Amidst change and transition our mind can become cluttered with fear and worry about what is ahead. We are not accustomed to living comfortably with the unknown. A worried mind will never bring our best solution to the table and certainly not one worth paying attention to. In fact, until you can quiet your mind, you will not be able to hear the wisdom and true intelligence of your heart.
If there is one thing I am certain of it’s that our mind can be like a runaway train without a conductor taking us to places we would rather not go. Rather than be a receptor and transmitter for our instincts and intuitive knowing to flow through us, the hardware of our computer main frame (the mind) that is meant to translate the information of our software (the heart), our thinking habits can muddle and confuse us especially when it comes to matters of the heart. When you are concerned with figuring out your life plan, a solution to a problem, or you want to know your passion, the heart language which is far more subtle, can become drowned out by the brass band that plays in the mind. Until the frenetic activity of our busy, worrying mind is quelled, we cannot hear the whisper of the heart that says, “I know what’s right for you.” It takes practice to get back to the stillness that allows the heart to be heard.
Often buried under a mountain of expectation, fear and outdated beliefs, our heart intelligence yearns to be heard but the flow of communication from heart to mind is cut off. The heart intelligence is like a soft whisper of intuition whereas the mind plays so loudly that it overpowers this quiet voice of reason.
- Feel to heal: Give yourself permission to feel your life fully and completely. Your feelings are trying to tell you something. We live in a culture that does not encourage us to feel but instead to numb out to our feelings. Our feelings are our best navigational tool to direct us and even tell us how our thoughts may be getting in the way of allowing us to be truly free and happy. I encourage people to express their emotions so that they can empty out what’s there and be filled with new ones like joy and bliss. In my experience of moving through grief, my connection to my heart felt free and easy after I let go and cried, screamed, danced or laughed hysterically. My body would tell me what I needed, and any expression of my emotions liberated me. As I expressed and emptied, I would be filled with peace and stillness…as Rumi said, “In the stillness is the voice you long to hear.”
- Practice Peace: Peace is cultivated from inside. We must tend to our inner sense of equanimity like the stirring of slow burning embers of a fire. I recommend an early morning inspirational ritual. How you start your day, is how you live your day. Breathe deeply. Live inspired first thing in the morning. Find that sanctuary inside and visit it often and even amidst chaos a you will find PEACE. Breathe. In this still place, the brass band is quieted, and your heart is playing your song like a finely tuned symphony.
- Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff so you can experience the big joy and magic of your life. If you are focused on the small stuff of life (the minor annoyances and pettiness of small circumstances that happen each day) then chances are, you are all but missing the big stuff life has to offer you in joy and gratitude. If what you’re dealing with is a real problem then it will remain so for a long time, and those that matter in the long term must be taken slowly—step by step. Most things will dissolve quickly if you don’t turn mole hills into mountains. Here’s a great metaphor: If you place a red dot on a blank page making the dot represent the one thing that went wrong in your day or something someone said that bothered you, and you are focused purely on that dot all day long and into the night and perhaps the next day, well, life is actually happening in the white space of the page. The red dot, in perspective, should just be one annoying moment of your life that you let go of not the thing that has 100% of your attention. To refocus your attention, ask yourself the question: Will this matter a year from now? If the answer is no, then you are dealing with small stuff. Keeping life in perspective helps establish a stronger connection to the heart.
As you feel to heal, practice the art of inner peace and learn to let go of what doesn’t serve you any longer, and you stop sweating the small stuff, you will be better able to tame the monkey mind and tune into your heart language and true intelligence with a flow of communication that comes through your inner wisdom and voice. When you are caught up in your head, you can’t hear your heart. Remember that your heart holds the key to unlocking and opening the door to your next new beginning and transition. All you have to do is learn to listen.
Are you feeling it too? That call from your spirit to stay awake. To live & love. To grow & change. To draw your attention away from the “small stuff” and onto the “big stuff.”
