“You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth, that it’s like you have four legs, instead of two. That way you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God.”
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
That was the first set of sentences in the book that really caught my intention and made me think.
“To look at the world through your heart and not through your head.”
To some of us, the first question that may pop into our mind when we hear this sentence may be, “How do we do that? I don’t I really understand how to do that.”
To some of us, the first thing that may pop into our mind may be more of a justification on why we don’t (really) want to look at the world through our heart. “I’ve done it before and it is not pleasant. It hurts me and breaks me.”
To some of us, maybe we don’t really find a need to look at the world through the heart. “I’ve looked at the world through my head all this while and it has worked just fine.”
When I first read this sentence, I was really taken aback. Something stirring inside me kept telling me, “Look through your heart. You’ve done it before. Maybe you’re refusing to do it again because you have forgotten how to or because you know it’s not easy to live with.”
Looking at the world through your heart is not all that difficult. It is finding the courage to do it and facing to see what you see when you do that’s not all that easy.
When I look at the world through my heart, it is so easy to fall in love with a lot of things I see in the world. There is beauty in every little small thing in the world.
I know some might be saying, “What about the war? What about murders and rapes? What about innocent dying? What about corruption and oppression and injustice? What is so beautiful about that?”
To me, these painful events in life teach me even more to love those people I don’t even know from my heart. It has taught me to feel their pain, to cry for them, to love them and hate the things that are happening to them. Therefore, indirectly, these events have taught me to see the world through my heart and not my head.
Looking at the world through my heart has taught me to love easily and sincerely. I fall in love rather easily, I would say. Sometimes I wondered if I was cheap because I loved easily. But with time, I have realised that my ability to love easily is not a liability but rather a gift because it’s not easy to do. Only when someone has reached a point where he/she is able to see all the good in the person and accept what they might not like about the person, only then can they truly love the person. My ability to do this rather easily, I would say is a gift and grace.
Looking at the world through my heart also means that I am and will be more vulnerable to my surroundings. It meant I will be hurt more easily and more often because many of things I do in life will come from my heart, the space most personal to me. And what can scare me more than knowing how vulnerable I will become, how easily I can be hurt if I chose to look at the world, through my heart?
Not an easy decision but a decision to be made nevertheless. Eventually, I felt that if I was to live my life in the most satisfying and fulfilling way possible, then it is impossible not to chose to look at the world through my heart.
I have made my choice and it scares me at this moment itself because I can already feel how much of hurt I am exposing myself to in the coming future but I have chosen to live and so,
Come what may.
Love makes you cry because it hurts in a lot of way. It involves giving of oneself to the other. It involves trust above your own self.
I love you. You don’t. That hurts but what the heck, at least I loved with everything I’ve got and looked at you with my heart and not my head. If I looked at you with my head, then most probably, I would have never loved you.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
That was the first set of sentences in the book that really caught my intention and made me think.
“To look at the world through your heart and not through your head.”
To some of us, the first question that may pop into our mind when we hear this sentence may be, “How do we do that? I don’t I really understand how to do that.”
To some of us, the first thing that may pop into our mind may be more of a justification on why we don’t (really) want to look at the world through our heart. “I’ve done it before and it is not pleasant. It hurts me and breaks me.”
To some of us, maybe we don’t really find a need to look at the world through the heart. “I’ve looked at the world through my head all this while and it has worked just fine.”
When I first read this sentence, I was really taken aback. Something stirring inside me kept telling me, “Look through your heart. You’ve done it before. Maybe you’re refusing to do it again because you have forgotten how to or because you know it’s not easy to live with.”
Looking at the world through your heart is not all that difficult. It is finding the courage to do it and facing to see what you see when you do that’s not all that easy.
When I look at the world through my heart, it is so easy to fall in love with a lot of things I see in the world. There is beauty in every little small thing in the world.
I know some might be saying, “What about the war? What about murders and rapes? What about innocent dying? What about corruption and oppression and injustice? What is so beautiful about that?”
To me, these painful events in life teach me even more to love those people I don’t even know from my heart. It has taught me to feel their pain, to cry for them, to love them and hate the things that are happening to them. Therefore, indirectly, these events have taught me to see the world through my heart and not my head.
Looking at the world through my heart has taught me to love easily and sincerely. I fall in love rather easily, I would say. Sometimes I wondered if I was cheap because I loved easily. But with time, I have realised that my ability to love easily is not a liability but rather a gift because it’s not easy to do. Only when someone has reached a point where he/she is able to see all the good in the person and accept what they might not like about the person, only then can they truly love the person. My ability to do this rather easily, I would say is a gift and grace.
Looking at the world through my heart also means that I am and will be more vulnerable to my surroundings. It meant I will be hurt more easily and more often because many of things I do in life will come from my heart, the space most personal to me. And what can scare me more than knowing how vulnerable I will become, how easily I can be hurt if I chose to look at the world, through my heart?
Not an easy decision but a decision to be made nevertheless. Eventually, I felt that if I was to live my life in the most satisfying and fulfilling way possible, then it is impossible not to chose to look at the world through my heart.
I have made my choice and it scares me at this moment itself because I can already feel how much of hurt I am exposing myself to in the coming future but I have chosen to live and so,
Come what may.
Love makes you cry because it hurts in a lot of way. It involves giving of oneself to the other. It involves trust above your own self.
I love you. You don’t. That hurts but what the heck, at least I loved with everything I’ve got and looked at you with my heart and not my head. If I looked at you with my head, then most probably, I would have never loved you.
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