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Heart versus Mind ~ Are you ready to follow your Heart?

I had a question about something personal last week and I didn’t know what to do. The thing is that if I would proceed, it could harm me emotionally and that’s why all people around me said I should never ever do that. I was in so much turmoil about it that I got desperate. There was this big force inside me that said yes. My body responding to it in the strongest way, but my brain said no, don’t do it. You have been hurt enough, you cannot take more of this.

Follow the Signs

So what did I do? One day when I was thinking about the question as usual, I came across a sign which held all the worries and doubts arranged as they worked in my head. It said:

It is impossible, says pride. It is risky, says experience. It is useless, says the mind. Give it a chance, whispers the heart.

I read them all and understood that this was the battle I was fighting inside of me. The battle between my heart and head. Pride, experience and value, is all mind thinking. My heart is feeling, soul, my path. Though I saw this sign and it arranged my thoughts, I left it as it was. Not giving me the answer to my question. Just organizing.

Two minutes later I poor myself a tea and the tag on the teabag reads: ‘Let your heart speak to others’ hearts.’ There was my answer! So the universe and its signs was also backing me up.

The Brain, our rational Motor

The brain is intellect. It thinks, it programs. It helps us to analyze, see the coherence between aspects and situations. It helps us to memorize. It is a center where signals of the body are received and send out into the rest of the body. And it is also the place where our ego resides.

Freud used the word ego to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory. The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us.[23]

Our minds are programmed to avoid danger, risks, it makes plans to prevent (emotional) harm. It tries to make sense out of what it sees happening around. It is a purely rational, intellectual motor of our body. That helps us to stay safe.

The Brain is programmed to keep us from Harm

What happens when we are in danger? The mind starts programs. Analyzing, searching for past experiences, risks and starts calculating. Weighing the positive against the negative aspects. Rational thinking is safe, you have to have no fear.

Of course it is good to analyze things before taking a decision. But the danger here is that people start overanalyzing. Besides former experiences can hold ‘red alerts’ that will withdraw us from ever doing it again. What happens is that we may miss a path or chance because we fear that it might harm us again.

Difference between Men and Women

Men are usually more rational. Women are more in contact with their feelings and will make decisions more easily based on a feeling, gut instinct or with their heart. Apparently this has to do with the fact that women can read subtle emotions better in behavior and facial expressions. They are as well better at expressing their feelings through their facial expressions. They have more social skills in this area than men do.

Because they are more in touch with their emotions, they will easier recognize inner emotions, gut feelings and their hearts.

Why follow your Heart?

Your heart is that what has no opinion, will not weigh the positive against the negative. Our heart already knows what is good for us. Did you know that your heart is developed before our brain? The heart is the motor from which we all stem. It created our brain. It was there first. Other research also shows that the heart can receive and respond to stimuli before the brain does. It is just a split second, but shows that the heart is the first to know the answer.

Heart versus Mind

You could say that the heart is more in touch with our emotions, our inner wants, the needs of our soul. It knows the way, if you want to walk the path that you yourself aligned in cooperation with the universe.

The mind is in touch with the brain, the intellect, analyzing. Programmed by positive and negative experiences in the past and will make an outcome based on this. You follow the ego. Ego is something that can control us. It follows and abides the rules of society. It looks at what is good for us to prevent pain. The ego is not so much in touch with the universe. It is in touch with the universe of our own brain, our own reality. A reality that is subjective, because we all have had our own experiences in the past.

What do you follow?

So the question now is; do you want to follow your own reality, or are you going with your gut feeling, your heart that is in sync with the universe and your path as a soul?

It may be risky, it may cause more harm, but I follow my heart. My brain is there to help me in my daily tasks. It is important as well, but not for decisions of the heart.

I choose my heart and it is the best up until now. Of course it will also lead me to sorrow and pain, but at least it is there to become more me, to find my personal lessons.

 

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You might be interested in the following posts as well:

Open Heart Friends ~ Golden Connections

The Magic of Spontaneous Encounters

Nagabandhu Yoga

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