My tree of life (human development) and journey started on December 3, 1944, when my mother gave birth to me, an eight-pound baby boy. The brain and body continue developing after birth. The human brain is complex; it is divided by the corpus callosum into two sections—the right and left brain. This is referred to as split-brain dominance. Your individual preference begins with the stronger side and with a path of habits that continues throughout your personal life journey. An example: right hand or left hand.

      Bias, defined as prejudice, is taught to a newborn baby through family emotion, which is displayed daily. While the newborn baby is referred to as a clean slate, it is immediately scribbled on by parents, family, and others. The parents and others who interact with the newborn baby were also influenced by their parents and families with biases that are not expressed in a verbal manner for the baby to understand.

      The learned bias does not use scientific proof. But when bias has vibration and emotion attached to it, handed down by the family tribe, it becomes the driving force and a major part of one’s belief system. Bias is an important matter because we live in a biased world, and it resides in our subconscious brain, ready to influence every decision we make.

      When newborn babies open their eyes, they instinctively start tracking their parents’ movements, and this tracking becomes their base memory knowledge about their personal status plus their environment. A baby’s brain is akin to a sponge because it absorbs the emotions and, vibrational messages displayed by the caregivers. The brain is a storehouse of memories from cradle to grave. The newborn will have a memory stored in the brain of how to make a request to solve a personal problem; for instance, crying because of hunger pains or uncomfortable feelings, or simply needing attention.

      I have a limited knowledge of my childhood, other than knowing that my mother, grandmother, and aunt raised me in a negative environment, along with a younger brother and sister. My father was absent for my entire life. At the age of six, I was introduced to the real world—school. I was educated in the parochial school system. My mother gave me personal instructions on how to use the city bus, which required knowledge of the bus transfer system, which I acquired with the help of a cousin, Sheila, who knew the system.

      Also, at this very young age, my mother explained the child support system to me and requested help. “Go to the Chancery Court office by city bus and retrieve the child support money for the family.” I became the money collector for our family. My mother gave me trust and honor.

      During my personal life journey, at the age of six, riding the bus and collecting child support became a family chore, so I made the decision to journey over to the local public library while in the downtown area. My first visit to the public library was overwhelming, so I started in the reference department. A large collection of special books remained in the library. These books were only for gathering information on topics of interest. This department introduced me to the makeup of the library.

      My passion for reading began at this young age, I worked my way through the entire library by looking at books and the topic covered in each section. This was the beginning. Later, when my reading skills developed, I was interested in nonfiction books then, and still am today.

      This is just a small part of my personal life journey and the tree of my life, so let’s look at your journey. I have a suggestion: prepare a personal life journey journal with a new notebook and write down today’s date and answer the following questions.

      Are you a left-brain or right-brain person? Do you have the common characteristics (below) of a left- or- right brain person?

      A left-brain individual is analytical, research--driven, verbal, rational, analyzing, and goal-oriented.

      Explicit displays of his or her personal life journey become evident through observation of his or her habits.

      Right-brain individuals take a different approach. They tend to be emotional, intuitive, artistic, visual, symbolic, playful, spontaneous, physical, daydreaming, imaginative, and musical.

      It is possible to use both brain hemispheres for the skills needed to solve a problem. You might ask: “How can I find out when the whole brain is engaged in solving a problem?” Look at the image below. Then read the next paragraph.

      To decipher the image, you must shift from left brain to right brain or the reverse. To do this, consciously move your eyes left to right while looking at the green apple core, and the other image will emerge and appear as two human profiles facing each other. The whole brain is engaged; puzzle solved.