Why You Should Think with Your Head and Your Heart
In the last hour I coordinated a playdate, set up a doctor’s appointment, chopped the onion for my crockpot meal, paid the bills, started a wash, drafted an article, and balanced the check book (barely). It’s not like I was running a marathon, but by the end of it all I was wiped out.
These kinds of tasks have me working more from my head than my heart space, and that always wears me out.
When I’m only thinking my way through the day, the day gets harder. I move into multi-tasker, micro-manager mode and forget to enjoy the process of whatever I’m working on. I become more attached to outcomes. Just get it done, becomes my mantra and that impatience trips over onto others. I become less tolerant. I overthink, overanalyze, overdo. And I feel a whole lot more stressed out.
Using the Brain and the Heart to Make Decisions
But working from my head and my heart moves me into a place of flow. I feel calmer, more focused and I’m able to find the humor in the mishaps. When I’m thinking and feeling my way through the day, I also get a lot more done.
The brain is an amazing tool and so is the heart. When we use both to make decisions, problem solve, get stuff done we optimize our life experience and become more efficient. We also feel better and you know my favorite saying, when you feel better you do better.
New research indicates there are benefits from both ways of thinking. In several experiments, people who led with their head tended to access greater general knowledge, those who operated more from their heart center were warmer in relationships, according to Adam Fetterman and Michael Robinson in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In another study participants were influenced to think either with their head or their hear. Scientists say that when we focus on mental thought processes we are more likely to think through problems. When we center our attention on the heart we’ll access our compassionate nature and emotional power.
The fact that we can deliberately choose how to “think” with our brains or our hearts means we can use both to access the best properties of each.
We have all we need to access our best selves. Simply by pausing long enough to check in with our brains — home to our rational thoughts and analysis, and our hearts, the emotional center and the root of love of and compassion, we’ll not only feel calmer but we’ll make more balanced decisions.
When we turn within to live from our whole self – the mind, body-spirit – we are tapping into our greatest potential.
On Wednesday I’ll offer some ways you can do it.
