“When your heart speaks, take good notes”

We are conditioned to evaluate our life and our decisions from a rational perspective. From a young age when you are asked “what do you want to do when you grow up”, we are expected to mould our answers into logical and acceptable formats. Something that fits in with our parent’s perception and expectation of what we are supposed to do. Isn’t the whole point of youth that they redefine the expectations, rebel and show the world a different way? Otherwise things just carry on in the same repetitive way generation after generation? Yet in times such as these the options chosen are sooner safe than outside the box and fear of failure reigns in a land dominated by “what if…?”
It is unbelievably hard to stand up and say something different and new. It takes an awful lot of courage to step away from the pack and be counted for what you believe in. To do what you feel is right and not what you think is right. To listen to your heart is a dying skill for which people are easily accused as being unrealistic and airy-fairy.
But there are 2 areas to the human brain. To over simplify this, the left side deals with logic, facts, that which we can see, count, touch. The right side deals with imagination, vision, creativity. Both sides are supposed to work together, yet we live in a world of left brain dominance. Unless things can be logically understood, they are easily dismissed.
Children are wonderfully creative and imaginative, with an inhibition that can teach adults a lesson or two. They are in touch with their right side of the brain. When I used to do exercises in seminars in companies highlighting the contrast between the two hemispheres, it was quite remarkable how adults are fixed in their measured and logical responses. When was the last time you really thought outside the box, used your imagination wildly and created something unconventional and visionary? When was the last time you allowed your life to be steered by your heart rather than your head?
My son used to tell me, he wanted to be a super hero and I didn’t see the point to re-direct him. Who am I to quash his imagination and love of life? It is unlikely he will be a super hero of any kind, but whatever he does in his life, I would want him to be very happy with. They say when you do what you love, you never do another day’s work in your life.
All too often I have come across coaching clients in my practice who seemed to have enviable lives looking from the outside in. For years they have made decisions based upon what earned well, looked or sounded good and what seemed right for the career path or what was expected of them. Sooner or later you become unstuck, for the voice of your heart cannot be silenced forever. If we are put here for a reason, with a purpose and a talent, then is our first port of call not to find out what that is?
What dreams have you given up on? If you could follow your heart regardless of anything else, what would you be doing today? What makes you very, very happy?
The right hand side of the brain can assist in this quest, because tapping into your imagination will encourage different options. If you don’t follow your heart then at some point somewhere you will find that longing of the road you should have followed much sooner. Your heart’s longing. But it is never too late.
Within this we can set our children free. As long as they have the necessary foundations, values and respect, why can they not find their unique way (even if it makes you cringe and you see all the possible flaws in it). Life is a journey. If the youngsters of today express their heart’s longing they may come up with different ways of looking at things, which will refreshingly teach us if we let it. In the meantime ask yourself what following your heart would mean to you.