“When you are aware that you are the force that is Life, anything is possible. Miracles happen all the time, because those miracles are performed by the heart. The heart is in direct communion with the human soul, and when the heart speaks, even with the resistance of the head, something inside you changes; your heart opens another heart, and true love is possible.”
– Don Miguel Ruiz
Now there is new meaning and relevanct to “FOLLOW YOUR HEART” – it may be the best advice. In my coaching practice, I teach my clients how to use their heart as a compass to guide their life. Read on to understand the science and glean a few tips on getting started in letting your heart be your “brain”.
Recently, scientists have found that the heart has its own independent nervous system – a complex system referred to as “the brain in the heart.” There are at least forty thousand neurons (nerve cells) in the heart – as many as are found in various subcortical centers of the brain.
The heart communicates with the brain and the rest of the body in three ways documented by solid scientific evidence: neurologically (through transmissions of nerve impulses), biochemically (through hormones and neurotransmitters), and biophysically (through pressure waves). In addition, growing scientific evidence suggests that the heart may communicate with the brain and body in a fourth way – energetically (through electromagnetic field interactions). Through these biological communication systems, the heart has a significant influence on the function of our brains and all our Systems.
This new scientific evidence shows that the heart uses these methods to send our brain extensive emotional and intuitive signals. Along with this understanding that the heart is in constant communication with the brain, scientists are discovering that our hearts may actually be the “intelligent force” behind the intuitive thoughts and feelings we all experience.
Thanks to the discovery of heart intelligence, with its premise of the heart as a primary source of emotions, we have a new paradigm for understanding our emotions. With the strong scientific tie established between our wellness factor through emotional management. The more we learn to listen to and follow our heart intelligence, the more educated, balanced, and coherent our emotions become. And it naturally follows that the more balanced and coherent our emotions become, the less likely we will be to experience sickness and disease.
Because of the ever growing scientific research on heart intelligence, it may be time we developed a new personal attitude about following our hearts.”
Tips for learning to recognize our heart’s intelligence:
1. Think positive thoughts throughout the day to increase your personal energy.
Our internal power, or the amount of physical, mental, and emotional energy we have, is a determining factor in the quality of our lives. Internal power translates into vitality and resiliency. Positive thoughts and feelings add energy to our system. Negative thoughts and feelings deplete our personal energy.
2. Encourage your deepest heart feelings.
There are many positive heart feelings including love, compassion, nonjudgment, courage, patience, sincerity, forgiveness, appreciation, gratitude, and care. Experiencing these feelings increases synchronization and coherence in our heart’s rhythmic patterns. Each of these heart feelings has a powerful, beneficial effect on how we relate to life.
3. Reduce your stress.
The less stress we feel, the less internal confusion we will experience, and the easier it will be to hear our heart’s intelligence. When we are relaxed, we don’t need to strain our body to stay focused and productive.
4. Focus on recognizing your heart’s intelligence and realize the importance of listening to it before making choices.
The brain operates in a linear, logical manner that works great for many problems but can limit us in others. Often we need more than logic to solve a problem, especially if it is an emotional one.
Heart intelligence provides us with an intuitive awareness that is expanded beyond linear, logical thinking. As a result, our perspective usually becomes more flexible, creative, and comprehensive.
5. Use meditation or calm, quiet moments to reflect on your heart’s intelligence and listen for intuitive thoughts.
Make time each day to sit quietly and focus on your heart. Imagine you are breathing through your heart. Calm your mind. Try to not think of anything but breathing through your heart. When your mind is clear, you will begin to receive impressions and ideas. These are coming from your heart. Pay attention.
I’m a Spiritualist… what are you? (You could be a caregiver, creator, educator, helper, hunter, thinker…) According to Ainslie Macleod, each of us has a soul type that describes the core of who we are. By unlocking the secrets of your purpose you can help illuminate the path of your life. Read more about the soul types and find out your SOUL TYPE now with this QUIZ…
You can learn more about your soul type and how it influences your soul’s age, mission, talents, and challenges in Ainslie MacLeod’s book, The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended. Get your copy of The Instruction now!
More about Spiritualists… What unites Spiritualists is a deeply held belief in a world beyond this one. You will have a desire to express your spirituality in some way, and may be drawn to religion or other spiritual practices. Many Spiritualists are highly intuitive, which is why you may have had psychic experiences in the past and why you will tend to use your sixth sense when it comes to decisionmaking.
You have a great deal of compassion, and may feel a strong need to create a better world, or to help people make the best of their lives. Charities and nonprofits are places where you and other Spiritualists can express your soul’s desire to help others. Whatever work you choose, you must feel you have a higher purpose. It is not enough for a Spiritualist type to simply pick up a check at the end of the week. There has to be a feeling that someone has benefited from your efforts. That’s why many doctors and healers are Spiritualists.
Whether you know it or not, you frequently inspire others through your behavior. By expressing Spiritualist values such as compassion, fairness, honesty and altruism, you encourage others to live by these values—especially younger Spiritualists who will wish to emulate you.
Creating your ideal life begins by envisioning it first. Here is a fantastic exercise from my mentor, Martha Beck, to get you started.
Take out a sheet of paper and write at the top: “MY IDEAL DAY. Today is (write in the date one year from today).”
Begin writing your ideal day one year from now in the present tense. This is a normal day in your life. Begin by waking up in the morning until you go to sleep at night. Be specific as to what you are doing, what you see, smell, and hear, who you are with, what you are wearing, what your body looks and feels like, how you spend your time, and the emotions you are feeling. Consider all the aspects of your life: physical environment, career, finances, health, relationships, and hobbies. This is your fantasy, it doesn’t have to be realistic and you do not have to know how to make it happen. But it should be a day in the life that you want to live. Write as if anything is possible. Don’t limit yourself by what you think is realistic or what others would approve of.
Read your Ideal Day description every morning and focus on doing small tasks that work you to the end in mind.
Create a vision board of images that reflect that day and post in a place where you can see if often throughout the day. This can be done easily by pasting your favorite photos or images cut from magazines on a posterboard.
I have always kept images and pictures of my desires where I can see them daily. And magically, those things almost always come into my life!
If you are more technically inclined, there is visionboard site that will guide you in the process of creating an online visionboard. You can customize your board by choosing from thousands of images, music and affirmations or upload your own. Check it out! I made one and it’s so energizing to see my goals come to life in moving images.
Recently, I had coffee with a 50-something friend of mine — she shared how lately she had been feeling anxious, drinking more, and had the urge to run away. She was really stumped as to why that would be. She said her life was great, comfortable and no big stresses. Ah…. but she was overlooking a BIG change coming her way.
Her daughter is about to leave the nest and go off to college. Now my friend will not have the role of “mother” to consume her… Her time will be freed up to think about herself, a career and more time with her husband. She felt like she might be in midlife crisis — but she has a choice — she can choose midlife transformation instead. This is her chance to stop playing roles that consume her and become more authentic.
In our modern-quick-fix-instant gratification society, we have very little tolerance or context for dealing with pain and change. This leads to the overuse of anti-depressants, alcohol, shopping and any other addiction to avoid feeling uncomfortable. But PAIN is a good thing. It is an indicator that you need to press the reset button on your life. But so many people opt to just avoid and check out. Checking out means you don’t learn the necessary lesson required for evolution. Skipping the lesson destines you to relive it until you learn.
Here are some steps to help avoid CRISIS.
Live consciously – slow down and process your feelings instead of avoiding them. Notice when you are over eating, drinking or doing more of something than is not healthy.
Let go of the baggage. You can’t change the past. Thoughts of what should of, could of and would of don’t serve you — they just stress you. The weight of the baggage is unresolved stuff. Who would you be without your “story”? Byron Katie has a great turnaround process for limiting beliefs.
Move past fear and stop worrying about the future. A presence of fear is a sure sign you are trusting in your own strength. Remove the fear by connecting with your spirituality and trust that this too shall pass. In each thought, you are either “Host to God” or “Hostage to the Ego”. Which do you choose?
Choose love. Only love is real. Feeling and having loving thoughts means you are connected to something other than yourself. It is never too late to choose love and begin creating miracles in your life.
Meditate or pray daily. This is how you create miracles. Focus on the solution, not the problem. Your thoughts create your reality.
My friend has a choice: she can accept the normal cycle of life changes that she is facing, feel some necessary pain, and undergo a beautiful transformation into the next phase of her life. Or not. But the path of denial is much more painful in the long run. It is her choice.
Who hasn’t at one time or another wondered what their purpose was or if they even had one?! One of my absolute favorite books that helps answer these questions is part of OPRAH’s Book Club.
Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now are teaching a FREE course by webcast at her website Oprah.com. The classes are based on Eckhart Tolle’s newest book,A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
Register for the webinar course here. The classes will be every Monday night for 10 weeks beginning Monday, March 3 at 9:00 pm Eastern time. Block out this time on your calendar!
Get your copy of the book for $8.40 at Amazon. Click on the book link in this post. And get started reading! I will be joining you in this class. If you can commit to this 10 week course, I guarantee you will see a change in your life. What an amazing opportunity!
Tonight, as I tucked my daughters into bed, my 9 year old announced she would be waking me tomorrow with birthday kisses (one for each year of my life) and my 7 year old whispered in my ear (with her mischievous smile) that I would receive an equal number of birthday spankings from her! (Oh… I guess I have to take the good with the bad!)
Birthdays … they are such a great time to review the past year (over a huge slice of chocolate cake of course). Each year for me has been better than the last (at least in my memory, although it could just seem that way due to senility).
I like getting older because, as the years progress, I move more into alignment with my values. Each year, as I live my life with more authenticity, purpose, and passion, my life gets easier and happier. Happiness is elusive for so many people because they think it is just around the corner once they do, buy or have one more thing. (read my happiness blog posts, or if you are not sure of your purpose…read Steve Pavlina’s article or check out the first 7 chapters of the Purpose Driven Life book)
When in fact, happiness is within us already. It is about choosing to be happy with where you are at while still moving towards more of what you want or who you want to be. Learning to enjoy the present moment is the key to instant happiness. (read the precious present story)
I take this time of year to reevaluate my values (read my values blog posts). I check to see that I always have my values in mind as I make decisions. This is important because I have noticed that my constant thoughts become my words, and my words become my actions, and my actions turn into my habits, and my habits ultimately determine my future.
Have you ever heard the saying, “Be careful what you wish for?”. It is so true– your wishes, or heart’s desires become your everyday thoughts… and that is what will determine your future for better or worse.
As I head off to bed, I am really “wishing” that a cup of coffee comes with those early morning birthday kisses and spankings.
This weekend I went to Denver to help Fatty, my best friend from college, with her toy company. And while I was there, far from where I had grown up, I had a “chance” meeting with a special childhood friend — someone I hadn’t seen since I was 12! Immediately I was brought back to my “good old days” when life was simpler and easier. As a child, I didn’t need much to be happy. Life was carefree and it was easy to lose track of time.
Children, because they have more innocence and less responsibility, find it easier than adults to live in the present moment. Adults tend to focus on past regrets and worry about future outcomes. When people lose touch with the present moment it causes them to think they “need” something or someone to make them happy.
When you encounter something or someone that makes your heart skip a beat and you think about having “it” in your life, how do you know if it is a true need?
Because if you really think about it, there is very little in life that is an actual need. Once basic human needs are met (food, shelter, clothing, safety, love and esteem), everything after that could be considered icing on the cake. Psychologist Abraham Maslow created a Hierarchy of Needs in which he describes these basic needs as “deficiency needs”.
People often think more money and more stuff will make them happier. They work their way up the ladder gathering awards, promotions and luxury items only to find themselves still not happy. In fact, a recent Princeton study debunks the more money equals more happiness myth.
So, if money and stuff don’t buy happiness, and people don’t need more than the basics to be happy then what do they really need? I believe all they need is the “precious present“. (If you nave never read this story by Spencer Johnson, it is well worth the time!)
The “precious present” is about being present to the joy of each moment. It is the best gift I think I have ever experienced. When I am fully immersed in the “now”, I am able to live my life purpose and have experiences that transcend ego.
Most of my clients are in search of their purpose. First off, I don’t know their purpose, they do, deep in their hearts. But I do know ways to guide them to find it. One thing I do believe is that everyone’s purpose contains these elements…
To make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us,
To live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves,
To act in such a way that some part of us lives on.
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“When you are aware that you are the force that is Life, anything is possible. Miracles happen all the time, because those miracles are performed by the heart. The heart is in direct communion with the human soul, and when the heart speaks, even with the resistance of the head, something inside you changes; your heart opens another heart, and true love is possible.”
