Lead with HEART, Manage with MIND. If You Feel Lost, This May Help You as Much as it Helped Me.
Lead with Heart, Manage with Mind
This phrase for me has been one of my greatest insight this year. Learning to listen to my Heart, employing tools to let it speak louder, and making Heart-based decisions has given my life a calm, lucid, clarity, while simultaneously existing in a state of unknowing. This state of unknowing used to be a source of stress, until I realized that I would never conquer that state of unknowing, I discovered that the stress was caused by my Minds's desire to know in order to decide. There are too many decisions to be made in our lives; often times choices have seemingly countless alternatives. I have spent hours/days/weeks/years logically mulling over decisions and still finding myself without a sure answer. When I employ my Mind to logically try to deduce a decision, I can never obtain 100% clarity; it's always a ratio (think, 'ratio'nal decisions) of certainty. Due to this, I never fully got behind any of my rational decisions; I could never fully commit to choices because I spent so much time thinking of all the alternatives. When becoming exhausted, I believed the answer was to make a Mind-less decision and rely on simply guessing, which also turned out to be unsuccessful. As such, what I found was that I was employing my Mind to the wrong task: Mind is not a leader, Mind is a manager! Imagine, the stress I was feeling before, it was simply the Mind stressing out about being in the wrong job! I am now learning to make decisions through Heart! Heart has a higher source connection it pulls its' wisdom from: one which is incomprehensible to the Mind, beyond ration and reason, and beyond the realm of the Mind. I believe this is also why we have so much trouble explaining love.
Physiologically speaking, we have a massive amount of neurons in the heart and there is a two-way communication stream from the heart to the brain. The heart can scientifically (reductionistly) speaking, communicate with the brain. The Heart is not merely some organ designed to just pump blood (though it actually doesn't) it is the source of our desires, our passions, and our true purpose. As I'm learning to follow Heart-based directions, I no longer feel that uneasiness (buyers remorse, second guessing, etc) that I felt with Mind-directed decisions. Now, when the decision is made I employ the power of the Mind to bring that decision into the realm of reality. The Heart is unequipped to deductively break down decisions into obtainable pieces, but the Mind is magnificent at this! Heart speaks Holistically, Mind speaks reductionistly. The Heart may say, I want to go to the moon, but it will be the Mind that will get us there. However, I have found our Minds' have obtained far too much power over our lives, which is why I believe we see our culture making such short-sighted (reductionist) decisions. Our culture gives our Minds' way too much credit as the seat of our being. If you're finding yourself uncommitted in life, constantly uncertain of decisions, and a bit lost on where you're headed, try demoting the Mind and giving your Heart a promotion!
Heart Tools
Some ways I have found to listen to the Heart more, have been through meditation (my choice is the art of consciously defocussing on the Mind's chatter), eating/drinking copious amounts of pure cacao, natural medicines, and fasting. Fasting, I have found to be the most effective method of quieting the Mind and letting the Heart speak. It is no coincidence that many extraordinary people had their greatest revelations while fasting, why in many cultures you find fasting to be an integral part of a coming-to-age ceremony (the point in one's life where you decide your next major decisions). I'm presently in the middle of a fast, have done several 3-4 day fasts and one 14 day fast this last year; and they have been the most transformational short periods of my life. If you are feeling that you want to transform your life and struggling with your Mind on where you want to be, or who you want to become; I highly recommend a fast, intentionally designed to bring out your Heart's voice! If this resignates with you, there are a few nuances involved to get the most out of a fast (you can find many books on the subject) or if you're interested, just ask and I would be willing to share some articles/books and information that has helped me, or some personal insights I have experienced.
*I intentionally wrote Mind and Heart as nouns, when they represent more than organs.
With love,
Rieki
I am in the same boat as you. Being a little bit stubborn can bring you further ;)
I'm not sure if I understand. What do you mean by being a bit stubborn?
Great write there. I should practice fasting myself too. How long did you fast for..? How was the fasting..only drinking water with some supplements taken earlier ?
So, a bit about fasting. I will do a better blog on this. But here we go. 3 days is the minimum to start to receive the main physiological benefits of fasting. The first 3 days are often the hardest (to make them easier is to get into ketosis before starting the fast. I.e. eating majority of fats and proteins a few days before the fast so your body is already adjusted to utilizing fat as a fuel source making fasting infinitely easier.
Now the fast... I found that it is best to listen to your body and have no set limits to the duration of the fast before hand (other than 3 days minimum). I started my 2 weeks with the intention of going a week, by the time a week came around my body told me to keep going.
After several days you'll find your energy levels return. They are lowest when you body is conducting the most internal work (I believe) physiologically. After this phase, is when I start to work emotionally and spiritually. My mind is incredibly sharp (I would HIGHLY recommend taking time away to do an extended fast. Normal day to day activities are going to be difficult and counterproductive to the spiritual and emotional benefits that could be gained (as stress can increase significantly rather than decrease). With a sharp mind and time dedicated I find I am able to read, digest information, think clearly. When I do my spiritual practices (holotropic breathwork, journeying and meditation) I find I can more easily enter the space. As if the veil between this dimension and the others is a bit thinner without the grounding food interference. (It is no coincidence that many spiritual masters got their greatest revelations while fasting. Often times on a mountain (reduced oxygen at heights 'mountains' which plays into the benefit of holotropic breathwork during this time). If you have a mountain you can climb and fast on, even better.
Okay, so basically just water during this time. I have used some teas during the first few days to ease the process however, simpler is better and a full fast is where I have always gained the most benefit. I have even gone 2.5 days with no water (my body didn't want any). Also, attempt to not satiate hunger pains with water, as too much water can rid the body of vital minerals and cause you to dehydrate as you're not returning minerals. So, the best advice I have received and given, is to listen to your body. Drink when your body (not your instincts, or programmed habits) tells you to. It's also helpful to not that hunger pains don't come from the gut, they are found in the throat..
I have nothing but positive to say about fasting and cunduct regular fasts myself :)
Hope that helps for now :)
In churches they say we should fast but i never go onto fasting.So this was the power behind fasting since, the pastor only say fast.I think i will be the fan of fasting from now
Thanks for your helpful post
You are welcome, I'm glad you found it helpful. If you are going to attempt a fast I would love to hear how it goes!
Ok i will let you know
I tried out a 5 day water fast. Mixed results, although I liked the mentality it gave me. If I can do that, I pretty much can do anything :)
Awesome!
I love water fasts. I have had some of my most powerful realizations on water fasts.
I was planning a week long one a few months ago and ended up going for 15 days. The second week I only needed 5 hours a sleep a night to feel wonderful. My mind was incredibly sharp. I like pairing my fasts with a lot of breathwork (yoga and holotropic) I find it helps restore vital energy, and detox the body. Also, the breathwork (if you're doing holotropic) when I'm fasting, I find it much quicker and easier to break the veil!
What do you mean by "mixed results"?
I wanted to get to 30 days but it was just way too much for me. I had extremely low energy, but maybe that's because I didn't stay put. I did walk over 11 miles one of the days ;p I think the feeling of being extremely tired just killed it. I barely could go pick up water at the store on the 5th day, so I called it quits before things got bad. It might've been an error on my part, but still was an interesting experiment
whoa! 11 miles? Picking up water from the store, oh man. Those all sounds like really intense things while fasting. When I fast I make sure I have to go absolutely nowhere, and have no obligations. Ive come to understand that the first days are the worst and energy levels are lowest as our body is using all the energy it has (which is minimal) to get the internal system in order. Once the body switches to keto (unless we get into it before) energy levels go up (this is also an added benefit for those who want to lose weight :) ).
Right on though, it sounds like you don't mess around! Wanting to do 30 days on your first attempt?! That's hardcore!