What’s so special about a jellyfish’s brain?
Well, the answer is they don’t have one. They have a set of nerves which forms a large nerve network that controls swimming and a small nerve network that controls other behaviours. This neural complex can detect touch, temperature, salinity, and other changes in the environment and works on automatic reflexes in response to the stimuli.
Beyond our brains, humans have neural networks around the heart and a larger one around the gut.
The intrinsic cardiac nervous system, or the heart brain, has around 400 cardiac neurons working together to communicate across the heart’s nervous system. These also extend from the heart up along the vagus nerve to the brain. The heart sends more messages up to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. The brain interprets these messages and often takes its lead from them. Your heart is constantly sending emotional signals to guide you, to notice concerns, and communicate what you truly want. I’m sure you can recognise some phrases that people often use driven by their heart brain.
The gut brain, the enteric nervous system, lies within the walls of the digestive system. It consists of two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells lining the gastrointestinal tract from the oesophagus to the rectum. 400 times more messages go up from the gut to the brain than from the brain to the gut. The gut brain can help you to better understand your intuition. Your gut instinct responses in the stomach or intestines may send information about a situation to better understand your surroundings or to sense a subtle feeling of danger. Again, I’m sure you can recognise some statements that people use driven by their gut brain. The brain decides around what you’re thinking, the heart decides what you’re feeling, whilst the gut decides on the basis of the will to act – a simple “yes” or “no”.
Access the combined wisdom of your brain, the feelings of your intrinsic cardiac nervous system around your heart and the instincts of your intellect nervous system within your gut.
When you take the three messages from your head, your heart, and your gut, you’ll have a Fuller perspective on how to take action and how to make appropriate decisions.
The video forms part of the online course “Introduction to Emotional Intelligence” and “Decision Making
