Listen to your heart and get a life – yours

Has your heart been calling to you? Have you been listening, or have you blocked its calls?

Did you turn your heart’s volume down, put out a ‘do not disturb’ sign, or invalidated it as being unrealistic? Perhaps you’ve believed those who insist that the pursuit of career, money, status, and power are better choices than listening to one’s heart.

Have you gotten to the point where you can no longer ignore its message? That truth speaking from deep within your heart won’t be silenced. It’s telling you something is amiss, and that you are ignoring your deepest dreams. The dreams you dreamed up when you were a child won’t go away so easily. The only one who can listen to your heart is you.

Anyone who commits to a dream, who is willing to risk it all in order to follow her heart’s desire, knows that it takes everything to do this. She also knows that even with all that listening, there is no guaranteed outcome. It’s a risky business, listening to the heart. Sometimes it’s easier to ignore it, pretend you didn’t hear. It’s when you listen to your heart that you might get hurt, or fail, or lose.

Maybe someone you respected and looked up to gave you advice that led you away from your deepest desired path.

That person may have been well meaning, and he might also have been disillusioned about his own life. Perhaps you were too shy to even tell him what you really wanted, for fear of looking foolish. If a trusted authority figure told you that the best you could hope for was already here, and it was time to face reality, you might have inherited his fears about what is possible.

You might have listened to him instead of your own heart. Whose reality do you think he was talking about?

You create your own reality, with every choice you make.

What if you don’t listen to outside opinions, and instead follow your bliss, to wind up wildly successful in your own chosen field? Even if you don’t succeed in the traditional way at first, you’ll win because you’re following your own truth. Doing so takes everything you have: trust, commitment, faith, courage, the willingness to fail, and the ability to keep going even in the face of failure.

You’ll have no idea what is true or possible for you until you decide to go looking for yourself. If you want to uncover the secrets of your heart, you can begin by listening, without judgment, to what it is trying to tell you.

• ©Kris Cahill
  ‘Asphalt Painting’ ©Ave Lainesaar