Believe Your Heart

We all have those times in our life when we are called upon to make major decisions. It could be an answer to, “Will you marry me? Which college should I choose? What will I study? Should my family and I move house. Should I stay in this relationship? Should I move jobs?”

The questions are endless and they can vary a lot in importance; however, no matter what the question is when we find ourselves unable to give an answer, it can place undue stress on our system. It can also take us away from a state of wellbeing.

I want to share with you some guidelines about possible ways to help you find answers. Naturally, we would like to be in a position that enables us to make the decision that will have the most beneficial outcome to our health and wellbeing in the future. It is not only the big decisions that can affect us – all decisions that we are called to make on a daily basis can affect the quality of our life, if we are unclear how to proceed.

Sometimes, we know intuitively the answer, or we can figure it out very quickly with our mind, but when the mind does not have an automatic answer, how can we make the most conscious decision at any given time?

No one wants to admit that a decision has been made as a result of being pressurised by an external factor, or because our conditioning makes us think we should do a certain thing. Wouldn’t it be great if we could tune our mind, body, and spirit, and made decisions that enable our personal growth and create more abundance in our life?

I need to add that sometimes even a decision that seems incorrect at one time may prove itself as a necessary stepping-stone on the path to discovering who we really are. It can be through the supposed wrong turns that we take in life that we receive the most gifts of understanding and abundance. When this realisation becomes a part of our reality it takes a lot of pressure off the decision making process.

There is never a right or wrong decision. There is only the best that we can do at any given moment with the information that we have at hand. However, there is an inner knowing that exceeds our rational thought and expectation, and this is our own innate inner wisdom and intelligence. When we are able to nurture the part of ourselves that is the witness to all that goes on rather than being the one who reacts, there comes an ability to make more conscious decisions in any situation that arrives.

For example: we often hear the expression, “I feel sick to my stomach,” when people are contemplating doing something they really don’t want to. Or, on a positive, yet nervous note, we can have butterflies in our stomach, when we are excited about something. Or, when we are dreading something, it can seem as if we have a dead weight in our stomach!

Exercise 1

Go for a good long walk, or savour Nature. The very act of physically moving the body helps the energy around us to start shifting. The next practice that can really help shift and aid you in becoming aware of your inner wisdom is meditation. With meditation you can tap into your own deeper wisdom, and also develop the ability to dive into the creativity and infinite knowledge of the Universe.

There is a very fine line between being the Creator of your Universe and allowing the Divine Grace of God to come in to help you manifest it. When the burden of our present situation becomes too heavy, it can have the affect of holding us in a pattern that is detrimental to our self. When I say God I mean the highest power in the Universe. You can call it the Divine Power, or Universal Intelligence, or whatever you feel most comfortable with. This advice was given to me by a wonderful Swami I had the good fortune to meet, HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati.

This was a few years ago and I took his words to heart and have used the practice often. It always helps.

Exercise 2

Every night, before you go to sleep, hand over all your worries to God. If you don’t believe in God, hand them over to the Divine Power of the Universe. Wait to be relieved of your worries. The decision you need to make will now become clear to you.

Address Yourself

It is wisdom to believe the heart.

— George Santayana

Bring to mind a question that you want to address in your life right now. Start to focus on your breathing. Be aware of the breath as you breathe into the abdomen. Inhale, your belly rises; exhale, it goes down again. Consciously, slow the breath down. Now, place your awareness and your attention in your body, notice how it feels, close your eyes and scan yourself internally. Now, move your attention into your heart. Your heart is where you have the ability to make decisions that will be for your highest good. Breathe into your heart and ask yourself the question again. Wait and see if an answer comes to you. Now, scan your body again and see if there is any discomfort anywhere.

Basically, comfort in the body means you are okay with your decision and discomfort is a sign that you are not. The more you are able to tune into your body and use it as a way of knowing what is the best decision for you, the more clear is the message you receive.

What if this still does not seem to help you and you are at a loss how to proceed. I’m sure we all have those moments, or even periods, in our life when things become so uncomfortable that knowing what is the next step forward can almost seem too much of a struggle. It seems as if the confusion is so great that there is no path of clarity available to you. What should we do when this is happening? Sometimes, if we wait things will change on their own as everything is constantly changing and evolving, but occasionally it can help us to take some very basic steps in the right direction. Nothing in reality is unchangeable and even quantum leaps are possible, but it helps to know how to put yourself in a situation where this reality is available to you.