Listening to your Head, Heart and Gut

Life’s journey is full of challenges. We have an incredible number of decisions to make along the way, and sometimes our decisions have a greater impact on our life plan than we can possibly imagine. How we make decisions very much depends on our stage in life. The older we get, the more we begin to believe in ourselves, the more we begin to trust our knowledge, feelings and emotions.

It’s not always evident at the time the impact our choices are going to make in our lives, only when looking back in hindsight are we able to see the fork in the road.

It can be beneficial to understand more about our three main decision-making centres in our bodies.

Use your Head

Our minds develop as we grow, learn and have experiences. It is the job of our mind to weight up the pros and cons of any situation and offer us a balanced view. Our mind will always play devil’s advocate, laying out logical reasoning for both sides, sometimes the pros out weight the cons by a long way making the decision easy. Other times, our mind can offer an equally balanced rational for both sides, this is when we turn to others for advice or turn to one of the other decision-making centres in our body.

Follow your Heart

Your heart will always follow your desires. Many rely on their heart to make important decisions, the old saying goes ‘follow your heart’. Although it is worth mentioning that your heart is governed by the feeling of the moment. It wants what you want, but your heart cannot see long term, it lives for now and can cloud judgement. This is when conflict occurs, your head says one thing, logically the best and most rational choice when your heart desires something different. People become unsure whether to follow their head or their heart. This is where listening to your third decision-making centre can be beneficial.

Rely on your Gut

We still don’t really understand why we get feelings in our gut, but it seems in many cases your gut can see the bigger picture. It’s the job of your gut to keep you alive, it also sees the grand plan for your life. It’s the centre of your body, the energy point for your emotions and knowing. If your head and heart are unable to make a clear decision, then your gut reaction is normally the one to go with.

There’s a very crude method to check your decision’s but it can sometimes help. Take a coin, heads is decision A and tails decision B. Flip the coin. If you feel a pull in your gut or extremely disappointed them the decision is not right. Alternatively, if you feel happy and excited then the decision is right.

Life is complicated and of course its never just that simple, all of this also depends on the stage of life we find ourselves. Sometimes there are things we don’t want to do, but it’s the best decision for us. Widening perspective and considering the bigger picture is important. In many cases we need to take small steps to where we want to be, many choices are just for a short time. Our head will tell us it’s the right decision to get us to where we want to be in life.

Ultimately, all decisions are yours and yours alone. Take in as much information as you can and consider to your head, heart and gut. You will be able to make informed decisions for your life and future.

Written by Richard Stuttle

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By exploring these questions we can gain a greater understanding of ourselves and our general wellbeing.