If I were to ask you what you think with, you’d probably look at me strangely. “My brain, of course”, I hear you respond. But it’s not as simple as that. In fact, when we are effectively thinking, we are doing so with our whole body. Over the next two blog posts, I’ll explain what this means, and share  some simple things you can do to improve your ability to think more clearly.

In the information era, most people’s thoughts operate a bit like Twitter or Facebook: a never-ending stream of notes, recollections, to dos, ideas and inspirations. Time moves quickly as the mind flutters from one thought to the next.

If you’ve ever had a day that you looked back on and wondered where it went, wondered why you can hardly remember what happened, you know what I’m talking about.

As leaders, this kind of thinking can cause us to be less than effective in our role – particularly in the ways in which we focus on what is important, engage and enable others, and work to achieve what is expected.

When we are surrounded by clutter (either physical or mental), it is hard to see our organisation and the world around us with clarity. More significantly, this clutter forces a sort of rapid-fire thinking – thinking that is not balanced. This thinking is inherently biased and fails to consider the full set of possibilities and ramifications.

Ancient eastern philosophy – supported by modern neuroscience – teaches us that clear, effective thinking is achieved using the ‘whole body’. It is thinking that balances three ‘centres’: the head, the heart and ‘gut’.

Put very simply: ‘head thinking’ is rational, fact-based thinking; ‘heart thinking’ is thinking with feeling; and ‘gut thinking’ is thinking based on instinct – what we often call ‘gut feel’.

Each of us is capable of thinking in all three of these ways. However, in the process of developing a personality, we tend to lean more strongly towards one of the three, which then becomes our primary filter for perceiving what we think is reality.

We have a tendency to trust the thoughts that come from our preferred centre over others. Conversely, we find ourselves mistrusting or avoiding what the other centres are telling us.

You are probably already more familiar with this concept than you may be aware.

Amongst the people you work with, there are no doubt some who tend to use their thinking to predict from past learning what might occur in the future. They seek security in the choices they make and the certainty of the past gives them this. These people are ‘head thinking’.

Then there are those who ‘think through feeling’. As they make choices and decisions, they tend to connect to others in order to better understand the dynamics of a situation and what is happening around them. This connection and understand gives them the confidence to move forward.

Another group of people often react first in an instinctual (gut feel) way before appearing to think at all. They can instinctively sense what is needed and move into action without needing a lot of information or being concerned about the dynamics of a situation.

Perhaps you recognise one of these in yourself? See if you can over the next few days before my next post, which will explore ways that you can achieve more balance and effective thinking.