Do you think with your heart or your brain?

I try to remain very even-keeled and level-headeed when making decisions, using common sense and my own instincts along with my head to make the right and calculated decisisons. I know that when I was younger I wore my heart on my sleeve and tended to follow a lot of my emotions when it came to thinking or making decisions. I was a very emotional person before learning how to control that aspect of my personality and learned to think with my head.

I would say that I think with my brain. It is important to put emotions aside in some situations because it can result in one getting hurt.

Does my gut count because my heart and brain go out the window when my gut has something to say.

Usually my first reactions are to use my heart, but then I always end up using my brain after I have thought about the situation..

When making important decisions, I used to use both my brain and my heart. I often needed some time to think about it. During that period, I would reanalyze the things that were needed in order to come up to decisions. In my opinion, there are often some stuffs that we can't make decisions only by using our logic or our emotion. Sometimes, it has to be both of them. With regard to either wrong or right decisions that will follow later on, we can't conclude that your decision is wrong because you use logic rather than emotion or vice versa. Our world is always changing and the paramaters that came with the decision is not always static.

I agree with in part with the emotion observation...but I do not tie the 'heart' into it in the same way. Emotional responses that are not tempered with some rational thought can lead to disaserous outcomes. So I am with you on that. Although straight logic can sometimes create 'heartless' reactions that can be just as damaging. As I have progressed with my spiritual growth I try to live with and open mind and heart. Now the challenge with that is to balance the two and temper it with discernment. With a combination of compassionate sight, accountability and keeping my 'rescuer' in check...it appears that a combination of the above keeps my life in balance...inwardly and outardly. It is a juggling act...but I'd rather do that than regret making cold blooded logical/and or irrational emotional decisions and living with consequences that I will probably regret. Think ahed...weigh the options...consider the ripple effect of choice...is a formula that continues to work for me. However, it is just my perspective...and my two cents..no reimbursement necessarey!LOL

Good question.. I think with my brain but do whatever my heart says..

I think we should always be aware that just like falling in love blindly is dangerous so are all the emotions like anger ect. Emotions like in blind love tend to allow us to see only what we want to see. However someone who is not caught up emotionaly, standing on the outside , will see very clearly what you arent allowing yourself to see.....just an example...but it would be nice to have the right combination of both.....

It all depends on what the decision is and how critical is the decision. I have made decisions with my heart without my brains. I too have made decisions with my brains without my heart. The conclusion I came to is that I need to balance my decision with both my heart and brain.

Hi friend! Your discussion is very funny, but am not going against it anyway. I always think using my brain and not my heart. Thanks

I really didn't know the difference until I was in grade twelve many years ago. I friend was talking about her future husband. The kind of guy she would marry! I said to her but what about love! She said when it comes to getting married you have to think with your head and not your heart. If you are crazy for a guy that doesn't have certain characteristics than you just have fun with that guy for awhile if you want then move on. You can marry him she said. You must look for good qualities that would make a good husband and father then you nurture the love to grow. I was shocked! She was thinking with her brain! I read many years later in the bible, 'the heart is wicked who can know it but God'. I realize then that to be lead by our emotions could lead us into deep trouble in life as it did me. It was not until I started to think with my brain that life turned around for me.

I don't know if that is always the case here...to quote you: "...people who made decisions from the heart..guided by their emotions while meaning well and being right usually made the wrong decisions..." This was wrong in my case---what I'm saying here, that there were episodes in my life, that if I HAD made the decision from my heart, it probably would've actually been the WISER decision..there were so many times I should have listened to my heart..or gut feeling, but was somehow talked out of what I wanted to do..and made to see the logical or practical course of action...only to discover that by NOT listening to my heart or gut feeling I made the wrong choice or decision

Sounds like left and right brain thinking. Interesting topic. I try very hard to use both heart and logic but i have to admit, my heart tends to rule. You are very right...letting your heart dominate does lead to some pretty harsh reality checks! I've learned a lot of good lessons the hard way and gotten to be pretty darn streetsmart. Over time I have gotten much better with balancing the two..alot tougher too!

I think with both or else my life will be upside down. Its always good to have a balance. We can't always get away with what we want...

I think mostly with my heart and sometimes the decisions I make do end up being wrong, however, that's one of the reasons why I married my husband as he always thinks with his head LOL he balances me out!

id have to say with my heart most of the time but your right feelings do get in the way of making important decisions..

I already learn my lesson in making decision using my heart and not my brain. And now if decision making come I truly think it over and using my practicality and instict it's hard specially when your love one is involve and sometimes your pride will suffer but the best thing is not ended in wrong results.

When think by head, you have clearly mind, is not affected by something. The right decision will be there. The problem is how we can become cold blood to have right decisions. You see! Although in this world money is the important things for the life, people cannot ignore the significant position of the love. Then how can we always have right decision? Never! Sometimes, the decisions made by heart are right; and those by head are wrong.

I think mostly with my heart. It HAS gotten me into trouble a few times, but it has also helped me make some of the greatest decisions of my life- decisions I would never have made if I relied on my brain. For instance, three years ago I was talking to a man online who lived over 800 miles away from me. My brain told me that it was not a good idea to travel so far to meet someone, especially to go to his home for a week to visit! My heart told me that he was the man I had been waiting for. My heart won, and we have been happily married for two years now. Also, my brain told me not to quit my job as a hairdresser without something to fall back on. My heart told me to go for it. Now I am an ordained minister and my husband, two friends and I are starting a custom wedding business. We perform the wedding, give you photography, catering, and dj service, plus help you plan the location and details, for one price, instead of having to stress out doing it all separate. Anyway (sorry, I get a little excited about my business sometimes) if I had listened to my brain, I wouldn't be doing this. I guess for me, my heart makes me take the risks my brain doesn't want to, and if I don't take risks, I may never know just how far I can go.