I’ve come to realize that not every decision needs to be backed by logic or explained away with reasons. When I was recently invited to take on a regular yoga teaching role, I immediately started listing all the practical benefits. But something felt off. The more I tried to rationalize a yes, the more I knew in my heart it was really a no. That experience reminded me how powerful it can be to pause, listen inward, and honor what feels aligned, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
On today’s Wise Walk, I’m sharing how I’ve been learning to let my heart lead, how that shift has created more balance and peace in my life, and how I’ve stopped over explaining my feelings just to make others comfortable. Together, we’ll explore how to trust that inner knowing, hold space for our emotions, and let our feelings guide us forward.
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- When you consider options in your life, do you lead with logic or drop into your heart to listen?
- Do you have enough experience to trust your heart’s wisdom, or is that still a muscle you’re building?
- Do you tend to lead from your intellect more than your heart, and is that something you want to reflect on?
- When someone offers you an opportunity, can you check in with your heart and honor how it feels?
- If it doesn’t feel right, can you communicate a simple no without explaining or justifying it?
- Do you find yourself trying to make others comfortable with your “no” by offering logic or reasons?
- Can you give yourself grace and stop explaining your heart-centered decisions to others?
- Can you accept your own inner knowing without needing outside validation or agreement?
- When someone doesn’t understand your perspective, can you simply share your feelings and hold space?
- Are you able to let your feelings speak for themselves, even without words or logic to explain them?
- Where can you hold space for someone stuck in “should” thinking and gently ask how they feel instead?
- Can you fully accept someone’s emotional truth without needing them to justify or explain it?
- Can you allow a feeling—yours or someone else’s—to stand on its own and be accepted as it is?
Thank you for walking with me today. I’m so grateful we can hold space for each other as we lead with our hearts.
In this episode:
[02:46] I reflect back on times when logic has taken over my decisions. Sometimes logic and rationale will get us to the place we need to go.
[03:34] There are times when it’s not an intellectual decision or about rationale. We need to give ourselves permission to listen and lead with our hearts.
[04:34] I was rationalizing saying yes to teaching yoga when in my heart I knew the answer needed to be no.
[05:28] There was a heart knowingness before I even made the decision.
[06:01] My heart did feel good about teaching yoga every other week.
[07:32] In the past, I would try to come up with rationale when something didn’t feel right.
[09:59] Wise Walk big takeaway: Accept and allow my feelings to speak for themselves without having to explain or justify.
[11:10] I don’t have an explanation. I’m just trying to accept and honor my feelings.
[13:07] Because we’ve all been raised with belief systems and expectations, it makes holding space for our feelings challenging.
[16:04] This week I’m going to be very aware of when people make “I should” instead of “I feel” statements.
Memorable Quotes:
- “What feels aligned to you matters more than what makes sense to someone else.” – Mary Tess
- “I love how when we feel our way forward, there is this expansiveness and we also don’t have to justify our answers.” – Mary Tess
- “Just make peace with your feelings and hold them sacred in your own heart.” – Mary Tess
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