Listen to your Heart?

Many films tell us to listen to our hearts. But is it good advice?  What does it even mean?

It is not literal as, although listening to one’s heartbeat could be a useful exercise, I doubt it aids much in the making of decisions.

Most likely it means listen to your feelings. To my mind it seems that these days love and  things of the heart are almost exclusively treated as feelings. Now I hold that feelings alone are not a useful guide in decision making due to their changeable nature.  So they may be consulted only as one might consult a flighty friend who may contribute useful insight but cannot provide a firm basis for change.

A more scholastic meaning of the heart is the will, the decision maker. And clearly the will must play a part in all decisions. But the will needs to be enlightened by the intellect to make a good human decision. And of course, for those of us striving to live a supernatural life, we must also consult our Faith.

By a stretch, it could mean listen to your intuition. That sense we have, which we don’t fully understand, which is more commonly referred to in gut terms. Go with your gut. I think the gut is certainly worth attending to as it often leaps to conclusions which we later realise through regrettable life experience.

So go ahead and listen to your heart but also consult your head, your gut and your God.