The Choice of the Heart

Life is made of choices. Everyday we make choices, from the moment we wake up, to what we choose to do with our day, to the path we take to work, even the choices that seem to be insignificant, like what to wear. Even when we think we're not making choices, we're choosing to stay where we are—that too is a choice, to do absolutely nothing.

We can imagine our life as a path with many bifurcations, each of them being a choice we make. But there are choices that demand more of us, have greater significance in our lives, and can paralyze us because we don't know which choice to make. The important thing at this time is to get in touch with our feelings and listen to our heart.

When a choice needs to be made, doubts arise about which path to take. These doubts disperse us; they're like thoughts our mind creates to lead us to explore the various options. But this only happens because we're not in touch with our feelings. Because we don't trust what our heart tells us.

There's only one possible path: the path of the heart. What happens is that much of the time we want to experiment other paths. To gain knowledge through experience. This isn't wrong. It just deviates us a little from the ultimate goal. Let's say we choose a longer path. But the destination is the same: the path of the heart. We do this because sometimes our Soul needs to learn something more by taking this detour.

We came to learn through free will, through experiencing different options, that the only possible choice is the choice of the heart, for it's the only path that opens the doors to happiness, to love. And knowing how to listen to it is a gift. We need to be in touch with our feelings, at the heart level, to notice any change in their rhythm, any shift in our emotions.

Our society is extremely mental. From a young age our intellect is stimulated, because intelligence is highly overvalued. This is how we're tested in schools—on the knowledge we acquire. We nourish a mind that, unfortunately, likes to think, to be busy, to create plots, problems, so that it stays active. And it likes to acquire knowledge and experience. The more experiences it lives, the better it feels. But that takes us away from what makes us happy.

Happiness comes from the act of not thinking.

And this happens when we're absorbed in activities of great pleasure that stimulate our creativity, such as painting, dancing, singing, etc. That's when the mind withdraws and leaves the way free for the heart to act. And the heart loves to express itself creatively. That's where it finds its territory, its home.

And for us to follow the path of the heart, life presents us with many possible choices. So that, among them, we can learn listening to our heart. It's the heart we must listen to and trust.

But sometimes we listen more to our mind, our fears and insecurities, negative thoughts, and what others tell us to do. But the notion of happiness is different for everyone. What makes one person happy doesn't make another person happy, because we're all different.

Each one of us came to find fulfillment in a certain way, following a certain path. If we were all teachers, there would be no doctors, architects, electricians, hairdressers, etc. The only possible path is to listen to our heart. Understand its language. Understand when we're happy performing a task, absorbed in the moment, and when we're carrying out something with effort, wishing time would pass as quickly as possible.

But to follow our heart, we need to be armed with great courage. Without it, we wouldn't be able to face others who think differently than we do, or to overcome our fears and insecurities. And sometimes, this can be very difficult. We need to be able to assert ourselves and, above all, trust ourselves, our feelings, our heart. Until we have the courage to follow the choice of our heart, to accept it, and run away from our feelings, life places us in situations of great suffering until we make the right choice. Learning to have the courage to accept who we are and the path our heart has chosen for us, even if so different from others, is a great event. That's when the doors of Love open to us.

The courage to be ourselves is the key.