Left-Hand Will

It never occurred to me how NOT right-hand dominant I am. You see, lifting up my giant-for-four-months-old son seems to have caused me to strain my wrist. To the point where it actually hurts to do regular things...like lift up my son. And wash dishes and curl dumbbells to puff up my biceps.

So I got one of those wrist braces that you buy from CVS (side note: these things are expensive - $25! - I didn't know anything at CVS cost that much money). Having worn it for the past day, I'll admit that it's actually helping my wrist. Or, I should say, the pain in my wrist.

But here's the thing. With this wrist brace on, my left hand mobility in limited. And more so, my thumb mobility is very limited. It turns out, I'm actually having more trouble doing things than I thought I would given that I am right-handed and my left one is the immobilized one. I always felt kind of sorry for my left side, as if it wasn't being given enough attention or something. But actually, I was wrong. I do a lot of things with my left hand (especially the picking up and holding of the baby, so that my right hand is free to do other things. And since the baby is particularly grumpy about being all wrapped up, putting him in a carry isn't much of an option because he hates being confined. Side note #2: we're in serious trouble once he figures out how to walk!)

This left hand thing got me thinking about a study on will power. It turns out that people who made themselves do things with their non-dominant hand for two weeks (like open the door, pour water, brush their teeth) were more able to control other behaviors like smoking, eating, gambling, etc. (Side note #3: I didn't read the actual study, so I'm sure I'd pick apart the methodology, but it's interesting nonetheless).

So try to brush your teeth with your other hand for a week. It's awkward, but maybe not as hard as you might think. (Final side note: You might want to re-brush later in the day for the first few days or your teeth might retain the film that didn't come off from ineffective left-hand brushing.)