If you’re a coach, a leader, a therapist, an educator, or anyone who works with people and supports change, then you’ve probably noticed something over the past few years. The coaching world has shifted. People aren’t just looking for mindset anymore.
Yes, mindset matters. Of course it does. Changing perspective, asking powerful questions and expanding choice are all incredibly important. But more and more people are realising something. Mindset alone can only take you so far because transformation doesn’t just happen in the thinking mind.
It happens in the body too. This is where understanding the multiple brains – the head, the heart and the gut – becomes so powerful.
When You Know the Right Decision… But You Still Don’t Take Action
Let me ask you something. Have you ever known logically what the right decision is… and yet something in you still hesitates? You know you should make the call. You know you should put yourself out there. You know you should go visible in your business, share what you do, tell people how you can help them. And yet… You scroll. You compare yourself to others. You procrastinate. You hesitate. You feel fear, overwhelm, or doubt. And you don’t take the action. From the outside, it looks confusing because your head knows exactly what to do. But something inside you is holding back.
When Your Heart and Gut Want One Thing… But Your Head Says Something Else
I remember experiencing this myself when I left teaching. I felt this deep passion to bring NLP into the world in a bigger way. I wanted to train people, share these tools and reach far more people than I could in the classroom. My heart was completely in it. My gut felt driven. And yet my head was saying:
“Are you sure?”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“What if you fail?”
Then my gut stepped in with its own voice:
“What if it all goes wrong?”
So suddenly there was this internal tug of war. Heart pulling one way. Head questioning everything. Gut trying to keep me safe. My Inner conflict was in chaos!
Why Clients Stay Stuck (Even When the Coaching is good)
If you’re a coach, you may have seen this with clients too. They come to a session with a clear goal. They make a plan. They say they’re committed. Everything seems congruent. And then they come back the next week and… nothing has changed.
The actions weren’t taken. Excuses appear. Procrastination creeps in. And as a coach, it can feel frustrating because you’ve asked great questions, explored beliefs, shifted perspective… But something still isn’t moving. So what’s really going on?
We Don’t Just Have One Brain
Neuroscience now confirms something that ancient wisdom has recognised for thousands of years.
We don’t just have a thinking brain. We have multiple neural networks in the body that function like brains:
- The Head Brain – thinking, logic, analysis, problem solving
- The Heart Brain – values, connection, purpose and meaning
- The Gut Brain – identity, courage, self-preservation and action
Each of these brains has its own intelligence. Each has its own language. And each has its own way of processing the world. When they are aligned, decision making feels clear and powerful. When they are misaligned, that’s when the inner conflict begins. That push and pull. That feeling of knowing what you want but still feeling stuck.
The Role of the Nervous System
Another important piece of this puzzle is the autonomic nervous system. Because the way your nervous system is operating affects how each brain functions. When the nervous system is dysregulated, the brains can begin to operate in unhelpful ways.
For example:
- The head brain might go into overthinking or mental looping.
- The heart brain might disconnect or disengage.
- The gut brain might move into fear, procrastination, or impulsive decisions.
You might notice this in everyday life. Overthinking decisions. Jumping between ideas. Feeling disconnected from what you truly want. Or acting quickly and then regretting it later. All of these are signals that the system isn’t fully integrated.
Real Transformation Happens When the Brains Work Together
This is where Multiple Brain Integration Techniques (mBIT) becomes such a powerful methodology. mBIT blends together insights from:
- Neuroscience
- NLP
- Cognitive linguistics
- Behavioural modelling
- Ancient wisdom traditions
It brings all of these together into a structured way of helping people align the head, heart and gut. Because when these three intelligences are working together, something remarkable happens.
Decisions become clearer. Actions become easier. Clients stop battling themselves internally and change happens at a much deeper level.
Not just intellectually but somatically, emotionally and neurologically.
Why head, heart and gut matters for Coaches and Leaders
If you support people to change, whether as a coach, leader, teacher or therapist – this understanding is incredibly valuable, because clients often arrive thinking their problem is one thing.
But once you begin working with the body, the nervous system and the multiple brains, you realise the real issue sits somewhere else entirely. And when you work at that deeper level, the change becomes:
- Transformational
- Generative
- Long lasting
Instead of temporary shifts that disappear when someone falls back into old patterns.
Discover the Power of mBIT (multiple brain techniques)
If you’re curious about how head, heart and gut intelligence can transform coaching, leadership and personal development, then I’d love to invite you to explore this work further.
Next week I’m running a three-day mBIT experience where I’ll be sharing:
- How the three brains operate
- What happens when they’re misaligned
- nervous system regulation
- How to recognise this in yourself and your clients
- How to support deep integration for lasting change
It’s just one hour a day over three days, and it’s a beautiful introduction to this powerful modality for coaching and leadership development.
Today there are already over 3,500 mBIT practitioners worldwide using these techniques across coaching, leadership, education and business and I’d love to share it with you too.
Come and join us – I’d love to see you there. Register for the free mBIT experience here
See you next time
Sarah 😊
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Find out more about the mBIT practitioner certification happening April 16-19th May at our training venue in Blackpool Find out more
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