The 'heart' of the Matter (part one)
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters to what lies within us”. Those words of Ralph Waldo Emerson provide such depth of wisdom , yet it’s so easy to read the quote without understanding the real power within the message. futurama bender s game movie
What did Emerson mean?
In our everyday language we talk about making decisions from the ‘heart’. For example, in business and politics leaders talk of winning ‘hearts and minds’. How many times in life have you been faced with making a decision between the ‘heart’ and ‘head’? Virtually every love song talks about someone breaking the ‘heart’, and Proverbs state that ‘as a man thinketh in his heart so is he’.
As the word ‘heart’ is referenced so often in so many different ways, it’s meaning really should be given some consideration, yet few of us give any thought to it, presumably assuming it references the physical organ. When you stop to think about it, it’s a ridiculous assumption, our physical heart clearly doesn’t possess the ability to conduct or contain thought, so what is the ‘heart’ of the matter?
The ‘heart’ that is reference is the most powerful part of the human personality – the subconscious mind, and this is what Emerson was referencing. It was the Ancient Greeks that called the subconscious ‘the heart of hearts’. So the conflict ‘between head and heart’ is an age-old reference to the conflict between our conscious and subconscious mind, the intellect and the emotional/spiritual centre of the personality. Many people are unaware that whilst the mind is one it has two very distinct and separate operations within it.
Success in any undertaking, comes from having both operative elements of the mind working in harmony, and anyone looking to improve results for themselves or through others must give this subject worthy study and consideration.
I’ll be sharing more insight into this subject very soon….
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Leadership Development Training…
One of my favorite Leadership quotes is by Vince Lombardi… it reflects my feelings: Leaders aren\’t born they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that\’s the price we\’ll have to pay to achieve that goal,…