Around the 4 weeks of pregnancy the heart begins to form in the embryo, making it one of the 1st organs to exist in the body. The brain forms around the 5th week but is not fully functional until the 6th or 7th week. 

The heart was formed first for a reason, yet we have trouble listening to it. What does it mean to listen to your heart? It means ignoring what makes sense sometimes. Logical thoughts can over power what the heart is screaming, but we should always choose love and intuition. It can be extremely hard to listen to your heart, especially when things like ads exist or predetermined ideas that our society instills in us.

Fun Fact : On average people are exposed to 4,000 – 10,000 ads daily. Ads are great for the economy but extremely harmful for mental health. We are constantly being told what to wear, how to look! What to think, who to follow!

Companies know how to create desire in us and we buy into it every single time!

What does that have to do with following your heart?  The answer is everything. 

We allow ourselves to become distracted with nonsense and allow these same ads to influence us in a negative way. We think we have to look, feel and act a certain way because that’s what we’re being sold! 

But this is only one example of how we are either sold or told to not listen to our hearts, either by family, media or culture. 

 We live in a world where arranged marriages still take place and people are afraid to leave because of what others might think or say. It’s estimated roughly 25,000,000 arranged marriages take place annually worldwide.Marriages should always be about love and not financial gain or status. 

Always follow your heart and let it lead you to happiness. It doesn’t matter what it is. If you want to pursue a different career.  Do It! Follow your heart. If you’re looking for a sign this is it. Never be apologetic for what your heart desires!

I’ll give an example of when I finally chose to follow my heart. I was 21 years old. I was living in a different country thousands of miles away from home. I lived there for 8 years! As you can imagine 8 years was more than enough time to settle in. I was certain I’d live  the rest of my life in this new country. I had planned it all out. Eventually I realized I was only thinking logically. It made sense to stay, it was my sophomore year in college, and I only needed two more years to graduate. But something in me was telling me to go back home. It was by far the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. My mind was going crazy! It was screaming to stop!

What would you have done? 

Would you have stayed and finished graduating to start your career?

Or

Move back to your country of origin and start all over again with an 8 year gap in your resume? 

I could’ve ignored what I was feeling and listened to my mind. My mind of course was telling me to play it safe, to graduate and start my career in engineering. But… the feeling of wanting to go home was so overbearing, that I decided to leave everything behind and move back home. I went back to my home country and started from scratch.  I ignored what my logic was telling me and followed my heart. It was a cultural shock to move to another country at the age of 13 and move back at the age of 21. 

 Four years later I know I made the right choice, I have never been happier. My life changed for the better. I am happy because I am where I’m supposed to be. If I had listened to my mind, I would still be pursuing the “plan.” Would I be better off? 

Probably not, because if I would have stayed it would have been purely out of fear, and my mind trying to keep me “safe.” I couldn’t ignore my heart and what it was guiding me to do. 

I now know to follow my heart. It may be tough and painful and confusing but the heart doesn’t make mistakes. Things are not falling apart, they’re falling in place. Get excited! Things are going to be different from now on.

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. 

-Steve Jobs