Your Heart Is Smarter Than You Think

By Jennifer Kelleher

We tend to think of our brain as the CEO of the body: the decision-maker, logic center, and the one in charge. But science is showing that your heart is much more than a pump keeping you alive. It’s an intelligent system, with the power to influence your thoughts, emotions, and even the decisions you make… often before your brain is consciously aware of them.

Inside your chest beats an organ containing around 40,000 neurons– a tiny, self-contained network known as the intrinsic cardiac nervous system. This isn’t just poetic talk about “following your heart.” These neurons process information, make assessments, and communicate with your brain in real time.

Here’s the mind-bending part: your heart sends four times more signals to your brain than your brain sends to your heart. Roughly 80% of the traffic along your vagus nerve (the major information superhighway between body and brain) flows upward from the heart.

This means that before your prefrontal cortex (the rational, logical part of your brain) has time to analyze a situation, your heart has already processed emotional and social cues and is influencing how you feel and think. It’s why you might sense that something’s “off” about a conversation or feel drawn toward someone you just met without knowing why. Your heart is making micro-decisions about safety, trust, alignment, and authenticity milliseconds before you consciously register them.

Despite this incredible built-in intelligence, most of us override it. We ignore the gut feeling that tells us a deal is too good to be true. We push through exhaustion because our brain says we “should” be productive. We stay in situations that feel wrong because logic tells us it’s “safe.”

Over time, this disconnection can lead to burnout, poor decisions, and a sense of being out of alignment with life. Your heart’s signals aren’t just sentimental noise, they’re data. And when you ignore that data, you’re flying blind.

So what does this look like in real life?

Meeting someone new: You might feel a warm sense of ease around them instantly. That’s your heart and nervous system reading subtle cues like tone of voice, micro-expressions, and body language before your brain has time to list “pros and cons” of their character.

Walking into a room: You can often sense tension or joy in the air without a word being spoken. That’s your body’s neural networks decoding social and emotional information almost instantly.

Making a big life decision: Maybe on paper, the job looks perfect, but something in your chest feels heavy when you picture saying yes. That’s worth paying attention to.

Have you been following your heart?” If you answered “no,” don’t worry.

Learning to listen to your heart’s signals isn’t about throwing logic out the window, it’s about creating a dialogue between your body and your mind, so both get a say. Here’s how:

1. Pause Before You Decide: When faced with a choice, take a few slow breaths and notice how your body feels. Tightness in your chest? A sense of openness? That physical response is often your heart’s first language.
2. Track Your Energy, Not Just Your Time: Your heart knows when you’re being drained. Keep a “body journal” for a week. After each activity, note how energized or depleted you feel. Patterns will emerge.
3. Practice Coherence: Try heart-focused breathing (slow, deep breaths while imagining your breath moving in and out of your heart area). This helps synchronize your heart and brain, making it easier to catch subtle cues.
4. Respect the Discomfort: If you get a sinking feeling about a person or situation, resist the urge to rationalize it. Ask, “What might my body be trying to protect me from?”
5. Value Alignment Over Justification: Your heart often flags misalignment before your brain finds a reason. If something feels wrong even when it “makes sense,” give that feeling space before making your move.

Your heart is not just a passenger in the vehicle of your life, it’s a co-pilot. When you honor its signals, you make choices that not only look good on paper but feel right in your bones.

If you’re ready to slow down, reconnect with your body, and start truly listening to your heart, join me at Ocean Bliss for yoga classes, Pilates sessions, and workshops. Sign up at oceanblissyoga.net or call/text 917-318-1168 with questions. Don’t miss our Sound Bath next Wednesday, August 20 at 7 p.m. Reserve your spot on the website today.