20. Different voices of head, heart & hara

Summary

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Even so, it helps to locate and listen to the different voices within. Our different parts are intelligent in different ways and, by listening to them all, we receive a richer understanding of our wants and needs.

Let me introduce you to ...

You.

You are a (wo-)man of many parts, no doubt. Meet three parts of you that offer three distinct types of intelligence. It's possible to consider these three parts abstractly as thinking, feeling, and doing, but I find it really helps to locate these centres in their own homes in the body.

Head

At least in Western European culture (and its offshoots), thinking occurs in the head, the location of the mind. This is the locus of our logical, rational, intellectual wisdom. Any activity that requires thinking (dealing with spreadsheets, problem-solving, etc.) will take place in the head.

Heart

Ah, the centre of our feelings – love, compassion – our heart comes alive when we're inspired, when we get connected. When we do something whole-heartedly, we're all in. When we wear our heart on our sleeve we let our feelings show.

Hara^[1]

Our abdomen is the centre of our physical structure, and as such it is at the core of stabilising us to act. Often recognised by its absence (I just don't have the guts), it creates the foundation for courage, action, steadfastness, and so on.

The original trinity?

These three centres have their own flavour of intelligence (cognitive, emotional, and active). But the question is this: how often do you involve all three wisdoms in decision-making? It might be that a particularly knotty problem isn't that difficult, it's just that I'm trying to solve it at the wrong level. It might be that I know what the right thing to do is (logically), but I just can't seem to do it (an emotional obstruction?).

Seeking input from all three centres improves our chances of acting from a deeper wisdom. So tomorrow I'll look at one way to do that.