I'm On a Mission To Become Ambidextrous

I have wanted to be ambidextrous for a very long time, but it wasn’t until this year that I decided to make it happen.

As an artist and a writer, I sometimes think to myself, “what if something happens to my dominant hand? Would I have to relearn everything and potentially set my creativity back because I’m now unable to produce the same quality of work as before?”

This I’m sure, is one of the fears artists have from time to time but on a positive note, I kind of love the idea of being able to switch things up whenever I want. I also really do like the way my doodles look when I’m using my non dominant hand to draw.

I decided that I would choose a sketchbook to use as my journal so that I could have the option of writing or drawing as I pleased. Having blank pages also made the options limitless of what I could create which just felt so much more freeing.

The first few weeks of me consistently writing with my non dominant hand were so awkward, mainly because I had no idea how to hold my pen. I also had no idea what pen I enjoyed using and went on a journey to find comfort instead of solely focusing on my words actually looking like words.

I also began experimenting with fonts. Some were easier than others, but the easier writing styles just didn’t reflect me. I knew I enjoyed writing at a slant, so I needed to figure out how to do that.

I’ve since figured out a way to write at a slant to the right, and a slant to the left, but I’ve decided to stick to writing with a slant to the left so no matter what hand I decided to write with, the style will look consistent.

I am a lot more comfortable now but there are still things I need to figure out. I hope that I will be able to write at the same speed as my dominant hand in the near future, but it’s a fun journey that I’m seeing improvement in each time I open my journal.

Since I’ve been writing with my non dominant hand, I’ve learned some wonderful things such as how much doing this consistent writing practice has been affecting my creativity. Years ago I would doodle with my left hand so that I could figure out new floral shapes to paint and draw with my right hand (funnily enough I could never replicate it as beautifully with right hand). Now that I’ve studied art and experimented more professionally, I now know that this was actually activating my right brain.

The right side of our brain is the creative center, and the left side is more analytical. When an artist begins to overthink their work, feel blocked from moving forward or overly critical, this is because they are now operating from their left brain. There are certain exercises that creatives can do to shift themselves back into their creative right brain, which is where you will find creatives saying they were in their “flow”.

Being in your flow means that you can’t really fully explain analytically how something came about, because it was just a natural progression. Well, writing so much in my non dominant hand (because the left side of my brain can’t understand why everything is now back to front) automatically shifts me into my right brain, and I have found I have been getting more creative ideas solely from this journaling practice. It’s great to be able to get new ideas whilst you are a learning a new skill.

The final thing I will share here that I have been learning is patience and accepting the imperfections of practice and growth. It’s not a fast process. It asks me to slow down a lot more and to figure things out amongst the mess.

My words look terrible some days and on other days, I can’t believe how beautiful they look. But that’s also a massive part of life. We need to slow down sometimes, work out what areas need to be improved and take things one step at a time. Not forgetting to celebrate the small wins on the way.

Growth isn’t linear so why expect it to be?

✨ Nadine