Mind-Heart connection: How deep is it?

See how the mind and heart are connected at a deep level

Written By Aditya Shukla, Cognition Today

The mind is not just in the brain. And the heart is not just a blood pump.

Emotions are felt in the heart (and body) because emotions change heart rate, heart's rhythm, skin temperature, muscle tension, etc.

But the emotion is processed in the brain with a feedback loop between the brain and the organs.

The heart has about 40,000 neurites (small neural extensions) that constantly talk to the brain.

We associate emotions to heart and thoughts to the mind because changes to the heart are observed socially, like chest pounding, high pulse-rate, etc. But thoughts only appear as words.

It's never heart vs. mind in decision-making. It's heart and mind, emotion and thoughts, logic and feelings. All influence each other.

When you purposefully label things as heart vs. mind, you enter a conflict zone - cognitive dissonance.

You can resolve the cognitive dissonance by choosing one as priority and one as influence.

Technical Source

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See how the mind and heart are connected at a deep level

See how the mind and heart are connected at a deep level

The mind is not just in the brain. And the heart is not just a blood pump.

Emotions are felt in the heart (and body) because emotions change heart rate, heart's rhythm, skin temperature, muscle tension, etc.

But the emotion is processed in the brain with a feedback loop between the brain and the organs.

The heart has about 40,000 neurites (small neural extensions) that constantly talk to the brain.

We associate emotions to heart and thoughts to the mind because changes to the heart are observed socially, like chest pounding, high pulse-rate, etc. But thoughts only appear as words.

It's never heart vs. mind in decision-making. It's heart and mind, emotion and thoughts, logic and feelings. All influence each other.

When you purposefully label things as heart vs. mind, you enter a conflict zone - cognitive dissonance.

You can resolve the cognitive dissonance by choosing one as priority and one as influence.

Technical Source

Explore more details about the heart and mind relationship and what it means to get stuck between the 2.