5 Steps to Make Decisions From the Heart

How often do you feel yourself being caught up in your head by the swirling thought of making the RIGHT decision?  Recently, I have had a LOT of mind chatter, the kind that won't stop.  The voice that dominates is not a friendly one, it is a strong judging voice, suggesting that there is only ONE answer, and that I must find that one RIGHT solution and act on it.  The flaw in this kind of thinking is that it creates stress and panic, and shuts down creativity.  Thinking that there is only one solution leaves you hyper-focused in search of that ONE answer.  Instead of helping you, this approach leaves you FARTHER from the solution.  Why is it important to get out of your head and into your heart? Studies indicate that the heart may know MORE than our head.  Those same studies indicate that when shown emotionally stimulating objects, the heart is responding BEFORE the brain.  Why is this so important to understand?  If the heart is responding before the brain, it is an indicator that the heart is feeding the brain the messages, not the other way around, as we once thought.  When you stop to think about it, you know this same sensation in yourself. Your heart/gut responds in intuitive ways to situations that evoke emotions in you. Often, we dismiss this intuitive reaction and instead listen to the "common sense" in our head (left brain). Here are steps you can take to move from the swirling chatter in the head to the creative solution that resides in your heart:

1. Give yourself a break from NEEDING to find the solution RIGHT NOW! Unless you are in an emergency situation (e.g., a tiger is chasing you), you can afford to step away from the situation and the "need" to find the answer RIGHT now. Changing your focus allows you the opportunity to entertain creative solutions that you were unable to think of in panic mode.   You've seen this phenomenon active when you're searching for your lost keys, and only after you let go of searching do you look down and see them sitting in front of you, or have a thought of a place you haven't checked, and voilà, there they are!

2. Stop. Breath. Meditate. Pray. Read.  Allowing yourself to stop and release the situation to a higher power, consciousness, or source outside of yourself, creates a space for you to welcome solutions that come from outside of you.  When you recognize that you do not have to be THE ONE who comes up with ALL of the answers, you are able to receive and hear solutions that were not otherwise there.

3. Run. Exercise. Move your body! Movement will not only activate and open OLD neural pathways, it has the ability to GROW NEW ONES!  You read that right, increasing your heart rate and oxygenated blood to your brain supports you to create new neural pathways.  How does this support you?  As you stimulate your brain, you open yourself up to creative solutions and to answers that may be inside of you but are trapped and inhibited by old habits and ways of being. Oxygen circulating through your body increases your capacity to retain and retrieve information.  It also supports you to unleash creative solutions that have previously been locked.

4. Brain Dump - List at least 25 ways to solve the problem.  At the moment you may only have 3-5 ways to answer the issue.  Push yourself to think creatively, even if it is a solution that you'd NEVER use. For example, you could host a mud wrestling contest in your backyard to raise extra funds.  This list will surprise you.  Once you move beyond the solutions that come to mind quickly, you allow yourself to welcome solutions that come from beyond the mind and instead from the heart. The solutions in your mind are ones that often come easily.  The ones from the heart take more practice and this exercise will support you to move from your head to your heart.

5. Create your BLISS List, the things in your life that leave you feeling BLISSFUL and appreciative.  Studies indicate that gratitude is synonymous with feeling JOY.  When you're feeling mired down by the idea that you need to find a solution to a challenging problem, it makes sense that you would feel disconnected from your joy.  Spending time with your BLISS LIST will alter your state of joy.  Focusing on your joy will activate your heart space and unleash creative solutions.

Listening and making decisions from your heart takes practice.  Like any new habit that you adopt, be gentle with yourself.  Notice the gentle nudges, intuitive instincts, and gut reactions.  Give yourself permission to act on them and as you do, you build your intuitive muscle.  The stronger it gets and the more you use it, the more trust you'll develop for it.  Trusting your heart-guided instincts will support you to live with greater ease.

If you'd like other activities that will connect you with your intuition, contact Star Staubach of Stellar Evolution Coaching.  Star supports clients to ignite their inner radiance and wake up to a life they love living!  Visit Stellar Evolution Coaching to sign up to receive your free mp3 download of 10 tips to raise your Inner and Outer Radiance!