Thinking Heart

I just heard someone say that we think with our hearts, not just with our brains. Tell me another!

 Another story? According to Sir Ken Robinson, stories can reach and educate both heart and mind. It was once believed, of course, that neurons lived only in your brain and in the central and peripheral nervous tissue. Now it is known that there are neurons in many places throughout your body. In your heart, for instance—that organ about the size of your fist that keeps blood pumping to your brain, bringing oxygen and nutrients to your neurons. Once thought to contain only muscle cells, researchers have found that your heart contains at least 40,000 neurons. They look like much like brain neurons, use similar neurotransmitters, eat the same type of neurotrophic food—and ‘think.’ Admittedly, it’s a new way of perceiving functions of the heart. No wonder eloquent writers and speakers often use ‘stories’ as their basic communication medium.