Heart Status
The folly of following your heart
“You do what’s in your heart, son. You’ll be fine”.
Robin William’s character as the empathetic, impactful therapist encourages the genius prodigy of Will Hunting as he finishes therapy and a long road of discovering himself. “Just follow your heart”. We all have heard it a million and three times, maybe from Robin Williams or maybe from another mentor of ours. Maybe the saying has lost its sting for you, but the modern generation of 20-somethings to 30-somethings still lives by this encouragement to allow our hearts to guide our path.
Where is your heart anyways? Not anatomically, I mean its status: Broken, delighted, filled, wrestling, hurting, aching? Determining the status of our hearts can give us more insight into understanding where it might lead us. Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the heart is not as reliable as we think.
When the heart’s status is not double-checked, it can lead one down a path of self-destruction. What is your ultimate goal in life? Is it to advance your career? Make a lot of money? Help others? Travel? Dissect your life goals for a hot second and then take another glance at the emotions surrounding those goals. Does the idea of making a lot of money get you pumped? Maybe a future in helping others brings warmth to your soul and smile to your face.
Whatever you are feeling, that is what you will be chasing for a long, long time. When those sentiments are unfilled or, worse, disappointed, they can guide us to act on a heart status that is temperamental. Whether it is pride, revenge, anger, or fear, the heart can be a broken compass to use on your quest through a tempest. When the storms come, and they are guaranteed to come, what are you relying on to be your lighthouse?
Maybe the gut-feeling has served you right in the past. Emotions are gifts to the human condition and provide another tool in our belt when discovering what to do in life. Yet, they should not always be used as the sole guides.
Whether you believe in outer forces pulling and pushing us to and fro with our choices or not, there is no doubt that we all obtain an instinct to fulfill our wants and dreams. The purpose of the instinct is to do just that: Fulfill us.
Sounds pretty selfish to me. If our heart sways with our desires, it cannot maintain a firm foundation, thus it is imperative to check our heart status. Once we put this into practice, we can ask better questions, discern between right and wrong, and make the hard choices.
© Maddy Roh
