The Battle Between the Mind and the Heart

by Tanaya Reynolds
(Wellington, New Zealand)

Why are so many of us having a constant battle with our hearts and our minds. Our mind likes to make up a lot of things and you end up bickering in your head.

Then your heart on the other hand knows .. it knows what it knows and what it knows, is true. The heart is free of constraints and free to be. But, so many of us are afraid to silence the constant chatter in our minds and allow the heart to speak. Why? Well, because to live through your heart and let it guide you is to be vulnerable. Like anything that's vulnerable, we want to make sure it doesn't get hurt. Like crystals and gems, our hearts are precious and it's our minds that want to protect it, in fear of it getting broken.

The fear many of us have is that if we allow ourselves to be guided by our hearts and open up to someone, we'll inevitably get our hearts broken. Well, truth is, the physical heart that pumps blood can in fact stop functioning (obviously) but an interesting thing to note is that even though the physical body can fail on us, the soul will always live on, eternally. And when I speak about the heart, I'm not referring to the actual physical organ that resides inside your body, what I'm really speaking about is the soul or the higher self. Opening up to your heart which is the gateway to the soul is not an easy task. It's absolutely terrifying. Its terrifying because you're connecting to parts of yourself you never knew existed, but let me tell you this, a quote by Rilke, "The easy path leads to the hard life, the hard path leads to the easy life." Not only is it true but its something to keep note of throughout your struggles. A follower of the mind, suffers. But a follower of the heart, rejoices. For in the heart, there is true knowing. And when we take that leap of faith into the unknown path through our hearts, that is when we truly find ourselves. I'm not saying that the path is all sunshine and rainbows, unicorns and bunny rabbits. The path is unknown, it's scary and takes a lot of courage but trust me, it is the path you want to take for the rewards are profoundly amazing. So if your heart wants to cry, then cry , if your heart wants to scream out of frustration, f....ing do it, if it wants to run down the road like a maniac and then go hug a random stranger, do it. But remember to consult with your heart what is okay and not okay. For example, causing harm to others or yourself is not okay. If you feel like causing harm then that is likely to be your mind, not your heart guiding you. So sit in a quiet place and silence your mind, through meditation and yoga, you can lose the chaos of the mind and connect to your heart. It can only require 5-10 minutes a day of silence, although more time, the better. And while you're on your journey don't forget to love yourself.