Head, Heart, Gut Connection

Welcome everyone.

Today we're going to talk about something that has been integral in my own healing.

We're going to do a little bit of a learning and then also a meditation around how to integrate the head the heart and the gut.

So why do we want to talk about all three elements of ourselves?

Scientifically,

We're learning so many fascinating things about how the head,

The heart and the gut interact with each other.

They all have neurons and electrical pulses going through them,

Which we didn't know even a few years before.

So we used to think it was the brain that was responsible for most of the information that was going throughout our system.

What we know now is that the heart sends just as many informational superhighways to the brain,

And the gut also sends just as many signals to the heart and the brain.

And they become an entire system that gives us a holistic view of what's happening within our bodies.

We as a Western society have been incredibly over-involved with the brain.

What is going on in the brain,

What's going on in our thoughts.

And we highly,

Highly value this over most other things.

Which is really a shame because we're neglecting at least two thirds of the rest of ourselves in many ways.

This came out historically as this drive for science became so important,

And I'm not negating that at all.

In fact,

I started this video with science.

But what we're starting to learn to understand is that we need other elements of ourselves to make a full picture.

We're really not looking to achieve balance or perfect balance between the head,

The heart,

And the gut.

But what we are looking to do is have some communication and integration between these three aspects.

You can think about our head more as like 24-hour news network.

It's constantly sending us information,

Thoughts.

It's scanning the environment for danger at all points in time.

Our heart is more like a kind grandmother who's offering unconditional love.

And the heart is tuning into our emotions,

Our intelligence,

Our need,

And our compassion for others.

And our gut is kind of like a gatekeeper.

That's the part that is really highly tuned to our intuition.

Safety,

Protection,

And what we need to feel grounded and okay in the world.

When we get an integration of all three of these,

We start to feel more coherent in our lives.

It becomes easier to make decisions,

To have relationships with other people,

And to know what we truly want.

I'm sure all of you have had situations where it feels Like your head is telling you to do one thing,

Your heart is telling you to do something else and your gut is literally screaming.

And what this leads to is a lot of confusion,

A lot of energy expended that doesn't need to be expended.

For us to be able to make decisions that are based on our higher self.

When we think about our head,

That really is sort of the realm of the ego.

It's very interested in showing off.

Being proud,

Being brave,

And getting recognition.

For what's happening.

Whereas our heart and our gut are much quieter aspects of ourselves that will sit back and like to survey the scene and see what's happening.

So you can also see how your head can take over.

From your heart and your gut impulses.

We're also in traditional schooling and in our society.

To pay attention to what our head knows and not necessarily what our body knows.

When we're looking at the integration then of our thoughts,

Our intelligence,

Our emotion and our intuition.

We are more authentic people with other people and ourselves.

Which is essentially at the end of the day,

What we're all striving to be.

We're essentially striving to be aligned with our best self at any given time.

So when we have all three,

We really have this trifecta of wisdom that starts to happen.

And I'd like to show you a short meditation exercise that only takes a couple minutes that can help to integrate the three of these.

So I'd like you to invite yourself to close your eyes.

Settle into your seat.

And let's just take three Deep inhales and exhales together.

Starting to feel.

Our bodies on the chair.

Feeling ourselves settle into this space.

I'd like you to start to pay attention to breathing up from the soles of your feet.

So on the in-breath.

Bringing that breath up into the soles of the feet.

And then letting it go and start to settle in your breath to a more comfortable rhythm for yourself.

Continuing to breathe that breath up through the body.

Until you can draw it all the way into the area of your stomach.

It may even help to put your hand on your stomach.

To feel the breath coming in and out of that area.

Just asking yourself,

What you need in this moment.

To feel safe,

And protected.

And to honour your intuition.

And then we're going to bring the breath even further up into the body,

Maybe bringing your hand.

If you'd like to,

I'd invite you to put it onto your heart.

And breathing up into the space of your heart.

Welcoming this space.

Of honoring your emotions.

Your intelligence.

And your values.

And then continuing to breathe that breath up from the soles of your feet into your stomach,

Into your heart,

All the way up into your head.

Settling into your thoughts.

Your emotions.

Your intelligence.

And just noticing what's happening in your mind and invite it to just.

.

.

Quiet.

And then bringing the breath even further up to the crown of your head.

Feeling that breath travel the length of your body all the way from the soles of your feet.

Up to the crown of your head.

And then on the exhale,

Bringing it back down through your head.

Connecting to the heart.

Connecting to the gut.

Connecting to your feet.

And breathing in through the feet.

The gut.

To the heart and to the head.

And just really starting to feel the flow connecting through these three elements of yourself.

Just settling into that at your own pace and rhythm.

And now we will repeat.

In our mind's eye.

Silently to yourself.

May I know the truth.

May I feel the truth.

May I process.

The truth.

Taking a couple nice big deep breaths in and releasing it with a sigh.

You can start to wiggle your fingers and toes.

Maybe stretching your neck,

Rolling your shoulders,

Coming back into this space with me.

And I'd invite you to do this quick exercise when you're feeling a little scattered or you're not sure.

If you're needing to make a decision if you're feeling like you're racing around in your thoughts bring it back down to your heart and your gut and see what all three have to say about the situation I hope you've enjoyed this.

I hope it was helpful.

And we'll see you on the next video.