Follow your heart or mind
Following The Heart vs Following The Mind | by Vinny Galiano
In the perfect world, our hearts and our minds would be on the same page about all important life decisions. They would agree on what to have for dinner, whom to date, and pursuing a career. Unfortunately there are far too many instances where the heart and mind want completely different things and for different reasons. The Mind often takes on the role of the logical one, helping you decide if it is a smart choice to do whatever it is you want to do. The heart on the other hand is often led by emotion, which as we all know can make it difficult to make a clear decision.
The mind can be like the angel on the shoulder telling you the right thing to do, while the heart is like the devil on your shoulder telling you to do the thing that might not make the most sense but might bring you the most happiness. Like many things in life, finding a balance between the two is your best bet for all around happiness. If you always follow your heart you may find yourself a glutton for punishment.
Your heart is the one that tells you to have the ice cream sundae for dinner every night, while your mind is the one telling you that you do in fact have to eat a balanced meal.
Especially when it comes to your career, the battle between heart and mind can be strong. Your heart wants you to do a job that you enjoy and love and have passion for, while your mind knows that would be nice but also it isn’t always feasible to pay the bills and to have a successful life by simply just following passions.
The benefits of following your heart
Following your heart can lead to many opportunities that may otherwise be missed if you are following your mind. When you follow your heart you choose to make a decision before you think of the consequences, which allows you to have opportunities that may be missed if you take the time and talk yourself out of doing it. Once your mind gets involved in things they lose the spontaneity and joy that come along with simply following your heart.
Your heart is more of the carefree, easy-going part of the thought process that allows you to follow a passion or go down a route that may not make sense but just feels right. People who follow their heart are the ones who often feel fulfilled in their careers and life, and feel like they are making a difference in the world around them. Especially in a workplace sitting following your heart can lead you to be happier and better adjusted then if you are meticulously calculating every move you make. Sometimes, the greater risk can lead to the greater reward.
The benefits of letting your mind lead the way
There is often far less risk in making decisions that your mind has influenced. The Mind lets you weigh the pros and cons, think of potential consequences, and look at it from a more logical perspective. Those who are afraid of taking risks find that letting their mind make decisions puts them at more ease than if they don’t let their mind make the decisions.
Taking the time to weigh the risks and look at all the pros and cons can help you to make a better-informed decision that may ultimately help you in the long run.
When you let your mind to make a decision chances are it will be a well-thought-out, well-researched and well-informed decision. This means it is likely going to help you decide whether or not what you’re choosing to do is a smart choice or not, it can also be more comfortable to choose something that you know is safe based on how you’ve weighed your pros and cons. Especially in the workplace, following your mind can lead to fewer failures and leave you in a more stable position.
Finding The Sweet Spot between your mind and your heart
The ultimate secret to finding success is finding the good balance between both following your heart and following your mind. This can be a challenge but it is ultimately worth it in the end when you have a well-informed decision that you can also be passionate about and feel like you’re doing something that truly makes you happy.
Perhaps this means pausing before just jumping in and thinking about what the consequences of doing so are. If you are able to identify the consequences and still want to do it or have a way to address said consequences if you do jump in you may have found a good balance.
You also can’t always let the logic overpower the freedom that comes with following your heart. Some things are meant to be carefree and if you have good coping skills that should following your heart not end as planned, you can use your mind to figure out a way to read direct and ultimately do both follow your mind and your heart. Letting your brain keep you in line while you follow your heart can also help you to not spiral too far into making poor or risky choices that could adversely affect your life or career. You can let your heart do the driving but it never hurts to consult your mind as the Navigator every now and then to make sure you stay on track and on course.
The heart and mind while often wanting to go in different directions can become a very powerful Duo once they learn to work together.
Bouncing off of each other and using the benefits from both to decrease the negatives from both make for the perfect combination. Let them be a team rather than letting one always take the lead and you will find yourself in situations that are both well-thought-out and allow you to follow your passions. The heart and the mind can work very well together.
I am an entrepreneur, business consultant, investor & developer from New York. I create brands & help others build theirs. You can connect with me on Twitter or Instagram.
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Should You Follow Your Heart or Your Head?
Source: racorn/Shutterstock
You’re torn between two options—one risky, the other is safe. The risky option lures you to make a quick online purchase. Even though you know it’s more than you can or should spend, time is running out on the availability of the item. The site is telling you exactly how many are left. You're not sure exactly whether it will fit into your wardrobe but because there are only two left, you figure you need to hurry.
Your heart is shouting a clear Yes, telling you how great you will look in it and how happy it will make you. Shouting No just as loudly is your head, which instructs you to take a pass and save your money.
Even more critical than online shopping decisions are those we make in relationships, as when you’re drawn to someone who probably isn’t right for you but appeals nonetheless. You’re browsing through dating-site profiles, or you’re at a party, when you’re instantly drawn to an attractive stranger. Unlike buying a purse or a pair of pants, this decision can affect not just your wallet but your overall well-being. Who knows? It might even affect the rest of your life—if this turns out to be the perfect someone for you. Your heart, again, is clamoring for your attention, encouraging you to Go for it. Your head, though, has a few more questions before giving you permission to plunge into this possibly good, possibly disastrous new relationship.
Friends and family will likely tell you to “listen to your heart,” as it "knows what’s best for you.
” Oprah Winfrey, too, suggests you follow your emotional inclinations rather than those logic would suggest. But is that really good advice? Think back on the times when you did follow your heart. How did it work out? Maybe there were occasions when you threw caution to the wind and let your emotions take the wheel, and all went well. But it’s likely there are at least as many times when your decision delivered the opposite outcome.
Unfortunately, we tend to be bad statisticians when it comes to taking stock of our own prior experiences. Research on reminiscence shows that we tend to remember the distinctive events in our lives, particularly those that were pleasant (e.g. Dickson et al., 2011). For most people, even traumatic memories tend to fade with time. As a result, we’re almost programmed to go with our heart because we remember the times when it provided the correct guidance.
The other side of this debate is the fact that your rational decision-making processes can have a pretty good track record.
You may not remember the times when you followed logic, because they may not have been as memorable. It’s also possible that when reason prevailed, it told you not to do something; therefore, you have less to remember. Think back to the online shopping temptation: You remember the outlandish shoes you once bought because you still actually have them (if not the money you burned on them). You don’t remember what you don’t have nearly as well. You also don’t think as much about the debt you would’ve incurred for the items you passed on, because it’s not there.
What about “the one who got away?” Won’t you always regret not having followed your heart’s advice to go after that attractive stranger, instead of taking the more "rational" wait-and-see approach?
Again, remember that we’re poor statisticians: You remember the choice you didn’t make because, not knowing what the outcome would be, the best you can do is guess as to what might have happened. What won’t have happened, which you obviously can’t remember, are the bad outcomes that could have followed the wrong decision.
Taking all these factors into account, what does the research say about whether you’ll be better off trusting your feelings vs. your thoughts?
East China Normal University’s Yixin Hu and co-authors (2015) tackled this problem in an innovative experiment: They asked 72 college-age participants to make decisions about whether to take a risk or not. The conditions were designed to resemble real-life situations involving the factors of time constraints and emotional arousal. In the time crunch condition, participants were forced to make their decisions quickly; in the relaxed condition, they had unlimited time. Within those two groups, the team manipulated the emotional state of participants by priming them with pleasure-eliciting, grief-eliciting, or neutrally-toned movie clips. The job of the participant was to decide among risky or safe alternatives in a multiple-choice task. The question being explored was under which set of circumstances participants would be most willing to take a risk.
The findings showed that under the time pressure condition, the students were far more likely to make risky decisions when they were feeling happy—and far less likely to make risky decisions when they were primed to feel sad.
With unlimited time to ponder risk, though, emotion made no difference at all in risk-taking judgments.
We can think of this effect of emotional state on riskiness as reflecting the fast vs. slow thinking distinction theorized to occur in our minds by the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Your fast thinking, in his words, is more affected by your emotional state than your slow thinking. If the risky decision would benefit you, then you’ll miss out on opportunities by being in a bad mood. However, because risky decisions, by definition, are unlikely to lead to a satisfying outcome, your good mood will lead you to make the wrong choice.
The upshot? Listening to your heart is something that will more likely hurt you than not, especially if you’re under any kind of time pressure.
Once you’ve had time to sort through all the factors, both rational and irrational, your judgment should be clearer. Decisions to take risks may in fact benefit you, but just take your time, whenever possible, to gain the most fulfillment from those decisions.
Copyright Susan Krauss Whitbourne 2015
Why you need to listen to your heart and trust your intuition
The heart has arguments that the mind does not know
Often such phrases are said after:
- something unpleasant happened,
- you made the wrong choice,
- the deed has already been done,
- you did not listen to this very heart.
Have you ever wondered where these clues come from? Who tells us and why? Why are we given premonition and intuition? And the last, but, in my opinion, the most important question: why do not we hear and listen to these important clues? nine0003
Our body helps us to live in this world! And together with the soul, it ensures the correct presentation of information.
Sometimes these are illnesses, ailments, sometimes just premonitions, and sometimes joy. So, if you are joyful, then you are on the right track! If in doubt, turn around.
If your heart hurts, it means accumulated unforgiven grievances that you can't heal with pills, only forgiveness and letting go. This is our body telling us that we carry with us unnecessary, long-forgotten grievances. nine0003
If the stomach hurts, it is usually an unhealthy diet and an irrational attitude towards oneself and one's health. And pain warns us to pay attention to our diet and our health.
Excess weight is protection from the environment, self-rejection, improper nutrition and extreme inattention to oneself.
And if the soul hurts, then this is a lack of love, low self-esteem and even self-hatred. Humiliation of yourself and your dignity. Decreased confidence and lack of inner core, own goals and outlook on life. nine0003
Our body is our indicator and guide to the world of a happy and beautiful life.
OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO LEARN TO LISTEN TO YOURSELF!
THIS IS A VERY STRONG SKILL THAT HUMANS CAN HAVE. A WOMAN'S INTUITION, AS KNOWN, IS STRONGER THAN A MAN'S.
Listen to your heart, not your mind! Why is it so important to listen to the heart, and not be coldly calculating in reasonable thoughts?
As Louise Jones writes: “The role of the mind is to study and analyze. The role of the heart is to choose and execute. Hearts unite, minds divide. nine0037
Only the heart can love, and love is much stronger than logic!
It is love that rules the world, and only true human relationships are of value!
Well said by Helen Keller: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or heard...they are felt in the heart...”.
Pascal similarly echoes it: “The heart has arguments that the mind does not know” .
For example, it is easier and more joyful for me to give in precisely to my premonitions, to my heart, and not to the arguments of reason, because later I will say to myself a hundred times: “After all, I felt that I needed to do it differently, but I didn’t do it .
.. and that now?!". nine0003
And after the decision, come what may... And you know, such decisions always bring great results. Here is what Ray Bradbury writes about this: “If we listen to the voice of reason, we will never have a love relationship. We will never have friends. We will never get into any business because we will decide: "Nothing will work." Or "She will hurt me." Or “I fell in love a couple of times unsuccessfully, and therefore…” . All this is nonsense. You must not miss life. Jump off the cliff every time and grow wings as you fly down." nine0003
Of course, you shouldn't jump head first into the pool. The most ideal option is when both the heart and the mind agree with your choice. And in order to meet such situations more often, you should listen to your heart, be very attentive to the voice of reason and distinguish between information: WHERE the mind speaks to help and suggest, and WHERE to dissuade you not to do what you have never done, just because he is afraid .
Reason is given to us to protect us, to keep us safe. Habitual affairs, a stagnant swamp - this is the beloved state of mind. nine0003
But if you are a person who knows how to think correctly, a person who is responsible for his life, then learn to control your mind and make sure that his thoughts benefit you, and do not stop you halfway.
And finally, an excerpt from the parable “Mind or Heart?!”:
Once the Heart quietly said to the Mind:
– It seems that I begin to understand what the catch is… In fact, I always acted the way you wanted.
The mind looked at the Heart frowningly:
– Because by doing your own thing, you were losing me.
- When I did my own thing, I was alive! Acting as you tell me, I die...
– Well, well, tell me: who needs a heart without reason?
– And who needs a mind without a heart...
The mind only smiled coldly in response:
– Calm down. I'll definitely come up with something. And no one will ever notice.
Please, do not refuse the whisper of your heart! nine0003
Common sense often drowns out the whispers of the soul. The mind always tries to PROVE its case, while the soul tries to SHIMMERLY object, but the mind INSISTS its own, relying on "sound reasoning". But the soul does not think, it feels and knows! So learn to listen to yourself! And when you really want to do something, you want it with all your heart, do it, no matter what the cost! Just take it and do it.
I would also like to add that in order to learn to listen to yourself, you just need to start listening. First, start listening to your soul, every day there can be several different sensations in it, work through them, remove aching and pulling sensations. Then, with a long workout, learn to hear the weakest prompts. And as you listen to them more and more, they will come to you more and more often. nine0003
Then you can build your life on feelings and act as your heart tells you.
Ekaterina KOVALEVA, psychologist.
"Superstyle"
"The heart has arguments that the mind does not know" / Newspaper "Stavropolskaya Pravda" / April 20, 2012
Follow your heart
- Psychology
- Condition
- Follow your heart
Publication date . Posted in Status nine0003
Your heart is the key to your right decisions. Following your heart means doing what you need in the first place. Trying to justify the hopes of others, you miss your own opportunities. You live someone else's life without living your own. Following your heart is the surest way to significantly improve your life.
1. Choose the right direction
If you are following a compass, you must make sure it points in the right direction. And it shows the correct direction when it is not affected by any extraneous magnetic fields. It's the same with your heart. Don't let outsiders influence him, don't let him be diverted from the right course.
Spiritual education can help you with this. It helps you listen to yourself and follow your path. But for this you need to constantly enrich yourself spiritually. Literature, philosophy, reflection, religion, art and much more can help you with this. nine0003
2. Trust your heart
This is the most important thing. Without trusting your heart, you are unlikely to be able to heed its promptings. It's not easy - a lot of people tend to trust common sense rather than hunches. But one way or another, your heart lives only with your problems, while common sense can adapt to public opinion. Here, again, you can remember the first point - if you know exactly what you need, you trust your feelings and follow them.
3. Forget about your plans (at least for a while)
Following your heart, you should only listen to what it tells you to. Don't let pre-planned plans influence your judgment. They just get in the way.
4. Open up to new opportunities
Do not be afraid to do something that is contrary to your everyday life.
The heart often tells us new paths, luck itself goes into our hands, but we personally refuse chances, frightened of the unknown. How can you tell that your heart is leading you on the right path if you never follow it? Even if new ways scare you, this does not mean that they will be beyond your strength. nine0003
5. Calm down
The voice of your heart is often an indistinct whisper that drowns out the voices of your doubts, fears, other people's opinions. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and just listen to yourself.
6. Listen
Now that you are calm and your mind is open to your feelings, listen. What does the voice of the heart say about your decision? A sure sign that you have heard it is that you are sure that you are doing the right thing. Why is often impossible to explain. nine0003
7. Get rid of rationality
Rationality is the main enemy of your heart's voice. Where the mind begins to speak, the heart stops. You start looking for endless reasons and flaws in your decision, and you may end up abandoning it altogether.
