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Hi, this is Rob Sepich, and welcome to Relaxing with Rob.

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Today I'd like to talk about an experiment you could conduct that might lead to more gratitude and creativity.

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If you search"non-dominant hand for creativity," you'll get more than 23 million results.

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And I've read them all so you don't have to.

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No, seriously, there's evidence of increasing creativity through this practice as it seems to activate our non-dominant brain hemisphere.

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Otherwise our neural pathways get accustomed to us doing the same thing in the same way, and among other things, it can make life kind of stale.

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Here's the background. About 10 years ago I had a bike accident at a high speed when my front brakes locked and I went flying over my handlebars.

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I lost consciousness on impact.

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Had a broken helmet, a broken arm and a really messed up hand.

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Quick PSA for helmets: please wear one! It was a lot easier to replace mine than it would have been for my family to deal with a traumatic brain injury.

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So if you won't wear a helmet for yourself, consider wearing one for the people who love you.

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Okay, back to our topic. A long time ago, I read about studies where people who use their non-dominant hand for everyday activities had an increase in creative problem solving.

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And I'd actually tried doing this before, but I never stayed with it long enough to notice anything.

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My poor dexterity with using a mouse at work with my left hand led me to abandon the practice pretty soon after starting it.

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I was just too slow and I made too many mistakes.

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I had also occasionally tried it just because of some shoulder pain on my right side, and when I didn't mouse with my right hand, this pain was alleviated.

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But again, my poor coordination seemed to take precedence, so I would just give up.

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Then with my bike accident, where it was of course my right arm and right hand that were injured, I didn't have a lot of choice.

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So I started mousing with my left hand, but this time I stayed with it, and I improved.

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That was during a time when I'd sometimes shoot baskets over the lunch hour.

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And this was one of my versions of exercise before I discovered Zumba.

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And with my right arm in a sling, I started using my left arm and I improved at that too.

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And my personal best reached 11 made free throws in a row, and even a few three pointers.

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So over time, thanks to PT and OT where I did my my homework, my right hand strength didn't just return to baseline, it doubled compared to my good hand.

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And without thinking, I went back to right-handed mousing but my shoulder pain started to come back.

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And I thought,"Hey, I've made such progress on becoming ambidextrous, why lose that?" So I resumed my new skill of left-handed mousing, and I've never stopped.

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But what I did not expect, and I can only attribute to this change, is that my creativity increased.

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And that's when I started to think maybe there's something to that research on creativity and neural plasticity.

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Without realizing it, I had been rewiring my brain.

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A few months ago, I was talking to a friend who was recovering from a broken arm, also of course, on her dominant side.

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And she said she noticed two changes during this period: she started cooking and painting.

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Both of these creative pursuits she got interested in only after she started using her non-dominant hand.

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So my suggested experiment for you has two levels of difficulty, and each with its own purpose.

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You choose. First, break your arm, but make sure it's on your dominant side.

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Oh hang on, there's gotta be a less painful way! Ah, okay, I've got it.

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First, use your non-dominant hand for an entire day in as many activities as possible.

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You know, brushing your teeth and hair, eating(you might need some extra napkins), writing.

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With touchpads, mousing is rare, but if it's something you still do, use your other hand.

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And even if you go back to life as normal the following day, you'll be relieved at how much easier your day has become.

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We usually take our coordination for granted until we lose it.

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That's a fast way to get a dose of gratitude.

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This level reminds me of a children's book we would read to our daughter:"It Could Always be Worse." Spoiler Alert: It's where a wise rabbi advises a family in a small house that was bursting at the seams to take in a lot of animals--I think from their barn as I recall--one by one, until it just got ridiculous.

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And they did. And then the rabbi advised them to, one by one, release them, put them back in the barn until their home was back to normal.

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And to their surprise, after realizing that"it could always be worse," they felt that they actually had more than enough room.

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The second purpose is for creativity.

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This level takes a lot more time and effort.

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So although it's a bigger investment, the payoff's much bigger too.

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It's continuing to use your non-dominant side for a month.

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There's probably no magic in that length, but that's about how long it took me to fully notice the creativity effect.

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I think you'll start to see positive changes before then, but even if you don't, you're going to increase your full body coordination.

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And if nothing else, I think you'll be more grateful when you allow yourself full access to your dominant side, whenever that might be.

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So if you try it, good luck with your experiment.

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Thank you for listening, and we'll talk again soon.