Would you like to follow your heart, but something is stopping you?
Does it feel uncomfortable, uncertain, and maybe even confusing to follow your heart?
All this is to be expected when you’re first starting this journey.
It’s a sign that you’re heading in the right direction, because your mind and body are making adjustments.
Your mind wants proof that heart-centered living works. The only problem is that you won’t get proof until you start.
It will feel awkward at first, like anything new, but once you see that your heart is leading you on exactly the path you need, your mind will begin to fall in line.
The Battle Between Your Mind & Your Heart
When you’re a novice in heart-centered matters, it feels safer to follow your mind.
This sense of comfort is an illusion, because when you look at your past, you see that solely following your mind hasn’t helped.
This is what I discovered when I began listening to my heart. I was miserable, and proud of my impeccable “logic.”
Your heart, however, is connected to something larger. You may call it spirit, the unconscious, God, higher-self, or the Universe.
I don’t worry too much about the label.
The Art of Not-Knowing
This is not to say that you have to kill your mind, because it has its uses. It means that you aim for a more balanced approach.
Let your heart and mind integrate, and work as a team. When you follow your heart more, and your mind sees the results, the integration naturally occurs.
However, you have to take that initial leap of faith to get the process going. We’ve been taught that we should know everything before we do anything.
We spend our lives avoiding the unknown, but the truth of the matter is that you don’t have to know everything to know enough.
You only have to know your next step, and even that may not always be required.
It may come as a gentle nudge, a thought, a feeling, or even a song on the radio.
Taking Action
If you’ve been reading my articles, you already have some proof that heart-centered living works, and works well.
You’ve probably seen others follow their hearts. It looks good, but you may doubt your own abilities.
You may even look at other people living their passion, and think that you could never do what they do. They must have some kind of magical ability, right?
Wrong.
They’ve simply experimented a bit more.
They aren’t fearless. They simply take things one day at a time, one step at a time. They feel fear, overwhelm, and confusion, just like anyone else.
The difference is that they have developed the trust in themselves, just like you are doing right now, to overcome fears and work with them.
The fact that you are feeling what you are feeling now is a sign that you are heading in the right direction, because “negative” feelings will always be there to greet you when you embark on a path worth traveling.
Following Your Heart
I can’t give you the exact steps for following your heart, because your signals will differ from mine, but what I can do is share my experiences.
Most people overlook messages from their heart because they are fixated on what they think should happen and what life should look like.
Keep your eyes open and your focus wide, because you never know where your heart will nudge you.
One of the main ways that I follow my heart is by noticing my feelings. These feelings come with an aroma of peace and subtle encouragement.
They are enduring, which means they tend to stay the same over time, more or less.
For example: Someone may contact me about a business partnership. What I’ll do is stay open and notice how things feel. Most of the time it won’t feel right, or something will feel off, so I either say no, or decide to wait.
And if they pressure me, and I still don’t know, the answer is no.
The mind can still be used. This is not about excluding anything, but about including everything.
There’s never a rush to jump into opportunities, even if it may feel like it. This feeling of needing to rush is a hidden belief that you’ll miss out.
And remember, this is just how it works for me. It’s up to you to experiment with how your body communicates with you.
Being Right is Not the Goal
I do my best to trust my heart, but sometimes the feelings and nudges I get aren’t authentic.
In other words, I can misinterpret what they are all about. Sometimes the messages from my heart can be clouded by something else.
And I’m okay with that. I know that I won’t get it right all the time, and this small amount of uncertainty adds a bit of spice to life.
Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it isn’t. It’s all a part of the game we call life.
The more you follow your heart, the better you get at it. It’s like with anything else; it’s not about being perfect, it’s about learning and discovering how your heart communicates with you.
You won’t always be right, and that’s fine.
This is not about perfection. There is no such thing. It only exists as a thought.
Your Life is Changing
The fact that you’re reading this means that something inside of you is looking for a change. You are already changing inside, and you can feel it, can’t you?
My “heart” came online in my late teens. I knew that I wasn’t heading in the right direction. Something had to change, and it did.
It didn’t happen overnight, but as I put one foot in front of the other, change happened, and I discovered what passionate living was all about.
And while you may feel confused from time to time, know that it’s just a sign that you are growing and evolving.
There’s a reason why you’ve read this article. Something resonates with you, and you may not even know what it is, and that’s okay.
The positive feeling inside is a message from your heart.
It’s a sign that you’re already following your heart. You’re already on the right path.
You already have what it takes to live a heart-based life.
Now it’s up to you to expand how much you listen to you heart, and that can only happen through listening and experimenting.
Have fun,
Henri
Image by Brian (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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