Follow your Heart

You have heard the phrases “Trust your gut”, “Listen to your heart”.

Most of us are conditioned to dismiss what our gut tells us, and would rather “use our head” to think logically and rationally instead.

We are conditioned to think that "using our head" is a sign of maturity. Only the feeble minded, let their heart and gut "mislead" them.

It may surprise you to learn that modern neuroscience has discovered that following our gut or our heart may not be so far fetched or frivolous after all. Neuroscience has validated what the ancients from across the world had understood all along. Neuroscience has confirmed that the ancients’ belief that the heart and gut have a mind of their own is not a misunderstanding of the human anatomy. Trusting in our heart and gut has basis in how the human mind works.

First, let me ask “Where is our brain”?

Many would say that our brain sits on top of our shoulder, inside our skull.

While it is true that our brain has the highest concentration of nerve cells in our body, nerves cells are spread throughout our body. Besides our head brain, our intestines and stomach, and our heart also have high concentrations of nerve cells. Like our head brain, our gut and heart are truly equipped to think and feel.

Neuroscientists estimate that the nerve cells concentrated in our gut have about the same capacity as a cat’s brain. Hence, our “gut feel” has basis in neuroscience.

In 2002, there was a case of a heart transplant recipient reporting a new found love of certain kinds of music and food, and the memory of certain places which he had never experienced before, prior to the transplant.

The heart transplant recipient’s new tastes remained a mystery until it was revealed that the heart donor was a music and food connoisseur and adventurer, and had loved those music, food and places reported by the transplant recipient.

It seemed that the loves and passions of the heart donor were stored in his heart and they were now transferred to the transplant recipient along with the donated heart.

So listen to your heart, it truly has a mind in its own right. Give your heart a voice in your decision making that it deserves, as your cognitive brain in your head is not the only seat of intelligence that you have.

Following your heart is not a sign of feeble mindedness. Indeed, it is a mark of true wisdom.

The Terry Fox Story

Terry Fox was 18 years old when he contracted cancer.

The disease started at his right knee and the doctors had to immediately amputate his leg in order to save his life.

This traumatic event was the moment of truth for Terry. Terry found out that the survival rate for cancer patients was very low and the only way to fight it was to find cures through cancer research. Instead of wallowing in self pity and despair, Terry heard his calling. Seeing other patients succumbed to the disease, Terry felt he had to do something for future cancer patients. He was convinced that his calling was to help raise funds for cancer research in order to fight this terrible disease.

From this point, Terry embarked on his Hero’s Journey.

Terry was not particularly athletic but he decided to raise public awareness for cancer research by running across Canada from coast to coast. Terry planned to start his ultra marathon in St. John’s, Newfoundland on the Atlantic coast and finish 8,000 kilometres later in Victoria, British Columbia on the Pacific coast. He would cover the vast distance by painfully hopping and stepping his way through one marathon a day – with an artificial leg! Terry hoped his ordeal would raise $1 each from Canada’s 24 million people. He managed to raise more than $23 million.

On 12 April 1980, Terry dipped his artificial right leg in the Atlantic Ocean and headed west to the Pacific on his Marathon of Hope.

On 1 September 1980, 143 days since he started and 5,373 kilometres into his run, Terry was forced to stop by severe chest pains. He was admitted to hospital and the next day, he tearfully announced that the cancer had spread to his lungs. He vowed to complete his cross country epic but his condition quickly worsened and he died on 28 Jun 1981.

Terry’s inspiring story tells us that any ordinary person can do so much when one finds and is consumed by a worthy purpose.

Terry said: “You don’t have to do what I did – wait until you lose a leg or get some awful disease – before you can take the time to find out what you are made of. Start now.”

We have much more time than Terry had to do something to make a difference.

What will you do to make a difference in others' lives?

United Flight 93 Heroes

On September 11, 2001, Deena Burnett was making breakfast for her three daughters when she received an unexpected call from her husband Tom. It was odd that Tom called at this time as he was on board United Flight 93, flying coast to coast from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco.

What followed were the most horrifying moments of her life.

Tom told Deena that the plane had been hijacked by some men with bombs. The hijackers had taken over the cockpit and had turned the plane towards Washington DC.

By this time, the passengers have already heard about the two hijacked planes that crashed into the twin World Trade Centre towers in New York City and another plane that slammed into the Pentagon. It dawned on them that Flight 93 was part of a grand scheme to crash hijacked airliners into prominent buildings. Knowing that they will be killed, Tom and a group of passengers decided to thwart the hijackers’ plan.

It was their moment of truth.

Tom told Deena: “I know we’re going to die….” And added: “We’re going to do something.”

Another passenger Todd Beamer was heard saying: “LETS ROLL”!

A group of passengers charged the hijackers. In the ensuring struggle, the hijackers were forced to abort their plan to crash the plane in Washington DC and plunged it in an open field in Pennsylvania instead.

Tom and the group of passengers had only minutes between knowing that they were going to die and doing something that would make a difference in others’ lives. And they did.

Many lives were saved that day by the heroic act of the Flight 93 passengers.

As John Maynard Keynes said: “In the long run, we're all dead.”

The passengers of Flight 93 crossed the threshold from their Ordinary Worlds to the Special World of heroes when confronted by death.

Do we need to wait until we face death before we do something about our calling?

We have much more time than Tom and the other Flight 93 passengers had on that fateful day to make a difference.

What will you do to make a difference in others' lives?

Hero's Journey - The Call to Adventure

The CALL TO ADVENTURE is the second stage in the Hero’s Journey in which the hero, in his Ordinary World, is presented with a problem, challenge or adventure.

What is it that’s calling you to step out into the Special World now? Is it because there are things you are no longer willing to accept? Is it that grand vision that you set for yourself?

The Call to Adventure could be something negative like being passed over for promotion or being retrenched. The Call could also be something positive like an opportunity to be a partner in an established business.

The Call to Adventure is often delivered by a herald such as an angel or it can come in the form of a message, letter, phone call, conversation, dream, or an insight.

The Call to Adventure comes to those who are open to it.

Mahmud was a cheerful young man who ran a thriving vegetable stall in the bazaar. His friendly disposition won him many regular customers.

Mahmud was feeling comfortable when one night, the angel Kahbir appeared and told Mahmud to jump in the river. Without a moment’s hesitation, Mahmud did as the angel had told him.

Mahmud was carried down the river by the rushing waters. An old man on the bank seeing Mahmud struggling in the water threw him a rope. Mahmud grabbed the rope and pulled himself ashore.

The old man, a fish monger, brought Mahmud home and gave him a room to stay. The grateful Mahmud worked at the fish monger’s stall, and with his business acumen it was soon doing a thriving business.

Mahmud was feeling comfortable when one night, the angel Kahbir appeared and told Mahmud that it is time to move to another village. Again, Mahmud obeyed without a moment’s pause.

Mahmud walked for days before arriving at the next village. There a cloth merchant offered Mahmud a place to stay and a job in his cloth shop.

Mahmud knew nothing about cloth but he gratefully took the offer anyway. Soon the cloth merchant prospered as never before as his cloth was selling briskly with Mahmud’s help.

Mahmud was feeling comfortable when again, the angel Kahbir appeared and told Mahmud to move to another place and to a new job. Again Mahmud took up the call unquestioningly.

This cycle was repeated several more times.

When Mahmud became an old man, he was a well respected wise man and a much sought after teacher. People from far and wide came to seek his advice on all kinds of matters.

When people asked Mahmud how he became so wise, Mahmud only replied that: “It is hard to say.”

It is difficult to say because Mahmud’s talent lie in being obedient and receptive to the Call.

More often than not the Call we hear does not sound logical. It is a feeling that comes from deep inside us. The Call is beautiful and yet makes us uncomfortable.

We have been conditioned not to trust our feelings and intuition, but give more credence to what seems logical, practical, and predictable.

But, think about it, which truly great achievement started as something logical, practical, and predictable?

Learn from Mahmud to be obedient and open our hearts to the Call to Adventure.

Believe in your destiny, that you will get there triumphantly.