french idioms?

Question

what is the french idiom for "follow your heart" ?

Answer 1

I am French, from France.

I do not know what’s the deal is about french speaking people in other countries, like Canada, where tabernacle is a bad word, but I do know that in France you would never, ever use the sentence: “j’écoute mon coeur” ou “je suis mon coeur” (the verb “suivre” no less, “to follow” not “to be”) unless you’re a doctor with a stethoscope.

Isn’t that e in the o (e dans l’o) so cool like cœur, sœur, bœuf, œil, œuf, œuvre, nœud, vœux…just hold down the three following keys: Control, Shift and &, then release everything and type the o. Of course, it will not work in Yahoo but it will work in Microsoft Word where I do all my writings if I need french accents and so forth (then I copy/paste into Yahoo).

Anyway, to come back to the subject at heart…no pun intended…lol, “follow your heart” would literally and badly translate like this: “Suivre son cœur”. I have some experience in the matter of following one’s heart since I followed my heart in some occasions and still I never used that sentence while speaking french.

Your question really made me wonder…I am presently following my heart, you know, instead of following my brain or any other organs or whatever (when you marry for love not for money and so forth….) but how would I say that in french? I am French, I speak french and still I was flabbergasted or astonished or baffled or mystified or, ok, just showing off…for just a moment because I do not know how I would express that in french only I am sure I would certainly not say : “j’ai suivi mon cœur”.

So I did some research and I found out that “Follow your Heart” can be a vegetarian eatery in Southern California, a wedding designer in Dallas, a Yoga Center in Maryland or a book (Follow Your Heart and Discover God’s Dream for You) that you can purchase or order from your local book store and I am not advertising any of those things.

The word “cœur” is used in a lot and I mean a lot of expressions in the french language. I found almost one hundred different uses in my “Le Bouquet des Expressions Imagées. Encyclopédie thématique des locutions figurées de la langue française”, (a 1375 pages book), none of them about following your heart. You can love somebody with all your heart (je t’aime de tout mon cœur), you can have your heart says things to you (mon cœur me dit…) but you cannot follow it apparently.
So I had to empty my mind, concentrate, yoga style, think “I am following my heart” and then switch from english to french and see what happened. I was then reminded of the french sentence or proverb (I think Pascal said that): “Le cœur a ses raisons que la raison ignore.” Meaning the heart has its reasons (or motivation) that reasoning, like conscientious thinking ignored completely”). “Raison” is a word used for both meanings in french so it’s cooler. That means that when your heart wants something, it has some good reasons and that those reasons are so good, apparently, that they are ignored by the brain. So following your heart is more about ignoring your conscientious thinking and following what is in your heart, mainly your passion and your intuition.
In the french language, you do not follow your heart, you just do what you have to do, whatever anybody would call it. So Do, not Say.

Answer 2

Suivre son coeur.
Suivre( ecouter) les elans de son coeur.

Answer 3

ecoutes ton coeur

Answer 4

it means do what your feelings orders you, about "fais ce que ton coeur te demande" or "écoutes ton coeur"