "Isn't this cool!" before coming to grips with the reality that she needed help. She was reduced to infanthood in her capabilities to deal with life, but what was left of her scientist's mind kept observing her situation. She realized she'd lost personality traits that were better left lost, so she consciously supervised the return of her left brain functions. It took eight years. Her reflections on this process somewhat parallel Eckhart Tolle's ideas on the need to get away from defensive ego reactions and approach others in a more open and loving manner. She points out that the strong emotional reactions we sometimes experience are physiological in nature and course through our bodies in 90 seconds. By waiting until the physical reaction has passed ("count to ten") we have much better control over our response. While not a great literary work (grammar mistakes!), My Stroke of Insight is a wonderful story from which much can be learned.