What do you think of when you hear the word heart? I think of a big red heart shape, I think of love, I think of happiness, also the heart in my physical Being that pumps blood and sustains me and keeps me living. I remember hearing, especially in my youth, the phrase, “think with your brain and not with your heart.” It has taken me many years, experiences and life lessons to tell you I had it all backwards So many times we are so far from our heart because our mind has taken over, and not in good ways. The answer to every question, to every desire, to every impulse is within your heart.
What does Living and Breathing from the heart feel like? While taking my morning walk, I will see something in nature that, as soon as my eyes connect with it, it takes my breath away. I will feel this sensation in my heart first, and then it moves to my mind. I will see a friend’s number on my cell phone and get that butterfly feeling in my tummy. When my daughter comes home and I see her pull in the drive way, the emotion beats loud from my heart. Emotions like these examples are breathing and living from the heart.
Our heart is emotion driven, but that is important to living and breathing in incredible profound truth, OUR truth, not someone else’s or what society dictates, but OUR own unique individual heart breath that lives within each of us. There are three simple practices that when applied to daily life can assist in the process of clearing habitual patterns by bringing energetic harmony and balance to our heart first, then body and mind. I love calling this, “breathing life into a living heart.”
Self-Love
Self-love is living and making choices following the impulses of your inner-heart. This allows you to be guided by your inner wisdom rather than seeking fulfillment externally from need or emptiness or trying to please others or live up to their expectations. It is not a selfish or self-indulgent practice; however, it is a way of living that allows you to develop a connection with your true being or essence. Self-love encompasses loving and caring for you. It entails looking within for what you seek rather than relying on the world and others for love, acceptance and recognition.
Meditation – The Gentle Heart Breath
Meditation is a very beneficial tool; however, mystique and confusion surround it as there are so many conflicting and complex ways in which we are supposed to do it, so we think. However, the gentle heart breath mediation is a very simple technique that takes away this mystery. It simply consists of breathing gently.
Meditating three times a day for ten minutes upon waking, at lunchtime and before bed is sufficient to bring about beneficial changes. This practice can be done when walking, taking a relaxing bath, by closing your eyes in a comfy chair or while lying down. The gentle heart breath mediation will give you a feeling of equanimity, clarity, calmness and gentleness within the body allowing you to connect to your truest self and essence.
I invite you to get comfortable and take 3 deep breaths in through the nostrils and exhale through the mouth slowly. During these breaths, clear away any chatter in your mind. You will now breathe at a gentle normal pace. As you inhale through your nostrils, breathe from your heart. When you exhale, exhale through your nostrils back into your heart. You may want to lay your hand over your heart so you can feel the breath flow. I like to choose a Mantra when I do this meditation. Examples are: I breathe in love, I breathe out love, I breathe in self compassion, and I breathe out self compassion. Choose a Mantra that resonates with your heart breath.
Stillness
At the end of meditation, you will be in a centered state of stillness and gentleness. The key is to gently go about your day and take that stillness with you. When you feel you are becoming uncentered, simply return to the gentle heart breath. You will learn with time it will become easier and more natural to you. Simply focus on the gentle breath and observe yourself, and you will become aware of how quickly you are able to drop back into your heart. Gentleness is the bridge we can use to take us from chaos into love or stillness. Gentleness is achieved through the practice of staying centered.
Now that you know that somewhere inside yourself you have the answers to living your life with joy, love, far less stress, clarity and the ability to live from your heart, it takes practice. It takes daily practice and gentle commitment. Now, go take a gentle HEART BREATH.
