Have you ever heard someone say: “I’m just not the creative type. I’m more logical.” Or perhaps: “I’m right-brained.” “I’m artistic.” Photo by Jade Stephens on Unsplash Maybe you’ve even said one of those things yourself. They’re attractive labels because they help us make sense of ourselves. But neuroscience has moved on. And the wonderful news is this: Your brain is far more flexible than those labels suggest. The myth For many years, popular books and magazines described the brain as if its two hemispheres had separate functions. The left hemisphere was said to be responsible for logical, analytical thinking. The right hemisphere for creativity and intuition. Image from iStock by Getty Images It was a compelling story. It was easy to understand, easy to remember, and it contained a grain of truth—which is often why scientific myths survive for so long. The only problem is… that isn’t how the brain works. Modern neuroscience shows a much richer picture. Yes, some functions are latera

- Why pushing through works… until it doesn't. My mom walked into the room the other day and said, "Your dad isn't doing well. His lower back hurts a lot. We might have to cancel our vacation." An hour later my dad sent me a message. "We've cancelled the trip." Photo by Martin Kallur (IG: @mkallur) on Unsplash Two days before they were supposed to leave. The back pain had started only a couple of weeks earlier. Or perhaps not. Perhaps it had started years ago. Years of taking care of things that needed doing. Trees in the village needed tending. Grandchildren needed looking after. The football World Cup couldn't be missed. And somewhere in between all of that… his own body quietly waited. It waited for attention. It waited for rest. It waited to be listened to. Until one day, it could no longer wait. Back to you now Now let me ask you something. Where are you reading this from? Between meetings? While eating lunch in front of your computer? Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash Taking a sh

- The forgotten kind of rest that helps us feel alive again. If I gave you one extra hour today, what would you do with it? Not an hour to answer emails. Not an hour to tidy the house. Not an hour to catch up on work. An hour that belonged only to you. What would you choose? Whenever I ask a question like this, most people answer almost immediately: "I would sleep." And if you're physically exhausted, that may indeed be exactly what you need. But over the years, I've noticed something interesting. Many people tell me they are tired. Yet sleep is not always what they are missing. Sometimes they are missing something much deeper. Photo by Ananya Dutta Photography There is more than one way to rest We often think of rest as sleeping, but rest comes in many forms. Physical rest: sleep, lying down, gentle stretching. Mental rest: emptying your thoughts onto paper, mindfulness, meditation. Emotional rest: allowing yourself to feel, setting boundaries, talking to someone who truly understands

PART 2 - Psychotherapy, motherhood, dance, and the slow path to a new career This is Part 2 of my career change story. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, here it is. https://dancemovementbreathing.eu/blog/i-built-the-career-i-dreamed-of-why-was-my-body-br If you’ve already read Part 1, skip the embedded link and just continue reading here for Part 2. In Part 1, I told the story of how I went from studying linguistics to becoming a cognitive neuroscientist, completing a successful PhD, working at Imperial College London, and securing a prestigious fellowship in the Netherlands. From the outside, everything looked right. I was successful. I was respected. I was building exactly the career I had dreamed of. And yet, my body was starting to tell a different story. The knee problems. The jaw tension. The exhaustion. At the time, I didn’t understand any of it. This is the story of what happened next. Photo by Ananya Dutta Photography in Maastricht. The pause I didn’t know I needed When the pand

PART 1 Today I want to tell you the story of how this cognitive neuroscientist eventually became a dance and movement facilitator. This is only going to be Part 1; a part 2 will follow next week. I am sharing it for anyone who has ever looked at their life from the outside and thought: “Everything seems right, so why does something feel off?” For anyone who has worked hard, achieved their goals, and still felt a quiet restlessness underneath it all. This is not advice. It is simply my story. What worked, what didn’t, and what I only understood years later. My journey starts with language. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash As an undergraduate student, I chose to study linguistics because I was fascinated by communication. Not only by the words people use, but by everything happening around them: context, culture, relationships, intentions. I was interested in what allows us to understand far more than what is explicitly said. Language felt like an elegant system governed by r

I had a revelation the other day during class. I realised that my jaw and neck tension is not only anger — which I already knew — but also anxiety. I had not realised that part yet. I thought I was just angry. Angry at the patriarchy. At capitalism. At the state of the world. But I am not only angry. I am also anxious. What a combination to hold. Especially the pressure around the ears. That pressure was created by unacknowledged anxiety. And strangely enough, this realisation felt relieving. Because anxiety feels more workable than anger. Anger can feel ancient. Collective. Systemic. But anxiety? To me anxiety suggests something I might actually be able to regulate. And this is exactly why body awareness matters. Because sometimes the body knows something before the mind does. The body speaks in sensations first For this kind of realisation to happen, two skills are needed. The first is the ability to feel bodily sensations internally: Where is the tension? What kind of sensation is i