WHY YOU NEED 3
BRAINS TO BE
TRULY WISE
Internal conflict during decision making is a source of high stress for many. SUE
LESTER explains how aligning your head, heart and gut intelligences helps you
make wiser decisions in life.
“How many brains do you
need to be successful?”
is somewhat of a trick
question. You could
argue that one well
nourished, trained and focussed
brain is enough, or that you need
many brains to create a supportive
team around yourself. Actually,
from the individual perspective,
to be living more meaningfully,
authentically and wisely, you need
three brains. Fortunately you
already possess them.
Seriously, medical research over
the past 100 years shows you
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Women’s Network Magazine
already have three brains (neural
networks): your cephalic (head),
cardiac (heart) and enteric (gut).
Your gut brain is actually the
equivalent size and complexity of a
cat brain — fascinating! Your three
brains need to be working together,
aligned and in the right sequence
for any real, deep, generative
change to occur.
INTELLIGENCES
Your three separate intelligences
operating in your body can end
up antagonistic to each other, and
have differing patterns, habits and
CONSEQUENCES
In life and business, the
consequences of someone using
one brain to the exclusion of
the others can be devastatingly
obvious. For example, a purely
logical economic decision (head)
may not take into consideration the
impact on staff personally (heart)
and the company culture (gut). Or
perhaps when an incompetent staff
member is continually ‘rescued’
by her manager (heart ‘dumb’
compassion) despite the obvious
financial impact (head) partially
because the manager doesn’t want