When I saw this quote it made me think, How many of us drown out that inner voice or stuff it down when it comes up?” I’m guilty of it. But I can also say that I have listened to that inner voice. And I’ve learned to do that more as I get older.  It’s part of the reason I love this getting older thing– lots of good stuff is coming from it. And I can say when I have taken the time to listen and then follow that voice,  the results have been life changing.

I talk more in depth about this in my upcoming book. I wrestled often with what my heart was trying to tell me. But I kept pushing it down. One of the reasons being is because the path I had been on, I was afraid what others would think of me if I jumped off that path.  Society seems to have a set of rules and regulations that is applied to all of us and how we should live our lives. While those rules may work for some, it does not work for all.

How come we don’t hear more about listening to that inner voice and following it? Why aren’t we taught to follow our heart?  Why aren’t we taught that it’s okay to try different things in the course of our life?  You also hear that it is great to be you, but yet we are swamped with all these images of perfection– or what seems to be perfection.

What if everyone today listened to that inner voice?  Can you imagine?  Imagine how different our society would be?  We’d all be living our dream and no dream would be too small or too big, and no dream would be right or wrong. And listening to our inner voices would by default create more happiness. How cool is that?

My inner voice started nagging at me when I was around 38-years older. Over the next few years it grew louder and louder.  There were some days when I just didn’t want to live in my head- it was not fun!  It began about a year before 9/11. Then the tragic event of 9/11 took place along with a personal event for me that  happened around the same time.  You can read more about that in this excerpt from my book if you haven’t already.  But that inner voice started to gain strength as the next few years would unfold. And it really started to sing from the lessons I was learning from the wonderful dogs in my life.  As I started to listen that is when my Joyful Paws moments really began to unfold.

Just before I hit the publish button for this post a wonderful article popped up in my email, so thought I’d share the link to “How to Live a Heart Centered Life.”