Head Vs Heart

What is “the heart” truly? 

Everyone has a heart. We refer to “the heart” in our lives as a living, breathing, thinking, mechanism.

I’m not referring to the blood-pumping life-supporting physical organ in your chest. I’m referring to the idea that humans reference when speaking about anything that has to do with emotions, actions, decisions and more. 

“This is my heart speaking.” Where do the specific thoughts, emotions, and actions come from that we determine this?   

And then where do the separate thoughts, emotions, and actions come from where we identify, “This is my head speaking.” 

References to “the heart” throughout time are endless. 

You’ll consistently hear people saying the phrase, “my head versus my heart.” 

Our muscular heart doesn’t actually think like our brain…or does it? Heart transplants do show some weird after effects, like personality changes that match the previous person who owned the heart. So does it hold memories? 

The English Standard Version of the Bible mentions the heart 862 times! There is much positive sentiment around having a good and pure heart. Matthew 6:21 reads, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And the famous repeated line from Exodus, “Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.” 

We give a lot of weight to “what our heart says” and what is it really? Is it intuition? Experience? Knowledge? Is the heart another name for our spirit or our soul? 

Merriam Webster defines the heart in a few ways, but notably it has the following definitions that are relative: personality, disposition, emotional or moral nature distinguished from the intellectual nature, one’s innermost character, feelings, and inclinations, and compassion. 

I’m very curious on what and why we came to this conclusion that the heart has its own opinion, weight, and rights. 

We reference a broken heart, a fulfilled heart, a healing heart, a cold heart, a PURE heart. It takes heart. She has a big heart, etc. 

At what point does the head and heart differ, divert, and become compartments of their own? At which thought, do we decide, “This one is coming from my head, and this other one is coming from my heart.” This is what I “know” and this is what I “feel.”

Why do we place love in our heart, and not in our brain, our foot, or our stomach? 

At what point do we know someone has a “pure heart?” And what defines a “pure heart?” Yes of course I have my subjective personal view, but do we all have a similar idea of what makes up this person? 

Is it hard to obtain, gain, or practice having a pure heart? If so, then why don’t we all have pure hearts? 

Would you agree, the world would be a better place if we all had what we all perceived was a pure heart, instead of a hard heart, such that Pharaoh displayed in his story? 

Could we agree, we are born with a pure heart? 

Children have a sense and level of purity, until they began to obtain knowledge. That is when they can decide to lie and manipulate their parents. Huh, that sounds vaguely like the story of Adam and Eve, and when they gain knowledge of good, they also gain knowledge of evil. And when we have knowledge of evil, we can think it, feel it, and do it. 

OR we can choose to have a pure heart and avoid evil thoughts, behaviors, and actions. Of course, evil is subjective here, but it makes up those things we would consider is the opposite of a pure heart. In example, lying and deception, manipulation, and trickery. 

Well I’ll leave it for your mind to ponder now, what is your personal “head space” and what is your “heart?” Who do you listen to, when, and why? How do you define your heart?