I'm a righty. why then does everything other than writing/drawing come more naturally with my left hand?

i've noticed that i do just about everything else primarily with my left hand (even though i'm right-handed). my reflexes are also much faster in my left hand. i don't do it consciously, but when i lose my balance i regain it by raising my left arm. in martial arts class we were trained to react to the "element of surprise," and i always punched with my left arm. when i wash dishes i'm mostly using my left hand. when i sneeze or cough, i cover my mouth with my left hand. these are just a few examples. again, i don't do this consciously.





why is this? is there a psychological reason for it?

I'm a righty. why then does everything other than writing/drawing come more naturally with my left hand?
sounds like you are fairly ambidextrous. few people truly are. enjoy it!
Reply:Hey...Don't worry about it. Just go with what you have. It's so simple.
Reply:Don't question your being ambidextrous (righty %26amp; lefty) as you're gifted that way. Is there a psych reason? I haven't a clue but I do believe it has something to do with signals from the brain.
Reply:Because your left hand is your dominant hand, meaning the right sid of your brain is dominant. Truth be told, you probably tried to write with your left hand too, but got forced to use your right.





And you are not ambedextrous. If you were ambedextrous, you'd do everything with both hands in equal amounts, and that includes writing with your left hand as well.
Reply:I think they call that ambidextrous using both hands. When I was in little league, we had a boy that could pitch with either and they had to ad to the rule book. If you start one way left or right you had to continue that way.
Reply:Ambidexterity is a cross-dominance disorder. Something about the corpus callosum in the brain. It's nothing to worry about.
Reply:sounds very familiar, only preschool teacher taught me I couldn't use my left hand and should only use my right, and for years I could do barely anything with my left except holding stuff (my left hand was stronger than my right since I used it primarily for holding stuff while the right was used for more "delicate" tasks like writing).





Maybe your preschool teacher or your mum taught you to use your right hand for drawing, but didn't tell you not to use the left one, and you should have been left-handed or ambi-dextrous (both hands) so that's why you use your left hand for everything else.
Reply:Because you are not a righty.


You are either a lefty or truly ambidextrous in either case you should simply be grateful and move on. I played sports all of my life and fought in various forms of martial arts for a quarter of a century. I would have done almost anything to be a true "south paw". Since people think you are a righty they will be shocked when you "switch" on them. Good luck!


-rj
Reply:Here's something you can read, maybe it'll help explain it a little. I don't believe there is anything psychologically involved here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-hande...
Reply:You and I sound similar in this situation. The world is easier for right handed people. As a child my parents encouraged me to write with my right hand. I still to this day do quite a few things left handed. My right arm has taken over as my dominant side. I guess I forget about it until someone points out something I do. I had a computer tech out to the house recently to do some pc work for me. He asked if I was a lefty. I said "no, why?" He said that it was a little weird that my mouse was on the left side of my keyboard. I'm sure I could come up with all sorts of examples. The good news is I think I'd do better than average if I broke my right arm.


In the past when I did some research on it, I remember science still being pretty puzzled by the whole left handed thing.