Head & Heart

When they work together they are an unbeatable duo. Batman and Robin on steroids. Abbott and Costello in front of a live audience. They are the undisputed world champs. I am talking about our head and heart. The former represents our intellect and the latter symbolizes our emotionals, that part of ourselves that feels. Our head tells us it would be a mistake the entire bowl of ice cream because it would give us a mean stomach ache. Our heart, however, points out that ice cream tastes ever so yummy and then quickly reminds us how much we love yummy things. The two are simply doing their jobs.

Unfortunately, doing their job sometimes means working at cross purposes. We analyze the information at our disposal while developing feelings about what we are assessing. Life being what it is, or more to the point, we being who we are, sometimes the head wins the day and other times it is the heart that gets to do a victory lap. They are quite a pair. They are an ever-present internal struggle that carries on within us each day on matters and issues of all kind. Just as we breath and communicate non-stop, so, too, do we bounce back and forth between our head and heart. That is, in essence, what we do.

I do not mean to paint a picture of us being in constant turmoil as our head and heart engage in constant struggle. The truth is this is quite normal for us humans. Given that, however, one way to help these wonderful yet exasperating combatants keep their dance under control is being able to communicate effectively with ourselves about the reality of them. Rather than letting challenges get the best of us because we cannot decide how best to deal with them, the more honest we can be about  our internal struggle and allowing each side to have its "say," the greater chance we have of reconciling differences in a more healthy, less stressful way. Doing so also better enables the head and heart to join forces and do what they do best as a team.