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Since we are prophetic business people, we have a unique challenge. We have to be efficient about switching brain hemispheres, so we can look objectively at facts and data but also hear the Spirit about strategy.
Our society, upbringing and educational system all push our natural tendencies toward left brain dominance. I believe if we are to hear God, we need to maintain a flexibility to shift right and to keep a balance overall. One of the hangups that people have with hearing God is that they have fortified a logical left brain way of thinking.
I’m a fairly analytical person and I look at a lot of data everyday. I like metrics and running numbers. I have charts and graphs and data aggregated and sent to me every day. I manage multiple campaigns, both for myself and others. Nerd heaven. It’s entirely driven by facts, logic, numbers. Left brain stuff.
When I’m doing a Freedom Flowers consultation, I gotta go right. I need to listen on multiple levels. I have to hear what the client is saying, what they are not saying, what Holy Spirit is saying and write down the flowers that are popping into my head.
I’m happily in the best of both worlds in the Discovery class. Melody does the 30 minute prophetic word about what their business is supposed to be. Then I get ’em and we lay everything out and I help them put all the puzzle pieces together, how their life has been one big crescendo leading up to this point where they unleash something impactful into the world.
You all probably know that the right brain is in charge of your creativity, but it also is where you process info from the spirit realm. Which makes sense because most of it defies logic. (Left brain). The problem, for me at least, is shifting. The further left I get, the harder it is to switch gears. A prime example of this was building the Now Interpret This site. I would be writing code (as left brain as you can get) and then have to stop and run chat where you give out prophetic words. It was killer and I was always non-functional for about the first half hour.
This is where I began to catch on that I can’t turn on a dime. As I began to get busier with business, I began to realize that this transition issue costs me quite a bit. A half hour every time you need to shift? Really?
My intention is to save you some time and frustration. Some of the following tips are beginning to be used in the NIT student curriculum to reduce newbie frustration there as well.
Group your tasks. Actually plan out your to-dos and separate them by left brain/right brain activities. Some things will be neutral or use both sides so they will be your transitional tasks. If you’re not constantly switching, things will go easier.
What time of the day is it easiest for you to access creativity and pursue spiritual things? For me it’s early in the morning and in the evenings. Put your right brain things in those time slots. They are priority.
There are activities that you can do also to shift from left to right. Basically what these do is the equivalent of lulling your left brain to sleep. It does not like this stuff at all.
What is the dominant way that you receive spiritual insight?
Are you a seer? Do you tend to have visions, or daydream a lot, do you find it easy to hold a mental picture of something in your mind? Do you use verbiage like “Do you see what I’m saying?” or “Show me?” Do you absorb information better by reading or watching than listening? If so, to engage your right brain to shift, you might try drawing, doodling or coloring. Here’s a link to some free coloring pages for adults from Coloring Book Nut.
Are you a listener? Do you hear from God via words of knowledge, get direct quotes? Do you listen deeply to music, get your info through audiobooks, podcasts or always have songs in your head? You can shift to the right by listening or better yet, playing music. Here’s a free prophetic worship download from Healing Frequencies Music. (Wait for the popup.)
Are you a feeler? Do you get goosebumps, take on other people’s feelings, and talk about how decisions “feel right”— or not? Your best shift strategy is to get alone and quiet in a clean (spiritually and energetically) environment and use a secondary method if needed to engage the right side.
Are you a deep thinker? Are you fairly analytical and left brained but ideas just pop? Do you just know things? Can you get lost in your own thoughts? You might shift the best by giving your left brain a job to do like taking dictation while you freewrite to get strategy. If you haven’t done freewriting before, grab my PDF on how to do it.
Some pretty universal shift activities are walking, taking a shower and praying in tongues. I can do the latter while writing code. I can write very precise gibberish while fluently speaking very precise gibberish. Now the left brain does control language typically, but tongues is an exception.
We had an interesting discussion on a Dream Ventures conference call on rituals, good or bad. It was related to using a ritual as a way of signaling to your brain to shift over. For instance, having a morning routine before you sit down at the computer. Simple things like one of the students being able to walk over to the cabinet and take the clarinet out had become enough of a ritual to shift. Just a little brain signal from a repetitive task. Even the right coffee in the right cup can be enough.
I think we love and are hardwired for ritual. At the point above, it’s helpful. Where it’s a hindrance, is when it becomes superstition or overly complicated and a crutch. For instance, “I have to soak for 2 hours and get in the spirit before I can get a word.” That is about as ridiculous as thinking you can’t work without your lucky coffee cup.
It’s not tremendously hard to have some music on in the background, or doodle while you’re on the phone. Sometimes I make a client walk with me during a consultation. If you can work these ideas into your day and group your tasks, you’ll transition well and improve your productivity as well as results because you’ll work from both facts and revelation.
So don’t be so hard on yourself if you’re thinking you’re not as prophetic as you should be! Look at how your life has set you up to function out of the other side, and employ some strategies so you can stay in the prophetic zone.