Listen to Your Heart

The words, 'Listen to your heart' have always felt sort of profound to me. I think it may be the influence of Roxette's same titled song back in the 80's - what a great song! If you love it as much as I do, you'll need to re-watch the video immediately - so head here after you read this blog (be polite....seriously...).

So, what does it mean to listen to your heart? For me, it means letting my heart be strong (because it is) and tuning out my mind - the one that always wants control - and allow gratitude and peacefulness to take over. When I am grateful, I am in the best space I can be! It keeps me positive and moving forward because I'm not bogged down with that sticky, weighted negativity that I have been so used to in the past. There was a time when I was more comfortable that way - refusing to leave my den of darkness. I liked it there I suppose - no, wait - I didn't - but we can convince ourselves we do.

For me, our minds are tricky things - I can't count how many times I used to find myself at a fast food drive through paying before my brain let me acknowledge that I had already ordered and 'driven thru.' It sounds like a miraculous excuse, but if we are not fully aware of our conscious decisions, stuff like that happens. At grocery stores, there are times we grab whatever is hanging around the till that looks good because it happens to be there. Once we leave the store we end up thinking, I bought this because......I just told myself I WASN'T going to buy this!' We've all been there.

How about committing to a full day of doing well nutritionally only to end up standing at your kitchen counter wolfing down piece after piece of toast with cheese whiz because your body wants carbs....and your mind sort of shut off while you got things rolling. I talk about all of that fun 'realization' stuff in my book, The Fat Girl Now 50% Lighter.'

The heart holds more wisdom than the brain because the heart is filled with love. It knows how to give love and get it in return to live. There will be times that it is stepped on, broken, squashed, bled seemingly dry and it will still love knowing the value it holds. We need love and we'll sometimes do ridiculous things to get it.

We succeed with finding the balance between mind and body by loving ourselves first. By doing that, we can love others too. Everyone wants to be loved - if they say otherwise, they fib. Love is a necessity, no matter what skin yer in! This doesn't mean that we should go out and randomly accost hug strangers without asking, it means we understand the balance.

The mind works differently - not from a place of love but (hopefully) logic. A strange combination, isn't it? The trick is finding the balance. We don't want to go too far into the mind and lose the ability to realize the feelings of the heart too.

I could go on and on with research and theory, but I'd rather it explain it this way.....

The heart is purer the more we love. Simple, right? I was exhausted from being miserable, so I decided to stop. It didn't feel like a decision at the time - it felt like I went kicking and screaming, but I went. After awhile, the kicking and screaming subsides as logic meets love and we realize why we are doing anything in life. We realize that the choices we made, we made because we wanted to - consciously or not - and we are where we are because of them.


RECIPE FOR A HAPPY HEART (FILLED WITH LOVE)
by Shawn Cote

Tell the mind to quiet down - just for awhile - you will get back to it later.

OK, now in an imaginary bowl, let's mix together these ingredients:

Baskets and Baskets of LOVE
A world of SMILES
Endless LAUGHTER
Limitless KINDNESS

Imagine in your mind; all of the people you love. See their faces? They love you too! The love in your heart is growing again already!

Into your bowl add:

FUN
ADVENTURE
COMPASSION
WARMTH
UNDERSTANDING
HONESTY

We can't ever find enough TIME for these recipes, so no worries about TIME right now. We do what we can.....

 Mix all of your ingredients together and let it all grow inside your heart.

Relaxation, meditation and reflection time all allow us to rejuvenate, feel the gratitude and let ourselves be reminded that it's all about balance.

Rock your day.....now go watch that Roxette video! ;)