By Tara-jenelle Walsch
I was all but five years old, yet so disheartened in that moment, I ran out of the house and aimlessly down the street. It was a blustery day—the wind like taffy, wrapping me in slow-motion; caging the hair around my face.
My upset was such that I needed to sit down, so I hid in the bushes of a neighbor’s backyard. Warm tears seemingly alive on my face against the chill of the air.
“Well, hello there.” said a voice standing over me. “What happened? Are you ok?” asked the man now squatting down.
I sniffled, knees to chest, through a jumbled story of explanation. Then he reached over, pulling back strands of hair still glued to my cheeks, and said, “There now, don’t let your heart rule your head.”
This memory comes to mind because it was the first time I’d heard that phrase. I hadn’t a clue what it meant, but remember it not feeling good.
Needlepoint wisdom like this still being passed down from generation to generation and covertly decorates our tree of life by default.
Once, long ago, they were considered words from the wise, but as our species evolves we realize we have the choice to redefine and recreate what resonates with us, and the responsibility to reexamine the message and intention of such statements.
Surprisingly, most of us were taught to let our sense of reasoning control our emotions. To act from logic, and not from our feelings. This explains why many of us aren’t comfortable interacting from the heart, let alone leading with our heart. We usually move through the days with our mind in the driver’s seat. What needs to be done? Why does it need to be done? When does it need to be done by?
Daily emotions usually get filtered through our head before our heart even has the chance to feel and express them. We may have an inkling of sadness about the way someone spoke to us, for instance, but instead of feeling the sadness and sharing that with them, we let our mind talk us out of it, bottle things up and, unconsciously form an impression of the person that they aren’t safe to be around.
If we’re not careful, this new illusion of ‘unsafe’ that we created of them could integrate in our mind’s reactionary library and slowly become a go-to default response for anyone who speaks out of turn to us in the future. Ultimately limiting our connectedness with others.
Another area in life where our emotions often get filtered through the logic of our mind before having a chance to be felt is around those we care for deeply. We may find ourselves spontaneously wanting to spill our heart open from time to time, only to be hushed by the mind. Thoughts
of embarrassment, desperation or egotistical hierarchy eagerly persuade us to stay quiet.
Those are just two examples. We are constantly presented with the choice to connect through our heart or our mind in all of our relationships, whether they are romantic, business, friendship, family or complete strangers—even the relationship we have with ourselves. Yet, no matter the dynamic, we are always unified when we lead with love.
It’s a common tendency to let our head rule the heart when we don’t trust ourselves. The mind thinks facts and logic will steer us in the right direction, but our heart works with intuition and the soul and knows things much greater than the mind could ever make sense from. For this reason, more often than not, it makes sense to let the soul be our beacon; assigning our heart as the inner lighthouse that guides us with love and harmony.
Imagine how memorable this Valentine’s Day would be if we all honored our love and dedication to ourselves and humanity by deliberately taking the reins from our mind and handing them to our heart, forevermore. Fearlessly challenging our mind should it try to chime in and make things safe and orderly with the illusion of protection. Feeling into our feelings and breathing into the courage to share those feelings openly.
We can start with something as simple as a personal declaration to lead with our heart, and by frequently asking ourselves, “How will I love today?”
RoadMap to Letting your Heart Rule your Head
1- Notice when your mind tries to filter your emotions with logic.
2- Take a deep breath of Trust and consciously drop into your heart.
3- Allow your intuition to find and open feelings hiding behind logic.
4- Allow your courage to assist you in expressing those feelings.
5- Relish the dance of freedom in your heart.
Are you in a soul quandary? Feel free to ask Tara-jenelle for courageous insight. Submit your question to https://www.facebook.com/tarajenellewalsch
Tara-jenelle Walsch is a monthly columnist for the Eden Magazine.
She is the author of the book, Soul Courage, and the founder and spirit behind the Soulebrate greeting card company. You will also find her speaking publicly about emotional and energetic awareness, and a sacred formula which she believes has the ability to enrich the world at large.
Tara-jenelle was raised in Annapolis, Maryland and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Towson University in Baltimore. She currently lives in the beautiful hills of Ashland, Oregon with her pug, Sascha. www.soulcourage.com
