Your Head or Your Heart? - a thought piece

When faced with either following your head or your heart, which do you choose?

The obvious answer to me has always been to follow your heart, from the countless people, movies, and books who’ve told me to do so.

“Follow your heart, and everything will work out," they say.

So in society, why then do we advise the complete opposite?

When deciding to follow your head or your heart, many people find it naive to actually follow their heart, often times because they’ve never done it themselves or when they tried all those years ago it didn’t work out the way they expected. It’s chalked up to being youthful ignorance instead of a necessary stepping stone in the path you’re on.

And when your heart is telling you to take an unpaved path, is it easier to move forward with your head, fearing that your heart will lead you in the wrong direction, or should we ignore those egoic fears and soar freely towards the sun?

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Recently, I’ve been deciphering these questions and attempting to follow my heart, which tells me to move, discover new people, and create art as often as I can. 

But the voice of practicality, of reason, in my head tells me to have a plan. To have a job lined up, housing, and other generally good things to have set up before moving somewhere new, which is valid.

And yet, I question whether or not that’s simply fear stopping me from presently taking action. 

A lot goes into moving, but a lot would also go into staying. I just have to choose which version of difficult I’d like to experience.

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With head and heart battling, raging a war within me, I tend to stop. To reassess and attempt to intuitively listen even more. 

If things aren’t unfolding in your life, is it a sign to push harder or to redirect?

Society will tell you to push harder, but from my experience, forcing your way through a brick wall when there’s a perfectly open door next to you is dumb.

I guess I’m just waiting for that open door.

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It’s been challenging to take action on things I don’t truly want, because I know not wanting them will always stop me from achieving them.

It’s funny to be actively participating in building a life you think you “should” have, rather than going after the things you actually desire.

But again, it’s hard. People observing the situation will tell you to “obviously” go after what you want because life is too short and you can always choose a lesser path, but then in their own lives, when faced with a similar crossroads, they’ll be perplexed by this very dilemma and end up choosing with their head rather than their heart.

It’s jumping without a net, and it’s the exact opposite of what we’re taught.

So, I ask you then, how am I or anyone else supposed to choose “wisely” according to our deepest desires when most of the time we, firstly, don’t know what those desires are, and secondly, don’t trust the unfolding of them?

In everything I’ve read, every manifestation, self-help, and get your life together book, the continuing theme is that once you take a risk and live at the frequency of your dream life, it will come. But only after you leap.

It’s not about laying the foundation first; it’s about jumping blind and trusting that the net will appear when you do.

Again, going against everything society teaches us…but then again, society’s goal is not to teach us out of the matrix, so maybe listening to it is the trap itself.

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The worst that could happen is that I have no money, no house, and no food. I would simply starve and die. It’s an idea that makes me laugh because I know it simply won’t happen. It could happen, it’s a possibility somewhere in the cosmos, but I know it won’t. It always works out, and the more I trust that, the more true it’ll be.

Now, in saying all of this, am I convincing myself to move blindly to a new country and suffer through the consequences? No. I’ve already done that, and I’d rather set myself up better this time because it was challenging and it did turn out differently than I “ideally” wanted it to.

However, I am convincing myself to trust more in what’s possible. In dreaming more and allowing myself to even attempt to achieve this new reality, I’m wanting to live. How much can I accomplish in three months by the time my current lease is up? Could I find housing, a job that pays well enough, and visit this new location all before August? I am choosing to believe that it’s possible, because what if it is?

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So now that I know what I want and am choosing to trust that it’ll happen, what’s next?

Letting it unfold? Listening to where my intuition guides me? Ignoring the societally conditioned noise rummaging in my head? Yes, for heaven's sake, yes to all of the above. 

In writing this, I’m not sure the purpose behind these words, or why I was compelled to share it, but I’m guessing somewhere out there someone like myself needs to hear that it will work out, exactly as it’s meant to.

I’ll keep updating over the next few months and show what can be done in this short period of time because who knows what’ll happen? If I’ve done it before, I can do it again, right? The plot of life is ready to be thickened, so let’s see what comes our way.

And I hope that if you’re at a similar crossroads, you decide to trust your heart, because if you don’t, life will tear itself down again and again until you do (I’m saying this primarily for myself haha). 

Thanks for reading :)

xoxo,

Ayla