Are You Well-Advised to Follow Your Heart?
Yes but not until you can discern the difference between feelings (follow) and emotions (process)
I have had this essay percolating and with many stories and comments of others accumulating as open tabs in my browser for over two months. It would probably serve me better to plan with more organization and utilize Medium’s list function but that’s not how this INTP rolls. I had that thought this morning when reading John Cunningham’s excellent newsletter, which also sparked me to finally put fingers to the keyboard as I recalled the needle and thread that I learned from him that will sew all that follows together —the high EQ concept of practicing the pause.
I’ll start now by explaining the subtitle as I hoped that thought would intrigue and pull readers into my essay. I learned from White Feather that the heart broadcasts and receives transmissions of the highest order and magnitude — pure feelings — feelings unadulterated by emotions. So yes, I should follow my heart but only once I discern the difference between a feeling and an emotion. Feelings correlate with states of being and many also have emotions associated with them. For example, discussing the spiritual wisdom of the steps of any 12-step program and how every human may benefit therefrom, I wrote:
