How Brushing Your Teeth With the “Wrong” Hand Could Be the Answer to All Your Problems
- Pardes Seleh
- Nov 24
- 4 min read
The surprising science behind micro-disruptions, neuroplasticity, and healing your nervous system
The other day, I saw a tweet that stopped me mid-scroll.
It said something to the effect of:
“Brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand increases neuroplasticity.”
Simple. Strange. Intriguing.
And shockingly — scientifically accurate.
That one idea sent me down a rabbit hole of neuroscience, trauma theory, somatic therapy, and human behavior. What I discovered is this:
Tiny neurological disruptions can create massive emotional, psychological, and spiritual breakthroughs.
Sometimes brushing your teeth with the “wrong” hand is the most powerful thing you do all day.
Here’s why.
The Brain Loves Patterns — Even the Ones That Hurt You
Your brain’s #1 job is efficiency.
It hardwires routines so you don’t have to think:
how to speak, how to walk, how to defend yourself, how to shut down, how to self-protect, even how to self-sabotage.
Neuroscientists call this automaticity.
Anything repeated becomes a neural groove.
Good habits? Grooves.
Bad relationships? Grooves.
People-pleasing, anxiety spirals, staying with the wrong person for too long, flinching at love, fearing change?
Grooves, grooves, grooves.
The problem isn’t your life.
The problem is that your brain thinks your life is familiar, therefore “safe,” therefore worth repeating — even when it’s destroying you.
That’s why major change feels impossible.
Not because you’re weak.
Because your nervous system is stuck in a closed loop.
Neuroplasticity: The Science of Becoming Someone New
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form new connections and reorganize itself.
Modern research (Harvard, University College London, Stanford) confirms:
Novelty lights up dormant circuits
Unexpected sensory input increases neural growth factors like BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)
Motor disruption improves cognitive flexibility
Even 2 minutes of unfamiliar movement improves attention, memory, and emotional regulation
When you brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, you’re forcing the brain to:
abandon its default setting
activate underused hemisphere pathways
engage the cerebellum (coordination/planning)
recruit prefrontal cortex areas (attention + self-regulation)
It’s small, but neurologically it’s a revolution.
And your brain doesn’t treat tiny revolutions as tiny.
It treats any novelty as evidence that life is changing.
Why This Changes Everything (According to Trauma Science)
Here’s where it gets deeper — and where Dr. Peter Levine comes in.
In Somatic Experiencing, Levine explains that trauma isn’t the event; it’s the freeze that follows.
A stuck survival response.
A nervous system trapped in an incomplete cycle.
He writes:
“Trauma is about the inability to respond flexibly.”
Flexibility — physiological, emotional, behavioral — is the antidote.
And flexibility starts with the body, not the mind.
When you do something unfamiliar, you’re signaling:
“We are no longer frozen. We are capable of movement.”
This is why survivors of trauma often stay in the same routines, the same toxic dynamics, the same patterns — not because they want to, but because their physiology is looped.
Micro-disruptions interrupt the loop.
Just two minutes of novelty can:
✔️ Increase vagal tone (safety signal)
✔️ Reduce anticipatory anxiety
✔️ Break a freeze response
✔️ Expand your window of tolerance
In other words, brushing your teeth with the wrong hand is a somatic thaw.
It tells your nervous system,
“Look. We can do something differently. We are not trapped.”
That alone begins reorganization.
Anecdotal Evidence: Why People Change After Small Shifts
Ask anyone who’s transformed their life — the first shift was almost never dramatic.
It wasn’t the divorce.
The move.
The breakup.
The awakening.
It was something small:
taking a new route home
sitting at a different spot in the café
waking up 10 minutes earlier
journaling once
texting someone you normally avoid
brushing teeth with the wrong hand
Then the universe rearranged itself around that tiny new signal.
People say things like:
“I don’t know why, but once I changed this one small thing, everything else followed.”
Because neuroplasticity is cumulative.
Small signals become larger pathways.
Larger pathways become identity.
Identity becomes destiny.
The Psychology of Micro-Courage
Doing something unfamiliar — even absurd — builds micro-courage, which is the foundation of macro-courage.
It teaches your nervous system:
discomfort is safe
novelty is survivable
change won’t kill you
you can try something new without catastrophe
That’s the root of all transformation.
Not affirmations.
Not mindset hacks.
Not “just push yourself.”
But safely expanding your tolerance for the unfamiliar.
Dr. Peter Levine calls this pendulation — moving in tiny waves between comfort and discomfort so the system reorganizes without overwhelming you.
Brushing with the wrong hand is pendulation in action.
Try This Tomorrow Morning
When you wake up:
Pick up your toothbrush with your non-dominant hand.
Feel the awkwardness.
Let that discomfort be a teacher instead of a threat.
Notice what wakes up inside you.
That’s the moment the old neural loop cracks open.
From there, bigger changes become possible.
Brave choices start feeling accessible.
New relationships feel less terrifying.
Goals feel less like cliffs and more like steps.
A different life becomes imaginable.
And the moment a new life becomes imaginable, it becomes possible.
About the Author
Pardes Seleh is the founder of House Hackers Anonymous (HHA) — a movement for creative survivors rebuilding their lives from the inside out. Blending psychology, spiritual wisdom, and somatic science, she helps people rewire their nervous systems, reclaim their power, and transform chaos into clarity.
🌱 Follow HHA for daily tools, rituals, and scientific insights that help you shift your frequency, heal your body, and create a life aligned with your highest self.
💬 Have you ever made one tiny change that unexpectedly transformed everything?
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