How to Follow Your Heart in the Age of Anxiety
A straightforward guide to acting with love
21st-century industrial society is a world built on anxiety. So many aspects of our lives (like our jobs, our laws, our habits and priorities, not to mention the systems that condition them), are designed by and for fearful thoughts about the future. We’re so entrenched in habits of worry and overthinking that the age-old advice to “follow your heart” might as well come from a different planet. In this Age of Anxiety, it’s something we have to make ourselves practice if we’re to do it at all.
Following your heart isn’t difficult per se, but it is very different from the way we usually think about decision-making. That’s exactly the difference: we’re used to thinking about decisions. Following your heart means feeling the right decision.
To the mind, that statement is vague to the point of meaninglessness, so we’ll draw it out in terms the mind can understand better:
How the Mind Makes Decisions
When we make decisions with the mind, we look at a situation and break it down with our thoughts. We analyze different variables, imagine different outcomes and try to assess the appropriate course of action based on where we think it will lead. The right choice is determined by an…
