Bod(y). M(i)nd. (Hear)t.

Here I stand, one cup of coffee deep, on a Sunday morning. Man what a feeling. What a life! I feel like I am constantly on vacation these days. Great weather, great people, great life!

I literally feel like a crazy person some days because I am just living a life far greater than I ever dreamed of as a kid. I guess what I have learned to get me to this point is to just listen to yourself, find balance.

Listen to your body, listen to your heart, and listen to your mind. A lot of times people say that their heart is telling them one thing while their mind is telling them another. I must say that I think it is finding a balance between the three and learning to filter through all of your thoughts.

Follow your heart, but let your mind guide the way. Your heart can give you a visual of the end goal that you want to achieve, but it’s your mind that needs to weigh the pros and cons of all the paths that you can take to get you there.

At times our minds, hearts, and bodies can all be opposing one another. For example, an athlete deals with a major injury. Their heart is telling them to get back out there ASAP, their body is saying heck no, you’re done son, and your mind starts to play a game as to whether it was all worth it, is this the end, or should you keep chasing your dreams.

I would say I am probably living the happiest life I ever had because I am slowly starting to learn and explore all three of these. I refuse to buy a gym membership because I just don’t think I would be dedicated enough to maximize the money that I would be spending for it so I have started doing little home workouts which mainly consist of handstands and push-ups. As bizarre as it sounds handstands have taught me a lot about my body and the more I practice the more I can actually feel my body talk to me. After you hit a certain point, you can actually feel what it is like to be balanced compared to having your feet too far over your head or not pushing up enough to get in a straight line. It made me think about life and how great it would feel to have a balanced lifestyle and what that would look like. I mean if it is that difficult to just balance my body, it must be pretty dang difficult to balance a life?! I guess that is what handstands have taught me though, the more I practice, the better I will get, and the more I will know what it feels like to be balanced.

The mind. What a creature. I don’t think anyone will ever fully understand it. However, we can try. I have started to read a book called ‘Learn how to Think.’ Granted I am at the very beginning, but I feel like I have already learned quite a lot and expanded what I already know. If you have read any of my blogs than I am sure you have realized I like to talk a lot about perception. To me perception is everything, but I feel like I was looking over a huge part of it. I’ve written about how it is important to remember that everyone perceives things differently and that what we value and who we are affects our perceptions, but what I wasn’t really thinking about is the step in which perception happens.

Perception happens after a person was already originally thinking about something, then they hit the perception phase, and then our actions come after. I think this is rather huge to understand. What I am saying is, we think about what we want to do, then our perceptions take over, and then we act off of our perceptions which are greatly based off of past experiences. I don’t think you can really put perceptions in a category when it comes to whether it is true or false, but you surely can’t classify perceptions as ‘facts’. If we let our perceptions solely dictate the way we live and react to situations, we are making ourselves vulnerable and perhaps limiting ourselves to opportunities. It is almost like we need to back track our thinking sometimes. We need to remember our original thought and what we wanted to accomplish, reflect on our perception as to how much validity it actually has, and then evaluate the next move.

Here’s a simple scenario for better understanding: [Acting based off perception]. Original thought: I want to go hiking by myself at a location I am not too familiar with, but it’s a small trail. Perception: I will probably get lost or not prepare adequately for the terrain / weather. Action: I don’t go on a hike because I think I would get lost and that I wouldn’t be prepared. Now, if I backtrack my thinking and evaluate my perception, there’s a different story. Me, thinking I will get lost isn’t a fact. The fact is that I have always made it back to where I started and have never truly got lost in a sense that I had no clue where I was at. Also, even though I feel as if I am not prepared, my track record would prove that I am usually suited for any situation thrown at me. The likelihood of me going on that hike by myself has greatly improved since the validity of my perception wasn’t that strong.

That wasn’t the best example, but hopefully it gives you a better idea of what I am talking about. Just remember that it is important to distinguish between the stories that you tell yourself and the facts that prove to be true.

Heart. H(ear)t. Ironically, ear (or hear) falls right into the middle of the word, aye?! Listen to your heart, when he’s calling for you. Listen to your heart… Anybody else feeling my vibes?! The heart is definitely important as I think the heart holds what is most important to you and where you want to go in life, but I think it is important to not place names or locations on the heart, as that is not what the heart is for. The heart is full with emotions, not intelligence. Your heart can tell you that you want to go travel or see a new place, but the heart can’t tell you that you want to go to a specific location. Once you have been there, maybe you could put a link between your emotions and your mind, potentially say there is a correlation, but everyone knows “correlation does not equal causation.” I’m saying that your heart is telling you to travel and then x location is your favourite place in the world so now your mind is telling you to go back to x location. The whole thing was driven by your heart and its’ desire to travel, but it was your mind that told you where to go.

Your relationship ends. You think the world is ending. Well the truth is you’re just sad because your heart was telling you, you wanted love. Your mind told you that x person was the person that provided the love. Continue to follow your heart to find love, but don’t let your mind play tricks on you in letting you believe that they are the only person that can provide love for you.

Lead with your heart. Question your mind. Free your body.