Hearts and other stuff that matters.

One summer many years ago, I found an unusual amount of heart rocks in the course of a month while housesitting at the beach. The first day, I discovered at least ten. Each subsequent day after that, revealed more heart rocks than the day before. That was when my personal mythic language began speaking to me. Hearts played a big role in my life guidance that summer, and they have continued to appear with consistency ever since. While other symbols have been woven in to the pantheon since then, hearts were the first symbol to speak to me in that primal code of metaphoric dream wisdom, the intimate soul code of the transpersonal realm.

What you seek is also seeking you.

Hearts are a symbol for our master organ, the vital muscle of life that keeps us alive. There are many organs and parts of our body that we can live without, but we cannot get by without a heart. Hearts are also a symbol for love, caring, and goodness. Someone with ‘a good heart’ is giving, selfless, and compassionate. Someone described as ‘heartless’ might have no morals, be deceitful, cruel, or out for personal gain. The vibration of one’s heart cannot be masked. Even when someone’s “heart is in the right place”, they may still do insensitive things. It’s not how you mess up, but how you recover that matters. ‘Have a heart’ and offer forgiveness and compassion as often as you can, while always remaining true to yourself and to your own heart’s guidance.

Some ways to enliven heart energy:

1. Pass your joy along- smile at a stranger.

It’s easy to do, most especially because you don’t know them. Who they are doesn't matter, but the effect your smile could have might make all the difference in their day. If you’re having a good day and you’re feeling it, pass your joy along! It’s that simple and costs you nothing, but has a huge ROI potential.

2. Forgive easily. 

Holding onto resentment, anger, and betrayals- these create a hardened heart, and keep you with one eye, a hand, or a whole leg in the past. The point of power is in the NOW. A hardened heart lives in a small room with no light, and the longer that bitterness is held onto, the darker it all gets. A hardened heart is a fearful heart is a scared heart. We can all empathize with that, can we not? When have you not felt fear? When have you not felt scared? We must make the effort required to process the pain and to move through the pain, but not to dwell in the pain. When we have moved through the pain, then we can apply forgiveness. However, if there is trauma or pain that hasn’t been felt (e.g., there is a numb feeling inside, or you want to cry but can’t), then trying to apply forgiveness is just bypassing the experience. And healing can’t happen.

3. Notice beauty! 

Notice your surroundings, notice nature. Allow yourself the gift of being right here, right now. There were so many times I used to rush to work in LA and San Francisco. Rush here, dash there. Urgency and hurriedness create anxiety and a hurried heart cannot be present.

Rushing takes us out of the now. Check in with your heart the next time you are rushing about. How do you feel? How’s your breathing? At the next stop light, or while waiting in line, utillize the opportunity to pause. Put your phone down and feel your body, and take 3 breaths.

4. Breathe deeply. 

There are different ways to breathe for sure. But most of the time, we are all breathing too shallow, which triggers our sympathetic nervous system, aka survival mode (fight/flight/freeze/fawn response). Deep belly breaths target our parasympathetic nervous system, which triggers a calm sensation. Breathe a little slower and deeper than usual, feel the exhale travel all the way down to your belly, and let all the air out. There’s no one right way to do it. If you’re breathing slower and deeper than you were before, then you’re doing it right for you.

5. Remember the Golden Rule, and live your life by it. 

Don't worry about messing up. We will and we do. If you are mean, or mistreat someone, or you’ve done wrong by them, apologize sincerely if/ when the opportunity to do so arises. Even if that moment doesn’t appear, apologize anyway, out loud in your house, in the car, silently, write it down. Acknowledge your actions. Then forgive yourself, too (See number 2 above.) Look up Ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian forgiveness meditation/prayer; it is powerful medicine. Taking responsibility nurtures humility, which births growth and wisdom.

6. Practice Heart Coherence

The degree to which we live from our hearts can greatly impact our capacity for joy. Connecting to our heart’s rhythm can help with regulating our emotions, reducing stress, making better choices, and increasing our resilience. This is something I practice daily and share with all my clients.

This life we’re in, it is a journey, not a destination, a practice, not a perfect. It is awesome and bittersweet, and there will never be another one just like this one. Every day we get another chance to do it all over again. Some days we do a better job than we did the day before, and some days we don’t. In all cases, each day is an opportunity to give from the heart and live from the heart.

Thanks for reading! ❤️