It has been a fascinating experience to teach myself how to brush

File: 10711084_10152947115922275_6987718171128783934_n.jpg (76KB, 960x960px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 960x960px

It has been a fascinating experience to teach myself how to brush my teeth with my left hand. After 12 days, I can pin myself at about 90% fluency + naturalness compared to natural right-handed toothbrushing.
I started off fumbling around with very uncomfortable brushing motions that weren't doing much benefit to my teeth, and trying to get the right rapid-fire pattern of tightly controlled activation in my shoulders and elbows. Eventually I was able to recognize some of the inefficiencies in my motor pattern and mirror some of the nuances I noticed in the large-scale motor pattern in my right hand, such as the shape of my grip on brush, the pivot point of the pressure on the brush, the coordinated movement of my head to accommodate the brush on various rows of teeth, the subtle motion I would use to flip from the inside to the outside of teeth, and a sweeping motion I'd use to move between left, center, and right. Eventually this became quite natural, and now I feel like the whole hand/arm/upper body/head motor complex for this movement has been sufficiently "programmed" such that refinements would only come from further repetition to myelinate motor neuron pathways and calibrate connections in the cerebellum.
I highly recommend teaching yourself skills with the other hand, other foot, new skills, or what have you, in order to keep your brain fresh and young, and to always be in the mindset of installing new brain circuitry (increased neuroplasticity can't hurt either). These are quite literally cognitive programs we can download into our OS and run!