Heart and Head

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

We often hear of people choosing between their 'heart' and their 'head'.  That is....they choose between the decisions made by their emotional side and their rational side. This can also be seen as choosing between the right side of the brain and the left.

Many emotional people believe that taking a decision from the 'heart' is more correct while many rationalists feel that taking a hard rational decision is always better. 

Most religious people are of the first category while most atheists  and people of science are of the second category. 

In Yoga, the aim is to unite both these aspects of our personality and to achieve a balance.  Neither of the above two aspects is correct by itself and cannot be relied upon for all purposes.  Achieving a balance between the 'heart' and the 'head' is what is commonly termed as 'wisdom'.

Any views?

Cheers.

Sriram

[Shaker]

I thought most people were aware by now that the supposed left brain-right brain split was a laughably simplistic, almost cartoonish oversimplification of highly complex brain activity which now has to go the way of the 'fact' that we only use 10% of our brains, i.e. straight into the bin.

[Maeght]

Hi everyone,

We often hear of people choosing between their 'heart' and their 'head'.  That is....they choose between the decisions made by their emotional side and their rational side. This can also be seen as choosing between the right side of the brain and the left.

Many emotional people believe that taking a decision from the 'heart' is more correct while many rationalists feel that taking a hard rational decision is always better. 

Most religious people are of the first category while most atheists  and people of science are of the second category. 

In Yoga, the aim is to unite both these aspects of our personality and to achieve a balance.  Neither of the above two aspects is correct by itself and cannot be relied upon for all purposes.  Achieving a balance between the 'heart' and the 'head' is what is commonly termed as 'wisdom'.

Any views?

Cheers.

Sriram

You forget to preface that with 'In my opinion .....'

[BeRational]

I thought most people were aware by now that the supposed left brain-right brain split was a laughably simplistic, almost cartoonish oversimplification of highly complex brain activity which now has to go the way of the 'fact' that we only use 10% of our brains, i.e. straight into the bin.

You still here this nonsense about 10% of the brain being used.

I watched again the brilliant two episodes of The Brain by David Eagleman, and you can see that all of the brain is in use.

One little thing that I found counter intuitive was that we react quicker to an audible signal, than a visible one. I thought it would be the other way, but as he explained, it's just down to physics. The part of the brain that deals with sight is very complex, so any signal going that way, just has more brain connections to get through, before 'you' are aware of it.

This was then demonstrated by runners on the starting block being triggered by sound or sight. Sound won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MSw2irv0-A

[Shaker]

You still here this nonsense about 10% of the brain being used.

Of course it's nonsense - read my post again.

[BeRational]

Of course it's nonsense - read my post again.

I know, read mine!

[Shaker]

Got you 

[Maeght]

Wrong spelling caused confusion?

[Nearly Sane]

You still here this nonsense about 10% of the brain being used.

I watched again the brilliant two episodes of The Brain by David Eagleman, and you can see that all of the brain is in use.

One little thing that I found counter intuitive was that we react quicker to an audible signal, than a visible one. I thought it would be the other way, but as he explained, it's just down to physics. The part of the brain that deals with sight is very complex, so any signal going that way, just has more brain connections to get through, before 'you' are aware of it.

This was then demonstrated by runners on the starting block being triggered by sound or sight. Sound won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MSw2irv0-A

But sadly widespread even amongst people with some training

http://www.religionethics.co.uk/index.php?topic=14320.0

[Nearly Sane]

Hi everyone,

We often hear of people choosing between their 'heart' and their 'head'.  That is....they choose between the decisions made by their emotional side and their rational side. This can also be seen as choosing between the right side of the brain and the left.

Many emotional people believe that taking a decision from the 'heart' is more correct while many rationalists feel that taking a hard rational decision is always better. 

Most religious people are of the first category while most atheists  and people of science are of the second category. 

In Yoga, the aim is to unite both these aspects of our personality and to achieve a balance.  Neither of the above two aspects is correct by itself and cannot be relied upon for all purposes.  Achieving a balance between the 'heart' and the 'head' is what is commonly termed as 'wisdom'.

Any views?

Cheers.

Sriram

To quote Hume  'It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger'

[Rhiannon]

But sadly widespread even amongst people with some training

http://www.religionethics.co.uk/index.php?topic=14320.0

IME it depends when people trained. Which makes me wonder, are the trainers updating their knowledge when educating the professionals coming through now.

[jeremyp]

To quote Hume  'It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger'

That's clearly false because David Hume's finger is part of the World so if he destroys the World, his finger will be worse than scratched.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

That's clearly false because David Hume's finger is part of the World so if he destroys the World, his finger will be worse than scratched.

Wasn't Hume able to pop in and out of existence though?

[torridon]

Hi everyone,

We often hear of people choosing between their 'heart' and their 'head'.  That is....they choose between the decisions made by their emotional side and their rational side. This can also be seen as choosing between the right side of the brain and the left.

Many emotional people believe that taking a decision from the 'heart' is more correct while many rationalists feel that taking a hard rational decision is always better. 

Most religious people are of the first category while most atheists  and people of science are of the second category. 

In Yoga, the aim is to unite both these aspects of our personality and to achieve a balance.  Neither of the above two aspects is correct by itself and cannot be relied upon for all purposes.  Achieving a balance between the 'heart' and the 'head' is what is commonly termed as 'wisdom'.

Any views?

Cheers.

Sriram

Very homely.

I think the more insightful understanding has it that the 'head' is the servant of the 'heart'. We use reason to help us get more of what we desire.  Plenty of evidence from these boards, that people who want to believe in God cannot be reasoned out of it.

[Sriram]

Very homely.

I think the more insightful understanding has it that the 'head' is the servant of the 'heart'. We use reason to help us get more of what we desire.  Plenty of evidence from these boards, that people who want to believe in God cannot be reasoned out of it.

It is often compared to a river with the emotions being the water and the intellect being the banks of the river.  The point however is that our subjective 'feelings' are always more important and more powerful in our lives than the reason that guides it. The water after all IS the river.

In a sense we can say that 'we are' our feelings whereas the intellect is only a tool. The subjectivity associated with the 'heart'  is the acting agency. The intellect only directs 'us' almost like an external agency.

Many people experience a conflict between the two aspects, the subjective and the objective....the 'heart' and the 'head'.  Through Yoga this can be reduced significantly and a unity of purpose can be achieved.

[Shaker]

The point however is that our subjective 'feelings' are always more important and more powerful in our lives than the reason that guides it.

Always? Only if you're prepared to let it be, I'd have thought.

[Rhiannon]

Always? Only if you're prepared to let it be, I'd have thought.

Pretty much the foundation of modern ACT and CBT. You will feel like shit. Do it anyway.