Our heart is our center of feeling. By contrast, our head is the center of thinking and the center of ego. A happy fulfilled life is lived immersed in Love, Joy, and Gratitude. These are feelings, not thoughts, so this is why knowing your heart is crucial. By learning to follow our heart we learn to utilize our heart intelligence which guides us to make loving wise choices, thereby supporting us to be successful on all levels of life. The heart we are referring to here is not our physical heart. It is our non-physical heart that resides in the center of our chest, at the level of our armpits.

When we first learn to become centered in the heart, we usually need to help our heart become more active. So, it is very helpful to touch the heart at the exact point at the center of the chest at the level of the armpits using one or several fingers without applying pressure. Touching it will make your heart become more active. At the core of our heart is our True Self, the spark of Love and Light. It is our true identity and who we really are at the deepest level of being, beyond all boundaries of space and time. This spark is the purest aspect of our deepest self and is directly connected to the Ultimate Source of Love and Light, The True Source.

(Note: We prefer the term ‘True Source’ because it is a neutral term which does not have a charged history. Feel free to replace the term True Source, with whatever phrase for you represents the Ultimate Source of Love and Light).

Our heart, is therefore, the:

• Key to our connection to True Source
• Center of peace
• Center of calmness
• Center of true happiness/joy
• Center of love
• Key to our physical, mental and emotional health
• Key to our spiritual growth
• The center for heart intelligence

Why Heart?

• Our heart is special because it is at the core of our heart that we have the direct connection with the Ultimate Source.
• Our heart is, therefore, the door to our True Home, and our ultimate destination. This is why it is so important for our hearts to realize and remember that the True Source is the Source of Love and Light, and the Source of our existence.
• Our heart is the center for receiving the blessings of Love and Light from this Source.
• Our heart is the center of feeling the peace, calmness, love, gratitude and joy because the blessings of Love and Light are radiating every moment of every day.
• Our heart is calling us, and inviting us to relax, smile, and enjoy all of the gifts that Love and Light offers. Moreover, our heart wants to be free to be an instrument of this Love and Light.

Why Follow Our Heart?

When our hearts become dominant we begin to utilize our heart intelligence, which is the innate loving wisdom of our heart. This is our deepest level of intelligence that supersedes intellectual or emotional intelligence. Heart intelligence guides us to make choices which allow us to fulfill our deeper purpose and to learn life lessons that we may have been failing to integrate. While it takes our needs into consideration, it is not self-centered, for it accesses the bigger picture that is often beyond the perceptions of the brain and guides us to make loving wise choices. Heart intelligence helps us to have greater clarity about situations. It gives new insights, perspectives and attitudes about efficiently managing whatever challenges that come up in daily life.

While our heads/brains often just react to situations, our hearts respond in a way that can turn stressors or obstacles into learning opportunities. However, becoming heart centered does not mean that we stop using the brain. We still need to utilize the brain to help us function in the world - instead, it comes under the influence and guidance of the wisdom of our heart:

Heart Intelligence Governs Brain Processing

Typically, though, we allow the brain to dominate. This results in our actions, behavior and responses being influenced by our mind/brain and ego.

Brain Governs Actions and Responses

When this happens the heart closes, and life is experienced more superficially. When the brain is dominant, one of its tendencies is to judge people or size them up into categories that often fall into ‘good enough’ or ‘not good enough’, ‘like’ or ‘dislike’, ‘approve’ or ‘disapprove’, ‘worthy’ or ‘unworthy’, or other dualistic concepts. As a result, relationships lack substance, quality and authenticity. When our hearts are open, we are not bothered by idiosyncrasies or differences in people. Relationships bring great joy, we are more accepting of others short comings, we easily forgive, and sharing love becomes our treasure. Open hearts live authentically and genuinely with love, humbleness and gratitude. And the more that we are able to open our hearts, the more we are able to experience peace, joy and connection with The Source of All.

Why We have Not Done this Before?

Our education has focused on the “education of the brain”.

Head/brain Intelligence is what society typically calls "normal". It is the way our whole educational system and families have taught us to function. It is how we learned to think, reason, rationalize, categorize, judge and problem solve – all qualities valued, and therefore reinforced, in later working life. Yet, head/brain intelligence is frequently self-centered and motivated for personal gain, for the bottom line is invariably “What’s in it for me”. “Butting heads” is an expression that represents why there is so much friction and conflict in people’s lives and in the world. While heads have a tendency to collide, the nature of the heart is to share.

We have been distracted in following the impulse of the brain rather than the heart

We have come to believe being brain dominant to be a normal existence. As a result, we have not fully realized how this colors our perceptions, determines what we think is reality, or how this keeps us disconnected from true joy and our deepest purpose here on earth. For example, ‘Desire’ is often one of the ways that our heads/brains distract us from realizing that contentment and fulfillment can only be experienced in our heart, because our heart is the center of peace, love and joy. Following desires help us to remain in illusion because they keep us thinking that they will lead to fulfillment, when in reality, all they do is lead to more desires. Seeking desires is a means of attempting to fill the vacuum that is created by a life not lived in Heartfullness. But, chasing desires is similar to running on a treadmill. No matter how long you run, you don't get very far, and you end up where you started. By contrast, when you follow your heart, you are truly getting somewhere. You are tuned to the deeper pulse of life, and you are expanding into light and love.

The difference between emotions and feeling from the heart were never clarified before.

Many of us did not realize that there is a difference between emotions and the subtle feeling of our heart. The subtle feeling of our heart are the natural by-product of love, whereas emotions are created from our reactive responses to the environment.

We were not taught how to enjoy and be in our hearts.

We learned in almost every moment to be brain dominant, and very seldom did we truly get to experience our hearts. There was not a proper understanding or experience that our heart is the center of feeling and the key to happiness and joy. Many of us were actually taught not to feel, because all priority was given to the rational thinking mind.

Our hearts have not been sufficiently open due to accumulation of stuck energies polluting the layers of our hearts

Our hearts have become more closed because our hearts have been filled with negative emotions from past experiences, interactions, and misunderstandings. An important part of opening our hearts is the process of allowing the blessings from the True Source to help us forgive others and ourselves completely. Where we have held onto emotions of judgment, anger, fear, sadness, resentments, disappointments, arrogance, self-righteous positioning, or other emotional expressions, then the negative energies from these have muddied the field of our heart. As a result of these stuck energies, our hearts have not been able to open completely. But no one, except ourselves, can dirty the field of our heart and only the Love and Light of the True Source can properly cleanse and take us into the inner depths of our heart.

We have not yet learned to follow our heart from within our heart.

We have learned to achieve and accomplish through focus, effort and trying. These ways fail us when we try to get into our hearts, for we can only experience our heart by letting go of all concepts, thoughts, focus and effort. Instead we can relax and enjoy the gentle feeling of our heart.

What Our Heart is Not

Our heart is not a place where we get hurt; it is a place where we heal.

Our heart is not a place where we are taken advantage of; it is a center for making clear, insightful and wise choices.

Our heart is not a place where we can be manipulated; it is the center of clarity where we can experience truth.

Our heart is not a place of weakness, but the place of our greatest strength.

Our heart is not a place that can be contaminated by others, because we are the only ones that can pollute the field of our heart.

[See also VOCABULARY and TYPICAL CHALLENGES ]