How to Lead with the Heart
By Dr Jane Barker
Your Heart Knows the Way
Life is always a balance between head and heart. Sometimes our decision making is so strongly influenced by the head that the feeling and knowing of the heart is almost an afterthought. Yet it is the heart that brings deeper understanding, the heart that brings connection, the heart that brings that inner voice we know as intuition, and the heart that brings healing.
Are we so fearful of bringing our heart into our decision making that we silence it? Life may become a dry and even unrewarding experience if we turn it into an intellectual exercise. The alternative, is the privilege of a rich and loving connection with the people around us, sustaining and supporting us even when things get tough.
The truth is that those who live from the heart are more at peace, are open to connecting with others, and to learning from them.
Could it be that in our own lives we also apply the head over heart rule, so that we become unaccustomed to allowing ourselves to fully listen to our own hearts?
Could it be that if we listened to our own hearts’ needs, we would have a deeper understanding of the needs of others?
A Space for Deeper Connection
I am not much good at New Year’s resolutions, usually achieving a great litany of failures by January 2nd. So, this is not a resolution, rather a deeply felt need to listen with intention to what my inner heart is telling me and to develop a practice of heeding my heart’s words, with none of the self-judgement, measuring or self-criticism that ‘failing’ resolutions can bring.
To listen fully to the inner heart I have found there is a need for spaciousness and at times silence, as the great teachers of old have taught us. This does not necessarily mean we have to retreat into a cave or go into the wilderness; rather to find what that ‘silence’ means to us personally, how best we can create a space in our day when we feel that beauty of deep inner connection.
How can I describe that feeling? For me it is a joy, a harmony, a trust, a surrender, a truth, a knowing, an appreciation of inner beauty. It brings us to a place of stillness within, allowing us to reach a wisdom which seems more truthful, more honest, more universal than the murmurings of the mind or the lessons in a book.
Making Your Heart Sing
I ask that with the dawn of another year bringing reflection on the lives we live, that you too consider opening yourselves to this practice. My heart tells me it will be a beautiful journey that will support us to develop more compassion for ourselves and more compassion for all those we share our lives with. Our decision making will meet not only our own day-to-day needs but our deeper needs, and through this process develop a greater understanding of the needs of others.
Listening to our hearts and allowing them to lead the way will bring us joy, make our hearts sing and make us more compassionate, and will nourish us by supporting us to love and care for ourselves and for the humanity that we serve.
Words by Dr Jane Barker
Doctor, Medical Educator, GP Psychiatrist