Lexington Herald Leader Logo

Kentucky voices: Recipe for success: Follow our hearts, not our brains | Lexington Herald Leader

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • All News
    • Business
    • Communities
    • Counties
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Lexington
    • Local
    • Most Wanted
    • Nation/World
    • News Photos
    • News Videos
    • Politics
    • Searchable Databases
    • State
    • Watchdog
    • Columns
    • Tom Eblen
    • All Sports
    • UK Sports
    • College Sports
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • High School
    • Horses
    • Kentucky Speedway
    • Lexington Legends
    • Reds
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • NASCAR
    • NFL
    • Sports Photos
    • Sports Videos
    • Columns
    • John Clay's Columns
    • Mark Story
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • All UK Sports
    • Next Cats Recruiting
    • Baseball
    • Basketball - Men
    • Basketball - Women
    • Recruiting
    • Ex-Cats
    • Football
    • UK Photos
    • UK Videos
    • More UK Sports
    • Columns
    • John Clay's Blog
    • Mark Story
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • All Entertainment
    • Books
    • Celebrities
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Restaurants
    • Stage & Dance
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Entertainment Photos
    • Entertainment Videos
    • News Blogs
    • Kentucky Weather
    • Photo Archive
    • Sports Blogs
    • John Clay's Blog
    • High School
    • UK Football
    • UK Men's Basketball
    • UK Women's Basketball
    • Lexington Legends
    • Entertainment Blogs
    • Walter Tunis on Music
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Joel Pett
    • Letters to the Editor
    • National Columnists
    • Op-Ed
    • Submit a Letter
    • All Living
    • Celebrations
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Fru-Gal: Deb Morris
    • Health & Medicine
    • Home & Garden
    • Paul Prather
    • Religion
    • Travel
    • Readers' Choice
    • Kentucky Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Submit an Obituary
    • Customer Service
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • E-edition
    • Page Reprints
    • Photo Reprints
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Site Information
    • Advertise With Us
    • Archives
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Google+
    • Today's Circulars
    • Classifieds
    • Jobs
    • Cars
    • Homes
    • Homeseller
    • Legal Notices
  • Place an Ad
  • Mobile & Apps

Op-Ed

Kentucky voices: Recipe for success: Follow our hearts, not our brains

By Jim Roach

    ORDER REPRINT →

January 04, 2013 12:00 AM

Our nation prides itself on intellectual achievements. We seek rational solutions. We live in an information age where knowledge is king.

Yet we are not solving drug addiction, violence or war. After a record 11 years, war is routine. Mass gun murders occur monthly. One-third of us take anti-depressants. We have the biggest gap between rich and poor, and the smallest middle class, in three-quarters of a century.

In a country that prided itself on education, debt increasingly precludes college and our international ranking is at new depths. Chronic disorders including autoimmune, intestinal, brain disorders at all ages, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and diabetes are growing rapidly. Is this where intellectualization leads?

We glamorize the brain and its abilities. The future, we insist, will be the result of technology, the product of a vast brain trust. But is that a future we want? Will that bring more social ineptness and alienation, more mass murders, more routine war?

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Lexington Herald-Leader

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Sage Mohammed Nasser says we must "speak from our heart, not our brain." Can the heart be the next plane of evolution? The electromagnetic field created by the heart extends 15 feet, and is 5,000 times more powerful than the brain. The heart is mostly nerve tissue; it has a deep memory and a consciousness.

Deep inside, we know the heart's worth. We have watched Ebenezer Scrooge, and vowed that would never be us. We know baby monkeys given nourishment, languish and die without a mother's love. Alienation and loneliness shorten longevity.

Male Harvard medical students were once asked about relationships with parents; 35 years later, of those reporting a warm, fuzzy relationship, 47 percent had a chronic disorder; ones with a cool, distant relationship 100 percent of the time had chronic illness.

A pocket of remarkable longevity was discovered in the rural Pennsylvania town of Rosetta. What was their secret? They emigrated as a group from Italy. Neighbors were very close and families stayed nearby, supporting each other for four generations. They have now gone their own ways and, with it, their longevity.

Can we solve the world's problems with brains? Genetically modified foods are a brain success, but a heart failure. Computers and iPhones for school children are a brain success, but marriage is at an all-time low. Antidepressants are a pharmaceutical marketing genius, but a heart and societal failure.

We individually can choose to live at a new level — the heart level. It is happier. It is one of strong personal bonds, of business decisions based on benefit for others, where families foster not gadget-superiority and wealth, but strong relationships.

It begins with interactions. Before saying the first word, take a deep belly breath. Consciously switch from brain to heart. The heart connection is literally thousands of times more powerful. Attempts to attain happiness, meaningful relationships, and world peace with intellectual solutions have failed. What may be unfathomable to the brain, though, is achievable by the heart.

Love is the only rational level at which to live. It transcends space and time.

And it begins with that deep belly breath, gentle switch to the heart and immediate connection to others. Enduring solutions ensue — to relationships, to community, to violence, alienation and bankrupt lives, and ultimately to peace, prosperity and good will for all.

  Comments  

Videos

Here’s why it would be important for Kentucky to win the SEC title

Reid Travis says he wasn’t really on IV after games

View More Video

Trending Stories

Teen brothers killed in accident on Harrodsburg Road

February 17, 2019 10:52 AM

‘It’s a good day to die.’ Man pulls gun on couple wearing MAGA caps at Kentucky Sam’s Club

February 18, 2019 02:29 PM

Vote for the Kentucky.com Girls’ Basketball Player of the Week (Feb. 10-16, 2019)

February 17, 2019 09:57 PM

Even Tennessee’s players agreed: ‘Kentucky was totally kicking our butt.’

February 17, 2019 01:07 AM

‘That’s crazy.’ Herro’s rebounding performance stuns Kentucky teammate.

February 17, 2019 01:57 AM

Read Next

Kentucky cannot afford a new generation of nicotine addicts

Op-Ed

Kentucky cannot afford a new generation of nicotine addicts

By Ben Chandler

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 15, 2019 08:07 PM

Kentucky’s legislature should mandate smoke-free schools, a crucial step in reducing adolescent and teen tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke and e-cigarette aerosol. Without action to stem rising youth smoking, the state will face the expense of an entirely new generation addicted to nicotine.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Lexington Herald-Leader

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE OP-ED

McConnell prime for the Pelosi treatment, if only Dems had the spine

Op-Ed

McConnell prime for the Pelosi treatment, if only Dems had the spine

February 15, 2019 07:55 PM
Tribalism, media prejudice ruining America

Op-Ed

Tribalism, media prejudice ruining America

February 15, 2019 04:42 PM
Shunned by Sunday school, Slemp seeks something to worship.

Op-Ed

Shunned by Sunday school, Slemp seeks something to worship.

February 15, 2019 11:01 AM
Killing solar jobs, businesses in Kentucky would not be conservative

Op-Ed

Killing solar jobs, businesses in Kentucky would not be conservative

February 14, 2019 07:51 PM
‘Not true.’ Equine vet responds to lawsuit over X-rays at Keeneland horse sales

Op-Ed

‘Not true.’ Equine vet responds to lawsuit over X-rays at Keeneland horse sales

February 14, 2019 10:42 AM
A plea from the mountains: Don’t snuff out solar energy’s economic opportunities

Op-Ed

A plea from the mountains: Don’t snuff out solar energy’s economic opportunities

February 13, 2019 07:06 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Lexington Herald Leader App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Local Deals
  • Digital Solutions
  • Media Kit
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story