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As I was scrolling through the Â鶹Éç news pages, looking for a positive story for today, I came across something that uplifted me. An apprentice motor mechanic called Lauren was encouraging other women to consider apprenticeships with the words ‘Follow your heart and do what you want to do. Don’t listen to anyone else – just be you’. Seven out of ten apprentices are male and she wanted to change that.

Her words spoke to me because for a good part of my life, I tried to live up to the expectations of others. I risked being a ‘goodie-goodie’ at a Methodist Boarding School because I couldn’t bring myself to break rules intentionally, except for listening to pop music under my bed covers at night. Only slowly did I learn that my heart held wisdom that could guide me.

The book of Proverbs, holy for Jews and Christians, contains an interesting verse. ‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life’ says one of my Christian translations. My Jewish Study Bible gives this - ‘More than all that you guard, guard your mind, For it is the source of life’. Heart and mind are sometimes pitted against each other in our culture – the heart is about the emotions and the mind is about thinking, the heart is good, too much thinking can be harmful. That’s not how it’s seen in the Bible. The heart is the seat of our life, strength, love and energy. It embraces not only our feelings but also our mind and how we make sense of and know things.

So ‘Follow your heart’ for me, as a Christian who draws deeply from Buddhism, also means ‘Know your heart and your mind’. Know when courage fails because we are too worried about what other people think or expect. Know when we are doing the opposite of what we see to be right for ourselves or others. I used what my heart was telling me when I went to Sri Lanka in my mid-thirties to study Buddhism. It caused a short-lived rift with my father, a Christian clergyman. A friend said she feared for my soul and would pray for me. Some other friends and work colleagues wholeheartedly supported me. Keeping to what I felt was right for me made me grow up and all that happened as a result positively shaped my life. That’s why Lauren’s words ‘Follow your heart’ spoke to me. We all have a source of wise, divine energy in our hearts and minds but sometimes it takes courage to listen to it.

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