A Journey of The Heart

An external journey can be great but it’s through the roof, sky-high when we can experience the journey with that inner peace, calmness and happiness. This is the advantage of doing an internal journey before an external journey.

So, before I head off to Uluru, the heart of Australia, I decided to do an internal journey to my own heart first.

The journey begins with needing to make a decision. The important bit, the part which will help you the most, is the process of making the decision. So I’ll focus on this.

I had reached a point where my mind was in a gridlock. I couldn’t think my way out. You know, that stuck feeling. I realised this was because I was trying to figure out what I wanted, my heart’s desire, and what I was going to do about it, the decision, at the same time.

I’ll pause for a moment because it’s important to know that a person’s desire and decision are not always the same, nor is the goal for them to be the same. The goal is to know your truth about each of them.

The most efficient way to make a decision is to actually put that decision-making pressure aside temporarily and focus only on your desire.

Can you imagine an oasis where fear, judgment, and shame don’t exist? Where it’s not even considered? What if there is a place where there is no right or wrong, good or bad answer? Sound nice? So create this oasis within yourself. Your own private, uncensored place to find out what you desire and truly want.

Once you’ve created this space, here’s some tips to help find what you desire:

Begin with deciding to take a designated break, one week, one month or three months, from any discussion about the topic with anyone. Stop ruminating about it or talking about it with others. Stop trying to sort it out. During this time, decide not to know what you want or what you’re going to do. No more thinking one way or the other.
Accept that indecision is more complex than what’s on the surface and not because something is wrong with you.
Stop trying to figure this out by making a pros and cons list. If you’re doing it for the umpteenth time and you’re not getting anywhere, then doing it one more time is not the solution.
Create separation between desire and decision by putting the decision to the sidelines until clarity of your desire is known. To do this, make a list of all your fears related to this decision. Then list all the specifics about the decision that you can’t stop thinking about. Then put these two lists in an envelope and put that envelope out of sight. Do not look at it or entertain anything in it until you have clarity of your desire, and you know why you want what you want. The why is important, not because you owe anyone an explanation, but because you need to know what is driving your desire from the inside out, so that you can be honest with yourself.

This time of exploration, without the pressure of having to make a decision, will help you discover your honest desire. Once you know what drives it from the inside out, you’re freed up to make a conscious decision about what you’re going to do. To entertain a decision prematurely (without complete clarity of desire) will only make your decision-making process more complicated than it needs to be and delay the peace and calm you deserve.

So, now I’d separated desire and decision. I had more clarity and was ready to make a decision.

Next comes the action steps based on the decision.

When it comes to action steps, a secret I’m about to divulge is that at the end of the day, even when you’re making a conscious decision, you still have to accept that you cannot control the outcome of everything. Some things are beyond our control.

Or maybe you already knew that one? I’ll give you a top secret as well then 😉 It's that what is within your control is your response.

I’ll even lash out and give you the highly classified restricted secret. Remember a time you got through a tough situation. At the time you had no idea how that was going to unfold. But you found a way. Take a moment to really acknowledge how tough and strong you are. Know you’ll always find a way; forwards, backwards, sideways, anyway, someway, dancing on the spot. Just like in the past, a way will unfold.

You can only know how you want your life to unfold and do everything you can to have it unfold that way. However, if your imagined life does not come true, that doesn’t mean the story ends and you have to suffer. Imagine a movie. The going gets tough. The main character sits down. Head in hands and says “oh well, that’s that.” Would you watch that movie? Of course not. So why choose to live life like that?

Instead, when you sit down take a moment to pause. Check in with yourself. It’s time to take a different action step based on the new data, knowledge, skills, and wisdom you’ve gained along the way. And that’s what the main characters in good movies do. They continue their journey. Unsure of the exact outcomes but following their hearts desires. Using that to guide decisions and action steps.

That’s what I’m doing now.

What will you do? Will you go on a journey of the heart?

Something to think about...

"The Heart is the compass that guides us on the journey of life."

- Unknown