Who Would You Be if Your Heart Ruled Your Mind?

“Can we find the minds to lead us closer to the heart?” – Rush, A Farewell to Kings

The advent of the Industrial Revolution can be attributed to many factors, but one that is often overlooked is the introduction of coffee and tea to Europe—both arriving at approximately the same time. Caffeine! It jolts the brain awake, activates a sharp and linear focus, and postpones emotional introspection until the work is done. Efficiency, precision, coordination—these are all supercharged by this readily available, prescription-free stimulant. And it delivers exactly what it promises.

The world has industrialized and, more recently, digitalized, with technological advancement racing far ahead of the organic, measured pace of nature’s evolution. From jet planes to refrigeration, humanity now possesses conveniences and marvels beyond imagining. Yet this relentless, multigenerational rush for progress—progress for its own sake—has brought us to a place of profound uncertainty and peril.

“But where do the children play?” – Cat Stevens, Where Do The Children Play?

Nature operates with care and minimal waste. There is no man-made system as harmonious as the delicate synergy of a thriving forest. Our most monumental inventions are those inspired by nature itself: airplanes designed after the wings of birds, medicines replicating the chemical compounds of exotic plants, scuba fins mimicking the movements of fish, and winter clothing fashioned after the thick coats of mammals. Even as we drift further from our roots as natural beings, we need only revisit our own innovations to see that all great artists are, at their core, imitators.

And yet, we remain trapped in an endless grind: the never-ending to-do list, the bills, the demands of the machine we interface with in our many roles, and the needs (and wants) of ourselves and our dependents. For many, myself included, this cycle occupies every conscious moment of the day.

I’m writing this on the first day of my first vacation in four years, and I’ll admit—I’m nervous about not working. I’m uneasy because I’ve carved out time to pause, rest, and reflect on my life and all it encompasses. Who am I without the constant doing? How do I feel when I allow myself the time to feel deeply and simply be? Above all, I fear that in the stillness, I might confront emotions my mind has worked hard to keep buried—shadows that prefer to remain invisible to my conscious self.

My best decisions have always been guided by my heart. Whether leaving my mother’s home in England at 17, choosing entrepreneurship over university, joining my father in a critical battle for patient rights and informed consent during the COVID-19 crisis, or founding Over to the Youth, my heart has been my compass. It has also led me to hard lessons, consequences I sometimes wanted to avoid. Yet, in hindsight, it has never truly steered me wrong.

My intuition taps into a higher intelligence, something beyond the analytical capabilities of my brain, and I’ve heard others describe the same. Still, I often mistrust my heart, forcing myself through mental gymnastics to rationalize every aspect of my life. It’s exhausting! As a collective, we’ve grown disconnected from our intuition and the intelligence of the Great Spirit. Instead, we live in a world of glowing screens, traffic jams, and an unrelenting urgency that resembles a treadmill on its highest setting. In modern life, it seems there are only two ways to win: rise to the elite where the pace becomes manageable, or refuse to play by the same rules.

The mind is an extraordinary tool—the most versatile and powerful instrument we know of in the universe. But without a strong collective morality and a commitment to serving love, it becomes an agent of destruction, blindly justifying the means to its ends. Disconnected from the natural, rhythmic flow of the universe, the mind becomes controlled by fear. Even the elites—those in corporate and political power who seek dominion over the world—act out of a desperate need for certainty and control. They aim to be God, so they need not trust God.

But even if they could control the weather, they cannot stop a single hair on their head from turning gray. And in the end, we all go to the grave as empty-handed as the day we were born. Sooner or later, we all face something the ego cannot manage, something that teaches us what the mind cannot learn or recall.

What is life for? Are you going to analyze it, sketch out diagrams, and run the calculations? Or does your heart already know?

We are our legacy. We are our soul. We are one, and we are all. Choose.