Following Our Hearts, Not Our Words
Follow means that something or someone else is going to lead us. So to follow our hearts is to listen to us right now. To follow our hearts sounds innocent, pure and good. That is, to follow our hearts suggests that we are going to let our feelings and emotions be our guides.
There are two ways to see whether we are “following our hearts” or not. The first one is that we are following the desires that our hearts are calling us, and the second one is that we are truly listening to our hearts.
     The first one is about our desires and our words, but not exactly our hearts. Our society today is driven by our minds and our fears. We do not place as much value and emphasis on passion, love, fulfillment and spiritual purposes. Rather, it is about external success, money, security, stability and reputation. As a result, many of us do not feel that it is so important to really tune in to our hearts, and hear what they want. Instead, we are too busy trying to get ahead and make something of ourselves in this world. The head is practical and analytical and is often driven by fear. Our heads would tell us what needs to be done to remain safe in the world. Nevertheless, we can never be who everyone else wants us to be. Even if we want to dedicate our whole lives to serving the world or others, we wouldn’t be able to do either in an honest way until we operate from a source of knowing our internal hearts. The outcome we’re ultimately seeking is to listen to our hearts by focusing on what makes us feel expansive, and to let go of anything in our lives that leaves us feeling negative. Compared to the head, the heart is free and wild, and is driven by love. Thus, the second one is about our hearts. We should look at our lives honestly, and really evaluate what parts of them we love. It means that we ought to listen to our deep inner voices, rather than the loud forceful voices of the outer world.
Indeed, the decision to follow our hearts is a journey. If we have been living a life that is not heart-driven, we may experience feelings of confusion, self-doubt and even regrets for our actions. I believe that it is time for each of us to wake up, listen to our hearts, and connect with what we really want. And then we act on it. We, thus, dare to take risks and have the courage to move towards our hearts fearlessly with 100% commitment. In order to do this, we must be willing to be different, to do things differently, and to challenge the expectations that our hearts want us to do. Yes, a life of following our hearts may be challenging, but the rewards we receive would be enough to make it all worth it. In fact, humans are not always intellectual beings. We’re all emotional beings who allow our feelings and emotions to guide our lives.
However, in our daily life, we usually make decisions on our heads. It is the intellect in our heads to have the rational analysis, where we weigh the pros and cons of a particular situation. Besides, we also listen to people’ opinions. They would look at things from their perspectives and give us advice. Still, there’s more facts than they see. Therefore, we cannot totally depend on our intellectual and logical thinking to make decisions. In this sense, we try to approach our intuitions. Our hearts are all the best intentions in the world. Our bodies, very often, tell us everything that we need to know. By bringing our attention to our emotive landscape, we are learning to turn off our analytical mind to get in touch with what’s true for us at the deepest level. We listen to our hearts when we’re trying to decide whether or not we want to meet up with specific people, engage in activities, or determine what to do next when making decisions in relation to our life, career, and spiritual practices. Our bodies give us all of the information that we need when we’re quiet and aware enough to feel our emotions and bodily sensations.
Emotions provide us with a shortcut to our truth. If we do not get to know ourselves in the absence of the analytical mind, or external (familial, cultural, or societal) expectations that seemingly govern our choices, we’ll continuously feel lost, frustrated, and out of alignment with what is real and true for our life journey. It is suggested that both meditation and yoga are powerful practices that can assist us with getting in touch with our bodies, emotions, hearts and the truth within us. If meditation or yoga feels like too much, we can just simply sit quietly and pay attention to our hearts. When we’re trying to decide what to keep or let go of in our lives, we don’t actually need to think about anything; all we really need to know is how the decision makes us feel. We have to sit quietly until we’re fully relaxed. Once relaxed, we, then, simply drop our heads down as if we’re trying to look at our hearts. If we start thinking or analyzing the results, instead of how we’re feeling in the moment, we’re already allowing the mind to take over and rationalize a different choice, which moves us away from our truth. Our bodies do know what we need. In order to continue getting to our hearts, perhaps, we have to be willing to give up everything we thought we knew about ourselves, and what we thought we wanted or needed. Eventually, we’ll be experts at following our hearts and listening to them fully. Again, studies have shown that bodily signals—particularly from the heart—offer good guidance about potential choices. We all have a voice inside our hearts. The little voice tells us what to do, how to be, and how we should feel about things. This voice can be a powerful influence on our lives. When we listen with our hearts, we’re able to really connect with us on a much deeper level, and understand our feelings and needs. This can be tough to do, especially when we’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed, but it’s so worth it. When we truly follow and listen to our hearts, we build stronger, more intimate relationships with ourselves based on trust, respect, and understanding.

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