Question
I have a question for you regarding listening to one’s heart versus one’s gut. As I’ll describe below both positions must be coming from my mind, so I wonder if in such a situation, is mindfulness training just about being neutral to these thoughts? And if so, should decisions be made based on common sense or some other greater source? As I wrote yesterday, I had reframed my thinking about playing pickleball by staying somewhat neutral about the likelihood of my body’s recovery from Monday’s intense play and feeling well enough to play the following day. While my yoga stretches Monday night counterbalanced the strain on my body from playing pickleball that day and I was able to play yesterday, I didn’t get as much relief from my yoga practice last night. This morning, I awoke with more hip tightness than yesterday, and it took much effort to relieve most of it this morning through walking two miles and using my TENS and bed buddy. Although my heart is tugging me to play today, my gut is telling me that three intense days in a row might overwhelm my recovery and could affect how I feel at my reunion. Since I have many days of pickleball ahead and only one 50th reunion, I’m going to take off today and make sure I feel my best this weekend. While it’s very hard to ever turn down pickleball, I went with my gut (and what I would call common sense) to take the day off. I stayed fairly neutral to both positions, but I’m wondering your thoughts on how this relates to mindfulness.
What you described—being able to stay with two strong inner pulls and make a conscious decision—is already a meaningful form of mindfulness. You didn’t simply react to emotion or desire. You stayed present, felt into the competing signals, and chose based on context and what would serve you best overall. You brought mindfulness to that moment by being aware of how the body felt and what it was communicating. And most importantly, you brought mindfulness to the machinations of the mind – in real time. Both are important and practical skills that relate to mindfulness.
But your question, “Should I follow my heart or my gut?”, aims at something deeper. It actually sits at the very heart of Yogic inquiry.
“The voice of the soul is silence. When the mind is quiet, the heart can speak.” Swami Sivananda
From the perspective of Yoga, the goal is not just to notice and pause or stay neutral to thoughts. The deeper Yogic skill is about discernment: beginning to recognize what movements of the mind are truly aligned, and which are colored by unconscious patterns.
In the Yoga Sūtras, these unconscious patterns are called kleshas, which means “afflictions” or “obstacles.” Kleshas are inner forces that distort perception and drive reactivity. They arise in the form of rāga, the attachment to pleasure or outcomes we want, and dwesha, the aversion to discomfort or pain. Both shape the mind’s activity and create what Yoga calls **vṛittis, or fluctuations in the mind. (You have heard me use this word in our first session.) When vrittis are present, even a strong sense of “intuition” or gut instinct may be tinted.
This is where the distinction between the heart’s desire and the intuitive heart matters. When you said your “heart” wanted to play pickleball, and your “gut” said to rest, it sounds like both voices were coming from within. Therefore, both answers seem “true” or “right” at first glance. But if we look more closely, we see they are not from the same place.
The “heart” in this case seems to have been tied to desire: the pull toward something enjoyable, something the ego mind really wants to have its way about. The “gut,” on the other hand, seemed to carry a quieter, more grounded knowing. One that is neutral to desire and more linked to gut instinct (intuition) or the intuitive heart (also intuition) about what would be in your highest and best interest, free of the drive towards enjoyment or pleasure. Being able to ascertain the difference between these 2 voices – heart’s desire and instinct/intuition (any form of higher knowing or knowing from the higher mind) is discernment. And it’s one of the core capacities Yoga is meant to cultivate.
Even beginners can start practicing this—not by trying to suppress emotion or desire, but by learning to differentiate the source of your inner voice, and whether it is pure or tainted by some form of ego desire. Is the internal guidance you’re receiving a neutral response to what’s happening now, or a pull based on wanting or avoiding something? That question is one of the seeds of deeper Yoga.
The other aspect of related to mindfulness yor question raises concerns the layers of the mind. I’ll save that discusssion for a later section in mystery school Yoga.
Note: Intuition is Science
Research from HeartMath and others has shown that the heart has its own network of neurons, sometimes called the “heart brain”, which communicates directly with the brain and plays a significant role in emotional regulation, decision-making, and perception. These cardiac signals don’t just respond to the brain, they also shape how we process experience. In some studies, changes in heart rhythm patterns have been observed before participants are consciously aware of a stimulus, suggesting that the heart can participate in a form of intuitive knowing that arises prior to cognitive recognition.
The gut, too, is rich with sensory neurons and is now often called the “second brain.” It communicates constantly with the central nervous system and plays a critical role in instinct, safety, and felt-sense decisions.
A felt-sense decision is the kind of choice that comes not from the mind’s chatter, but from the quiet terrain of the body. It’s when the body knows before the mind explains. There may be no argument, no logic—just a resonance, a steadiness, a slight lift in the chest, a softening of the breath. Or an equally clear pulling back, constriction, or heaviness.
It’s the body’s way of telling the truth before words arrive. What we casually refer to as “gut instinct” is, in many cases, the body’s nervous system registering information faster than the thinking mind can process.
“Intuition is not a mysterious power; it is the direct experience of truth that comes when the mind is clear and still.” Swami Rama
In Yogic terms, both the heart and gut are valid channels of inner perception. But not all signals are free of distortion. That’s why viveka, or discernment, is so emphasized in classical Yoga. To know the source of your inner voice means to sense where the signal is coming from—whether it’s clean, grounded, and timely… or shaped by old reactions, desire, attachment, or fear.
You make a thoughtful choice when you pause, listening, and choosing what would truly support your larger intention. That’s the beginning of Yogic mindfulness and discernment—and they get stronger each time we practice them.
Reflect & Journal:
- What’s the tone of the inner voice—urgent, quiet, familiar, calm?
- Does the signal increase clarity or reinforce craving?
- Can I sense if rāga (grasping) or dveṣa (avoidance) is influencing this pull?
“To observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.” J. Krihsnamurti