I don’t have the time tonight to give your work a thorough review (check when I posted) but the short version is that your work is stellar.
More to come.
Awwww...you say that to all the writers guild members!!!!!
EXIT TWENTY-SIX ~ THE HEART AND SOUL OF YOUR LION
Alexander the Great once said, “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”
When faced with life’s difficulties, two of the more popular bits of advice you’re often told are, “Listen to the little voice in your head,” and “Follow your heart.” Both are well-meaning, as the intent is to seek your own intuitive guidance. To look within.
The two sources of inner knowing, however, couldn’t be more diametrically opposed to one another. It’s like seeking wisdom from both a lion and a sheep. The lion, of course, is your heart, or actually, your soul. The sheep is your conscious mind. In short, your lion feels, and your sheep thinks.
That sheep is the little voice in your head that tells you, “You can’t do this,” “They’ll laugh at you,” or “You don’t deserve it.” It’s chock full of the things that you’ve read, heard, and experienced in the past. And when it comes to making a decision, it needs to classify it as either right or wrong, good or bad, reward or regret.
Unfortunately, your sheep considers the world while purely in survival mode. Hesitation, anxiety, and disbelief largely originate from there. The lion, your soul, operates through its spiritual connection to God and knows your true abilities, as well as your divine purpose in life. Your brave lion says, “I want to do this,” “I’m going to speak up for that,” or “I deserve it.”
The lion is modest, however, and doesn’t have a roar that screams out you should or shouldn’t do something. It’s well connected to that gift of free will from the Father, you see.
Guidance from your lion is more of a steady undertone that’s always there, but just below the constant bleating of your sheep. It can be a physical feeling of warmth or an emotional feeling of excitement for the possibilities of a decision. You sense what’s right and wrong throughout your body, don’t you?
As a baby, you survived by the natural inclination to follow your heart. Your sheep didn’t make decisions. It wasn’t even alive yet. You didn’t have the experiences of life or the supposed “wisdom” that the mind would need for making choices.
Instead, your infant decisions were based on your feelings, or your lion - your heart and soul. If you felt happy, you giggled. If you were tired, hungry, or angry, you cried. At no time did you consider how it looked to others. You only knew your lion. Over time, the instinct to follow your heart began to fade. It happened as social “norms” were learned and your personality became based on not how you feel, but how you think. Not only did this come from society, but also from the expectations of behaviors from your family and friends.
So while your lion knows what to do, the sheep thinks it knows what to do. Well, at first, anyway. Maybe it’s sure one moment, but not so sure the next. Then, it's sure again. The sheep constantly goes back and forth between decisions based on survival, which creates fear and anxiety, and most times, inaction. Anytime you feel caught up in such an internal struggle, you can bet the sheep, the conscious mind, is responsible, and not the lion. Not your heart and soul.
Once you realize the sheep, the little voice in your head, is just trying to survive, a whole new world opens up to you. Yet you really have no choice but to listen to it, do you? It’s there. You constantly hear it, even now as you read these words. But listening is far, far different than following, isn’t it?
How do you follow instead of listen? Well, it’s easier said than done. Listening to your mind, your thoughts, your sheep, is deeply ingrained in your life, after all. Start by doing what feels natural to you. Maybe that’s more involvement in the church or learning to play the piano. It doesn’t really matter what your feelings-based decisions are.
When you do things that intuitively bring excitement and purpose to your life, you begin to live once again within your heart and soul. You are closer to God. While you may have to listen, stop believing everything said by your sheep. The more you stop paying attention to all the doubt and fear it offers, the more you’ll find it no longer controls you.
Living your life from your heart and soul, the lion, will feel right. You’ll soon begin to trust your gut, or your feelings and intuitions, instead of the doubts offered by your sheep. Do this and watch the world unfold in awesome growth, peace, and purpose, instead of living a cold, rigid existence built on fear and anxiety.
You can do this...with the heart and soul of your lion.