How I learned to use my heart to make better decisions

How do you make decisions? Yeah, I'm not talking about daily, small decisions. I'm talking about big decisions. I'm not talking about making a list of pros and cons or following some kind of an algorithm.

I am talking about 'do you listen to your body'? Do you pay attention to how you're feeling as you make the decision you're about to make. This information can tell you what you're planning or thinking - is it really the right thing for you?

For a lot of my life, I have made decisions strictly from my head, with no input from the neck down. Most of the time that's worked out fine.

But there have been times when I have made a decision in my head, with no input from my body. It's gone fast. The decision has been implemented. Action has been taken. And when that is over, I feel sick.

My heart starts to pound, my guts start to churn. My nervous system is all over the place and I'm just like, Oh my gosh, what have I just done? And I feel terrible. I feel anxious. I feel sad. I feel sick.

This churning and rumination takes a toll on my health, on my heart, on my immune system, because it's so much stress.

Let me give you an example.

Years ago, I was about to purchase my first home. I had a buyer's agent. I had a price range and I was ready to go. We looked at many many houses, many houses! And we came to one that we drove up and I was like, wow, this house is wonderful. The landscape in the front yard was beautiful. There was a curved drive. There were beautiful flowers and trellises in the backyard. There was a pond, there were several fruit trees, and there was this this outdoor area that was really lovely.

When we went inside the house, I was not quite as enthusiastic. The house clearly needed some updating, but the biggest obstacle for me was that the energy in the house felt dead, like just dead.

I walked out and I said, "well, I don't know.... let's, keep looking." So we looked for the next couple of weeks, we looked all around and I knew that house wasn't going to be on the market for much longer because the inventory was pretty low. And I said, okay, I'm going to go ahead and buy that house. I made an appointment with my agent to meet him there in a couple of hours to sign a contract.

Well, as the time started to get closer, I started feeling my gut starting to churn. My nervous system was getting wound up. My heart was pounding, and the closer I got to that appointment, the worse it got!

Seriously, I was close to writhing in pain. I was so uncomfortable. Finally, I realized I can't do this. I cannot buy that house. So I canceled the appointment and the wave of relief that washed over me was unbelievable. I just felt this huge weight come off of me that I didn't even really realize was there.

A couple of weeks later, I changed my my price range. I widened it. And I found exactly the right house for me. It was a perfect location. It was a perfect house and the energy in it was wonderful.

The moral of this for me is that I have to include and consider the wisdom of my body to tell me, to help me to provide input to big decisions that I make. There's a lot of wisdom in the body and we should use all of it.

I can tell you, I can make a decision in my mind and I can talk myself into anything. So I really need that that additional information to kind of counterbalance things.

Now, how does this affect the heart?

Well, as you can tell, when I'm in that super stressed situation, that's not helping my heart. That's not helping my immune system. It's making me anxious and it's sending me down a place I don't want to go.

But by using a system of calming down, by being clear, and allowing the decision to unfold, I have less stress and my body's happy and my heart's happier.

If you'd like to set up a free health chat with me, please click this link.

Thank you so much for listening.

Dr Elaine

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.