Sunday, September 26, 2010

Connect with Your Heart


Crescent Earth                                                                                     NASA


If you spend a lot of time in your mind, I am asking that for this sixth step to inner peace that you drop down into your heart. Just as a change in perspective reveals a beautiful crescent earth, new possibilities will be revealed to you.

When we connect with our hearts, we are connecting with our feelings, our infinite capacity for compassion and to our true essence, which has been and always will be love. When our hearts are wide open (their natural state) we are in a place of oneness with the earth, all life, our deepest selves and our divine source. We are home. 

All of us are on the path to a soft and open heart, but if you are like most, you have erected walls, even fortresses around yours. I think it is important to first simply acknowledge if this is true for you. Can you see your defenses without judging them, without making yourself wrong? You must have had a good reason to build those walls of protection!


But now those walls are blocking out the light and diminishing your ability to love and to be loved. They are causing more trouble than they are worth! The good news is there is a better way.

In Sanskrit the name for heart is anahata which means unstruck or unhurt. What this is saying is that underneath all the drama and the stories of victimhood you tell yourself, there is a part of you that can never be harmed- your eternal, vast and beautiful self! You are already safe.

You can access that sacred self by choosing moment to moment  to live from your love-filled soul, rather than your fear-driven ego. The best (and only) place to start is with your relationship with yourself. That's why the shadow work in step five is so important. When you look at yourself with more compassionate eyes you see the world in a more loving way. When you declare an inner truce you project a more harmonious vibration into our world. When you are able to see without the distorting lens of fear, the other becomes your brother-your sister, the earth becomes your sacred home and you are one with All That Is.

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the sweetness of your true heart. Ah, forgiveness! Nothing keeps us stuck in our hard and closed hearts more than holding a grudge. Yet, I know how hard it is to let it go! Forgiving can't be forced, but is always an option available to you. I think it helps to begin by reframing forgiveness- it is not about condoning hurtful behavior- it is about setting yourself free! You do this by recognizing your humanness and forgiving yourself for sometimes "missing the mark", which was the original meaning of the word "sin". Then you can extend forgiveness to others, knowing that they too have been wounded and were only doing the best they could, even if it fell very short of your expectations.

"The Spiral Goddess Says Embrace Yourself!"  B Upton
In any moment you can justify your anger, resentment and fear, or choose to walk through them. The nature of emotions is to flow. You feel them, to release them. The pain is in the resistance. 

Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself. It can release you from the past and allow you to step into the magnificence of your true self; vibrant, healthy, joyful, loving and free! Just saying that your intention is to begin the work of forgiveness, will set up powerful forces for change that will bring you more naturally into your heart- into your true essence. 

In the dream below I heard that the message for humanity at this time was to "seek your heart". I send you blessings and strength on your quest to live from that divine place within you.
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"  Close your eyes and put both hands over your heart. Picture a stream of brilliant white light entering your heart. Focus on the vision of light and say out loud: "  I am willing to let the love in." Feel the energy flowing into your heart." - Louise L. Hay


4 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the painting - so feminine, so iconic!

Barbara Upton said...

Thanks M! Just realized all my little goddesses are hugging themselves- a good thing.

Paul Lichtenberg said...

Beautiful post, Barbara. Thank you. Psychologically, the heart is our emotional center. It pulses with the e-motioning of feeling. The heart not only keeps us alive by producing oxygen; it is the source of psychic oxygen, as well. And within the very core of the heart, is relationship. Without maternal nurturance, the child cannot thrive. Without relationship, we are left with a mere shell of ourselves. And so, for me, connecting with our hearts is not only fully feeling; it is also becoming passionately aware of the connecting aspect of “connecting with your heart.” It is understanding that suffering was spawned in relationship and thus relationship is vital to healing. Relationship re-vital-izes the broken heart. When we forgive, for example, we are for-giving an other, even if we are forgiving ourselves. It is in the giving—in this case, giving up control—that anger and fear transform into the giving of compassion and love.

Barbara Upton said...

Right on Paul. Like the idea of the heart as the source of psychic oxygen. And forgiving- never thought of it as for-giving. It it the best gift we can give ourselves!