Part 2: The benefits - Is it worth it? | MA☀️KE by Maya Keshet

Below is a summary of what I found from different sources. I’ve made sure to include opposing claims and opinions, and have tried to make it as readable as possible.

I will start with the less enthusiastic opinions and move on to those that see significant value in practicing the skill and highly recommend it. Here’s what I found:

Some people claim that being able to use both hands with a high level of efficiency is mainly useful if you need to do it on a daily basis. The skill, they say, is worth working on only if you’re a pianist, a tennis player, and so on. So they recommend working on improving the deftness of your non-dominant hand only if you often have to perform tasks that require both hands.

Other people speculate that it’s more beneficial for the brain to know instantly which side to use for a specific task. If you normally write with your right hand, they say, stick to that.

It’s also alleged that working on any skill will probably apply to and benefit only the specific skill you practiced, which means that practicing writing with your non-dominant hand will apply only to…well, writing with your non-dominant hand, and you’re not likely to derive any other value from it.

Some scientists argue that the effort won’t enhance brain power, although it might improve skilled movement and performance when using tools. Others are convinced it has no benefits at all.

On the other side of the debate, many seem to agree that writing with your non-dominant hand, as well as using it for other tasks, introduces new stimulation or challenges to the brain. The brain responds by strengthening neural connections and building new ones. I found quite a few comparisons to how our body reacts to physical exercise by improving its functioning and growing muscle.

As we all know, when people age, it's quite common for memory, and sometimes other abilities (such as fine motor skill), to start deteriorating. Many scientists and physicians are firmly of the opinion that this loss, unless caused by a specific disease, is a result of lack of exercise for the brain, rather than an inevitable byproduct of aging. If we don’t use our brain enough, they say, it loses its knowledge and abilities. This might be another point in favor of writing with our non-dominant hand.

Our hands are actually linked to the opposite hemispheres (or sides) of our brain: right hand to left hemisphere, left hand to right hemisphere. This is where it gets interesting. Our non-dominant hand is linked to our non-dominant hemisphere, the one we exercise less often. According to studies, when we use our dominant hand, one hemisphere is active, but when we use our non-dominant hand, we activate both sides of the brain. Some scientists suggest that this may result in a different thinking process.

In a similar vein, there are researchers who claim that using our non-dominant hand confuses our brain and its efficiency, but in a very interesting way. They argue that the parts of the brain that are in charge of performing every day activities aren’t the same parts that enable us to create things, for example. Thus, deliberately confusing the brain, they contend, unleashes creativity as it demands that the brain use other paths and processes than those it would normally, and sometimes automatically, use to perform a task. The same idea applies to memory functioning and our ability to solve problems, which improve in the same way, by deliberately confusing our mind.

It is also suggested that “confusing the brain” or encouraging other parts of the brain to participate in the thinking process (which stimulates the formation of new neural pathways) may enable us to access our subconscious mind and get into a flow state, or “be in the zone.” This can be beneficial when performing creative tasks, and some claim it is effective in helping with writer's block and other situations when we wish to let our subconscious mind “do the work for us.”

Finally, some people report that using our non-dominant hand gets easier with practice, which means that the connections between our brain and the muscles in that hand are now more coordinated.

So, is it worth it?

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably starting to answer this question in the affirmative. You can, of course, do more research before you decide if it’s right for you.

As for me, after completing 100 hours of practice over the course of a year, and after devoting quite a few more hours to reading about the subject as part of preparing this blog (while comparing what I read with my personal experience), my answer is a definitive yes. I feel I gained a lot from it, and I warmly recommend this little project.

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As I said before, I did some research for this blog. In order to keep this part at a somewhat reasonable length, I will share only a portion of what I read. I am, of course, not a scientist or expert on the subject.

There’s a lot of information available, so if you decide to research this further, consider including in your reading list some scientific publications, as well as other types of articles, and maybe a few posts from people who tried it themselves. It is my own non-professional personal rule of thumb to keep my reading list balanced. Sometimes, you dive into scientific publications and find that a study was done on a very small group, or that an experiment was conducted over the course of only a few days, for example. And you have to ask who funded the study and where it was published. It’s best to adopt a critical approach when reading scientific literature, as we do with any other material.

A balanced reading list is my way to go about it, with extra points given for common sense.

As for the benefits of practicing to write, or deliberately performing everyday tasks, with your non-dominant hand, there seems to be a debate in the scientific community. That’s par for the course when the subject is the brain.

In general, there appears to be a consensus that the human brain is a highly complex organ that can improve itself through mental stimulation. It can actually grow (or shrink), and is able to adapt and renew itself by growing neurons.

Part 2 - The benefits - Is it worth it?