On Oprah's Soul Series, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor gives Oprah a tutorial on the functions of the brain and how the brain is affected when a stroke occurs. But here's the thing, Dr. Taylor didn't just tell Oprah—she showed her with a real human brain!

Brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor woke up in the morning, hit the snooze button on her alarm and felt a tremendous, pulsing pain behind her left eye. Little did Dr. Taylor know she was experiencing a hemorrhagic stroke.

I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been diagnosed with the brain disorder, schizophrenia. I wanted to understand why my brother experienced hallucinations and delusions and why I did not. What was different about the neurocircuitry in my brother's brain? My research specialty, in the Lab for Structural Neuroscience at the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, was the postmortem investigation of the brain as it related to the severe mental illnesses. At the same time, I served on the national board of directors of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

But as irony would have it, I woke up one morning to discover that I had a brain disorder. At the age of 37, a blood vessel exploded in the left half of my brain and over the course of four hours I watched my brain completely deteriorate in its ability to process all information. On the afternoon of the stroke, I could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of my life. I became an infant in a woman's body. I didn't even know what a mother was, much less who my mother was. 

She was a scientist, a workaholic and an expert in the human mind. Then, one morning, Jill Bolte Taylor's own brain turned against her. She suffered a severe stroke, which left her unable to talk and walk. Taking small steps, she worked to relearn the world in an entirely different way. This Sunday, tune in as Jill sits down with Oprah to discuss her journey.

In this excerpt from her book, My Stroke of Insight, Jill recounts 40 things people should understand when in the company of a stroke victim. They may not only help you nurse a loved one back to health—they may change your entire perspective on life.

Read the excerpt, then watch Oprah's interview with Jill at 11 a.m. ET/PT this Sunday on OWN, Oprah.com, Facebook.com/OWNTV and Facebook.com/SuperSoulSunday.


1. I am not stupid, I am wounded. Please respect me.

2. Come close, speak slowly, and enunciate clearly.

3. Repeat yourself—assume I know nothing and start from the beginning, over and over.

4. Be as patient with me the 20th time you teach me something, as you were the first.

5. Approach me with an open heart and slow your energy down. Take your time.

6. Be aware of what your body language and facial expressions are communicating to me.

7. Make eye contact with me. I am in here—come find me. Encourage me.

8. Please don't raise your voice—I'm not deaf, I'm wounded.

9. Touch me appropriately and connect with me.

10. Honor the healing power of sleep.

Get the rest of Jill's recommendations