Matters of the Heart

 

Everyone has read a book or two that has that "POW" effect, the one that grabs your heart and touches you so deeply you can never fully go back to the way you were.  You have this new sense of awareness, a tool you can work with to change your entire life.  Books that have a profound impact must be shared.  So here it is:  "The Untethered Soul, the journey beyond yourself", by Michael Singer.  This book was highly recommended to me by my yoga teacher.  Had I known what effect it was going to have, I wouldn't have waited so long to pick it up.  This book is fabulous for anyone who is looking to move forward, live lighter, and let it go.

So many of us have lived through pain.  We have grown from it and we have stopped growing because of it.  We have defense mechanisms that show up when something feels uncomfortable, something that reminds us of a place we don't want to revisit.  So we get busy, drink, shop, get angry, or completely shut down.  We don't want to feel it, so we don't let it go.  It gets captured, blocked and locked.  Your energy goes way down and you can't figure out why you're not feeling the good stuff.  By the good stuff, I mean the energy you feel that doesn't require sleep or food, the energy that builds up inside you and makes you feel like you can take on the world.  We've all had that as well.  So why don't we feel it all the time? 

 

Micheal Singer explains the largest energy center in your body, The Heart:

 

" The only reason you don't feel this energy all the time is because you block it.  You block it by closing your heart, by closing your mind and by pulling yourself into a restricted space inside.  This closes you off from all the energy.  When you close your heart or you close your mind, you hide in the darkness within you.  There is no light.  There is no energy.  There is nothing flowing.  There energy is still there but it can't get in.  This is what it means to be BLOCKED.  That is why you have no energy when you are depressed.  There are centers within that channel your energy flow.  When you close them, there is no energy.  When you open them, there is energy.  We all have our defense mechanisms.  It seems only natural when you have an upsetting or traumatic experience. that you shut down at the mere thought of experiencing such feelings ever again.  The problem is that shutting down, closing our hearts, is not doing us any good.  Contrary to our beliefs, it does not really protect us from anything.  He goes on to say, "It just cuts you off from your source of energy.  In the end, it only serves to lock you inside."

  

Keeping Your Heart Open: Yoga and Meditation

 

The good news is that we can learn to retrain the heart, if you will.  We can learn to keep our hearts open, that is if we choose to.  We all want to feel love, joy and enthusiasm.  We all want to be free.  What would it feel like if we could, regardless of any experiences that come up, stand in a place of total freedom, total inner freedom?  What would it feel like to allow our life experiences to pass through us without getting locked and blocked, losing our flow of energy?  How would it feel if the energy kept flowing and the rush of love, joy and zest for life filled us up and we had access to it anytime all the time?  My guess?  Pretty awesome.  Look out for my next few posts regarding this fabulously intelligent, heart warming book.  Maybe we can learn something together.

Two things we can practice to keep the heart center open:  Yoga and Meditation.  There are all kinds of heart opening poses.  Click on the video below and learn one of many...