“It is easier to discount and challenge the perception of the mind than it is to quiet the longing of the heart.”
I met my future husband when I was 21. Shortly before meeting him my best friend and I would talk late into the night about traveling together the year after we graduated college. We were looking at volunteer and travel abroad programs and were giddy with the possibilities this future held for us.
Once I started dating Pete and things gradually became more serious, my talks with my friend became fewer and farther between until eventually they stopped all together. I certainly didn’t realize it at the time but there was an inner battle going on within me.
My heart wanted to travel, see the world. I felt an inner calling, though at the time it made no rational sense to me. I had 25K in college loan debt, no job, no savings, and no experience being on my own.
Yet, my desire to travel was like a magnetic pull that I had no control over. It simply just was, but I was waiting for the world to rally around me to make it a real possibility. I was waiting for money to fall into my lap, people to hold my hand and guide me, and permission from all the naysayers that said I was foolish, naive, and irresponsible.
Looking back I realize I didn’t need money or people or permission. I needed my mind to expand beyond its default of limitation and lack. I needed to give myself permission to follow the path that called me. I needed to trust the Voice of Wisdom that spoke softly from the depths of my soul.
I realize now that traveling was never a choice that was available to me at that time. No matter how much my heart whispered or the magnet pulled me, neither were stronger than the decision my mind had already made for me.
My mind believed that traveling was selfish, foolish, and irresponsible and that getting married and focusing on my career was safe, responsible, and comfortable. The decision had been made for me. There was never any choice.
This is the force with which limiting beliefs exert their control over us. They function to remove all possibility and freedom to choose a life that is of our own design. When our mind is controlling the show, we can’t truly see the plethora of choices that are available to us.
It’s not until we look closely at our lives and ask where we do not feel free to choose that we begin to see the power our beliefs have over the whispers of our soul. Too often we doubt the whispers and oblige the mind, but this is not the path of healing. The path of healing trusts the whispers, quiets the mind, and moves us boldly in the direction of our heart’s desires.
Comments