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Ending the War: Peace Between Head and Heart
Author: Michael Riggs
We have believed a dangerous lie. We have accepted that the head is more reliable and more sensible than the heart. We have believed that should we follow our hearts, our lives will be ruined because the heart only gets us into trouble. We have been well taught that when head and heart are in tension, we must go with the cool reason of the head and ignore the hot passions of the heart. Yes, if we use our heads and ignore our hearts, we will stay out of trouble.
Ah, but you know what? That is self and soul denying. To juxtapose the mind and the soul is to slay the individual. The soul is the truest being, while the mind can be programmed by society to think a certain way. To say that head and heart are in a conflict relationship, and then to subordinate heart to head is to suffer a death, the death of the self.
This realization came to me as I was reflecting back upon my work experience. My mind wandered to my younger days when I worked in warehouses. I was mainly involved in stocking the shipments of merchandise, carefully locating them where they were assigned to be. In retrospect, there is no room for creativity in such an environment, for then an entire system would be confused, and the necessary order would be thrown into chaos.
That is very descriptive of the head and heart dichotomy. The programming we have received since children from all those around us asserts that we must use our heads. And our heads have been trained in a "right way of doing things." There is little room for creativity, for that would shake the system we have in society too much, and a loose cannon is a dangerous thing.
Let me give an example of this programming of the mind. In a nutshell, we are taught from an early age that obedience to authority and the squelching of self in the face of the demands of others are basic. Parents will demand that children obey them for no real reason other that "because I am your mother/father." In school, children are taught not to express themselves, but to follow a rigid curriculum designed for them by adults. When teenagers reach that stage where they are discovering their own identity, it is called rebellion. And in the workplace, we all know that for the majority of employees, "doing what you are told" is the norm, and to express yourself is insubordination; has it never struck anyone but me as odd that a manager can yell and scream at an employee without repercussion, but if the employee should "emote" in return, there will be a reprimand? What we are taught to do and to think is that we are to fit into the model, to take our place in the warehouse. And the head is the tool we use to keep us there. It has been trained. And for most of us, trained so well that we see the way things are as either inalterable or just plain right.
Now, we know people of the heart. They are the artists, the writers, the entrepreneurs. But these are few and far between. The artisans are rarely ever financially rewarded for their work, and the entrepreneurs, should they become large enough, employ people who will simply subordinate their hearts to the interests of the business.
In order for the system to work, we need head people. Why? Those who are the ones that make profits from their employees' work need them to stay in line so the money continues to flow. Maintenance of the status quo is essential for those whose life is enriched by it. Hence if we are trained to think with the head, to believe that just going to work and earning a paycheck is something we must do because it make sense, all we do is sacrifice ourselves for someone else. Our hearts desires are nothing but an offering to the god worshiped by the ones at the top.
I think most of us have, to one degree or another, believed the lie that heart betrays head. And it does. Yes, when we follow our hearts, we get in trouble because we have not learned how to use our heads about following our hearts. As long as we believe the two are enemies, we will get into trouble. Belief forms action. If we believe in the core of our being that head and heart cannot work together, we are doomed to disaster when heart works out of sync with head, and are dead if head is out of sync with heart.
In the heart is the truest individual. It is in the heart that the richness and potential of a human being resides. It is their that what a person really craves from life is found. To look into the heart is to find a near-infinity of humanity. To examine it is to find the truth of self. It is here that what brings happiness is found. It must not be denied if real soulish joy and fulfillment is to become a reality.
The way to do this is to call the assumed tension a lie. It is not true. It is only true because that is the way it is now, but this does not mean that it must be that way. We can decide to believe in the two working in tandem, not against one another. If we accept this as true, it will happen. The head becomes the place where the desires of the heart are organized, strategized, and the process actualized. The heart becomes destination, and the head the map. Heart says what and the head answers how.
Yes, it is that simple.
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Michael Riggs, founder, speaker, and consultant at Raysheeth Seminars can be reached by e-mail at mriggs@axs2k.net or by phone (toll free) at 1-877-562-4624. The web site can be found at http://www.cybercities.com/raysheeth/. His teaching arise from an integration of his life experience with his studies in philosophy, religion, psychology, and spirituality.
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