| Mind – Heart |
How do you center yourself feeling with your heart and rationalizing with your mind?
“Follow your heart”…
Sometimes our hearts may know something is a lie or a truth whenever we try to convince ourselves otherwise with our rational minds. Examples of this can be cheating on our diet by eating the wrong foods, cheating on our significant other with someone else. Or doing one activity when we know it’s a waste of time when we should really be doing something else more important or we do something against our core consciousness and values violating our self-respect, self-worth, and overall dignity.
Or if there is a void in our life somewhere we feel that empty sensation in our hearts. That’s our conscious speaking and it’s a good reminder we’re still alive and an indicator of something is wrong in our life that’s worth needs fixing immediately. And nourishment… fulfillment! Maybe it’s our higher self like our soul or spirit of some form of God or a collective universal consciousness of infinite intelligence in the Universe giving us a signal. Either way, we feel this and it only means was still human.
My take on this and keep in mind this applies in some cases but not to all. Our heart speaks to us about our deepest wants, pleasures, and desires… even feelings of expression, love, and being conscientious of right from wrong and riddle us with guilt when we are in the wrong in harming another person creating karmic debt to ourselves. However, if a feeling in our heart is so powerful that we let ourselves get consumed in the emotional ‘high’ of it, it can get to our heads clouding our judgment and rational thinking goes out the window. Yes, it’s good to feel it in your heart and accept the feeling/emotion but too much of it can bespeak unwanted troubles.
For example, say you have a crush on someone and you genuinely like or love them a lot in your heart. You had a few successful dates, vibe a lot on your texts, phone calls, in-person and online if you’ve used a dating site. Whatever the case, your heart’s overwhelming desire may make you slip into becoming needy and clinging to the person blowing up their phone with texts, calls, and VM’s or online messages if you’re using a dating app. And when he or she receives this then losing complete interest and turned off rejecting you… it leaves a very minor hearting breaking type of feeling when you were only falling for someone so strongly and felt the affection deep in your heart. It’s the truth, you genuinely liked or love him or her but did not exercise due caution in relationship management here.
Perhaps the higher meaning to this is emotional intelligence which is the answer and applying it to the equation of Heart and Mind?! In this case to control our wild internal urges of affection we need our mind to lie to ourselves only slightly or being able to let go. Yes, let go and have nothing. It’s said in the book “In the Art of Peace” by committing yourself to true emptiness and maybe they’re right but that takes time and consistent effort to manifest that type of discipline to know and feel inside ourselves to realize that and embodied into our core being. After all, we’re only human, so rejecting our natural urges is also doing us a disservice by not self-actualizing some of our wants & desires that could contribute our lives to their fullest potential.
So maybe we do let go of the other person even though our heart says no and feels otherwise but using logic and critical thinking you know you can damage or destroy any possible relationship by letting your heart-felt emotions get the better of you by acting on them without rational judgment. And worse destroying your own self-image in the eyes of the person you seek. And it doesn’t just stop there… this could go for that job you really wanted and knew in your heart that the truth of it is that it’s your dream job or a job you really wanted and knew deep down that it’s the direction of where you need to go or one that you’ll love and enjoy giving you great experience paying you a fortune in compensation. Yet you or the person acting upon in this case slips up making a similar mistake with the hiring manager, recruiter, or key stakeholder or decision-maker and decide they no longer like you and reject you as a candidate.
On the dark end of this can be hatred and wanting vengeance on an enemy. A friend or loved one you once trusted and you were betrayed for no fault of your own and the pain in your heart materializes to hate of that person. You know deep down you reject them and you feel it truly… you are in the right for the wrongdoing they’ve done to you. They’ve sinned and maybe committed a crime by law. But your hate, in this case, clouds your judgment, and decide to act on it without thinking of the consequences of your actions however justified you are in the right and your antagonist is wrong. You dig yourself two graves and depending on your heartfelt anger for the justice you may get the law involved and now suffer charges whatever that may be or create karmic debt impacting those you’re surrounded by in your life and affiliated with and the person who wronged you too. Now you dug 3 or 4 or 5 or more graves… Perhaps there is no redemption here with the amount of karma you’ve undone.
Yet on the flip side in reverse, you can be rejecting what you truly feel inside and rationalizing it with your mind leaving yourself divided internally not living true to who they are; becoming weakened and dimming your Spiritual nature. Like a form of self-expression in the arts or being a creative type only to reject your talents and that may be due to fear of failure or criticism. The best example of this is what most of us have probably heard: there are so many people working jobs they hate and not doing the things they love. Thinking & rationalizing with their minds of the job and the money it provides over the work they feel and embrace in their heart. Sometimes though the bills have to be paid and we must sacrifice doing what makes us happy to afford the necessities to live or for our families or to pay off a huge debt or a house.
Ultimately there needs to be a balance here. Too much or an extreme of one with the result of lacking in the other will create a serious imbalance and requires one to reground and center themselves right away. As for the feelings felt for the other person or opportunity; having the emotional intelligence and applying relationship management here knowing that you must always be willing to walk away and this requires serious mental and spiritual strength. Sure rejection can hurt if you’re so dependent and needy but if you’re accepted for the job or relationship or act on hurting someone who wronged you then you really do yourself a disservice and ultimately end up in their mercy and serve them. They control you because you can’t let go or be willing to walk away.
So….. my take in having a balance between heart and mind with all this is exercising emotional intelligence and discipline in taking an objective stance from a birds-eye view. Sure we should indulge in these feel-good emotions that might nurture us but we can never be too certain if doing so will weaken us and bring us pain. Exercising due caution and not get baited with something we like takes control of our minds in the process; emotionally and mentally.
What are your thoughts on ‘Mind – Heart’?
How do you find the balance in the equation of staying centered through it all?
How do you go about conducting yourself with feeling your heart and thinking with your mind?