In a Quest For Balance and Better Decision Making?
Heart or Mind? The invisible teamwork between the heart and the mind.
Can you trust your heart when making sound decisions? Or do you just make decisions and hope for the best?
It has been a very long while since I had taken some time to write on my blog, but here I am, back to writing. So if you are new to my blog, let me welcome you, and for those hardy subscribers, thank you for sticking it out.
For those that don't know me, let me say Hi! My name is Mercy Martinez, and I am a passionate believer in the power stored behind each of our Amazing Life Story!
My story began in a different country than the one that has been my home for my entire life. And like everyone, I travel this life through the stories I created from my observations and experiences as I traversed the journey. I am a professional coach and believer in the process of coaching. Coaching allowed me to uncover the hidden treasures awaiting me to discover, heal them and embrace them. It showed me the "Heroes Journey" is ours to travel, but when traveling with a professional Coach, it makes the journey less arduous. An experienced coach gives you the space to discover, heal, honor and embrace the fullness of who you are without judging or leading your process.
Since I was a little girl, I created a habit of listening to others with interest as they shared their stories. As I grew up, my parents would always talk about how at the age of 2, I would sit beside them quietly, listening as they gathered with friends instead of playing with my toys. When I look back at my childhood experiences, it is evident that the foundation of my perceptions and beliefs came from the simple act of just sitting beside my parents and just listening to their conversations in those gatherings. In looking within my life story, I discovered a treasure trove of gems. One of those treasures was looking within my heart.
What is in your heart?
Many years ago, I co-facilitated a mindfulness workshop that profoundly impacted me. A participant told the teacher that she always sent out healing intentions from her heart. To the surprise of everyone, the teacher responded with the following questions: "Do you know what is in your heart? Do you know what you are sending out from that heart of yours?" It stunned the whole class, and it made us all dive deeper into understanding our emotions and the why for them.
The teacher didn't leave her hanging but gave us suggestions to explore if we wished to go deeper into mindfulness. He explained the heart not only stores love, but it also stores hate. It holds the embraces of kindness and compassion and stores the wounds of separation and distrust. Being aware of our biases, filters, beliefs, wounds, and all the emotions stored within us is a journey of self-discovery that helps us uncover what is deep within the memories and open the path to a more healing journey that leads us to a balanced lifestyle.
How can we make sound decisions?
How can we make sound decisions if we can't trust the heart? Does that mean it is from our mind?
Another caveat is that our minds are full of stories, some truthful and some made up from our imagination. Observing the full path of transmitting information from perceiving the energy wave to the mechanics of the brain and the mind and how fast it travels can blow your concept "I am in control -- all the time" assumption.
Today, various science fields study this phenomenon, what we call our brain. But I like to share with you how I see it simplistically:
Your brain perceives a vibrational wave. It automatically translates it into a word from your linguistic database. Your mind senses the transaction and uses the best word for that interpretation of the invisible energy wave received by the brain and adds words to create a sentence or more so you can make sense of that invisible vibrational wave. Here is the start of sense-making stories we can interpret as truths.
We know our heart can also detect the frequency waves and interpret them depending on what our heart is storing, which has an extensive range of emotions from love to hate, separations and embraces, joy and anguish, etc.
The Balancing Act to Master
It is not one or the other; it is not about operating from the heart exclusively or from the mind but the union between our mind and our heart. How well we know ourselves, how honest are we with our feelings, emotions, biases, filters, beliefs, etc.?
Neuroscience provides us with more knowledge each day on the necessary teamwork the heart and mind require for a better outcome or what we could call a good decision. How can we make sound decisions if we are not using both the mind and the heart? How can we achieve better relationships if we are unwilling to understand ourselves and what makes us the person we are?
Mastering balance starts when we open to looking within our life story—examining the behind-the-scenes of our experiences in life and what we learned from them at the conscious and unconscious levels.
Going within and exploring with an open heart and mind what is truly behind our thoughts, emotions, and actions is not easily taken. Still, a must to truly understand mindfulness, create better relationships, become better leaders, and ultimately own our authentic selves.
Mindfulness, In the Quest for Balance and Better Decision Making
Today, we hear many buzz words like mindfulness, resilience, strength, vulnerability, courage, etc. All are part of us in one way or another. The key is to learn how much and how we can use them in ways that make us own our life story wholeheartedly. We are what we embrace consciously or unconsciously. Discovering those uncovered treasures is a journey we all can take and succeed. The choice is whether you want to take it or not and if you want to do it on your own or with someone who can guide you through the process.
Every day we are given a fresh start with the opportunity to engage fully with life or let life pass us through. The choice is ours to make!
