Let your heart be your guide

A couple of months ago, I attended a social gathering for of a group of people on the path to higher consciousness. When I arrived, there was a group of about twenty people gathered in the host's living room. Each person had an opportunity to speak about who s/he was, why s/he had attended and what goals s/he had. Several of the people spoke about how they were working toward living a more conscious life.

The phrase “conscious life” basically meant making healthier decisions for themselves, others they might influence and the environment. It was interesting to note that most all of them had a basic idea of what to do. It became a question of how they could actually implement their ideas in the context of the current cultural paradigm and their own patterned behaviors.

When my turn arrived, I felt compelled to talk about my personal and professional desire to help people become more connected to their hearts. I mentioned that living a conscious life was an automatic thing if one was to be more connected to him/her heart.

While many people may think that the heart is just an organ designed to pump blood through the body, it is so much more than that. Experts in the field of Neurocardiology claim the heart contains up to 60% or more neural tissue, the same kind of tissue found in our brains.

The heart, just like the brain, has intelligence, albeit different from cerebral intellect. The heart's intelligence is holistic rather than linear, and responds in the interest of well being, sending intuitive prompts for appropriate behavior to the brain's emotional system. The intellect can function independently from the heart – as in stress situations — and block the subtle signals of the heart. Remember, it is our emotional system, not intellect, that prompts us to take action.

If we as individuals and collectively as a culture were constantly in stress or survival mode, it would make it difficult if not impossible to benefit from the guidance of the heart's wisdom. One could argue this is the case as evidenced by the current state of our society.

Problems that have stemmed from intellect without wisdom cannot be solved by intellect alone. If we as a society are to overcome our challenges and become more kind to each other and our environment, we must first achieve a level of peace and connection to our own hearts. Environmentally and socially conscious choices would then be automatic.