The two can be wonderful allies if we let them.Īs we become heart minded, we begin transforming our human experience from something out of our hands to something very much in them. The only difference between these scenarios was one simple choice: to remain a bystander as the mind continues to ignore the call of the body and heart or to act in ways that support leading from the heart, so the mind can follow. You are gifted with courage and resilience. The mind stops racing away from the distress, which makes room for the heart to begin healing and soothing the body. You know the only antidote is self-love and hospitality. You create space around it simply by looking without resistance at its contours. Let’s say you close your eyes and open your heart to the bigness of the feeling. You know some part of you is calling out for your love and attention. You let go of the notion that something is wrong and respond as if something very right is taking place. Your heart is neglected and still aching.īut let’s say a wave of anxiety washes through you and instead of looking for an escape route, you go to a quiet room to confront the feeling. Your mind’s instinct to protect and defend has been confirmed. A part of you remains braced under the distraction, in fear of the next time this could happen. What just happened? Because you avoided your distress, you are only slightly comforted. You begin reaching for an escape, resorting to some form of substance or distraction that can act as a numbing balm. The anxiety then morphs into panic, which courses through you and makes you feel like jumping out of your skin. You notice your mind begin to race and attach to fearful thoughts. Let’s say a wave of anxiety washes through you. Remember, we are not trying to pit the heart and mind against one another we are trying to marry their aptitudes. Over time, if we are resolute in our intention to step into our heart, our mind will become less rigid in its defenses against feelings and tenderness, and gradually we will become more heart centered. Each time we practice this softening, we send a new message to the mind that signals that we are safe, willing, and wanting to live in this more open, more sensitive way. In situations that would ordinarily have us retreat or retaliate, we need to remain conscious of what’s happening and choose to soften and lean into our heart’s center. In order to do this, we have to undo our mind’s association of feelings of the heart with hurt and harm. For this to happen, we have to train the mind not to fear and close off from the heart, and instead, serve our heart and implement its wishes. In order to be heart minded, we need to bring the heart and mind into harmony and partnership with one another. The price we are paying, however, is that we are also kept from accessing source. We have no (conscious) idea how much our minds are acting as a defensive block against our soft and tender core, constantly at work trying to find ways to keep us from feeling, from hurt, from heartache. Without even realizing it, we allow our minds to stand between us and our true nature. This is your heart-centered self, your true self.īecause most of us moved into our mind long, long ago as a way of protecting our hearts, we now live most of our time in that rigid, concerned first persona. It is fluid and flowing, as if it’s on a river of unending joy. Its face is often lifted, looking in wonder at the shifting sky and swollen moon. But the other aspect of you, as if by some divine intervention, will from time to time slip past the censor of the mind and cheerfully take over your being with its boundless and uninhibited spirit. The persona you take on when your mind is not connected to the compass of the heart.įor most of us, that’s the dominant persona. Changing, morphing, and flopping from one story or idea to the next. It is cunning, convincing, and tyrannical in nature. It circles obsessively over every detail and unknowable outcome, chasing the same things in a constant repeated pattern. It acts almost like a dog chasing its tail. It doesn’t rest easily, even keeps you up at night sometimes. It worries and frets, its gaze mostly downcast. One is very rigid and concerned with the outcome of everything. Have you ever noticed that you have two distinctly different personae and tend to vacillate between them? How can we drop what we are holding on to, if we do not first look for the hand that is grasping so tightly?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |