Opening Our Hearts

IT'S EASY!

The great news is that no special talent is needed to open your heart. Everyone has a heart, and it is your birthright to open your heart and enjoy. Some will be able to feel their hearts right away, while for others it can take a little longer. If you are having difficulty with feeling your heart, it is because you are not relaxed enough. Instead of trying to open your heart, relax more deeply and allow your heart to open. Let the process be easy and natural by following the gentle feelings of your heart. Feeling your heart is very different from observing your heart. If you are observing the experience, you are not properly in your heart. Initially, some people may not be aware of the feeling in their heart because they are only used to “feelings” that come from their physical senses, such as being pinched or tickled, hot or cold, sweet or salty. The feeling from the heart is most similar to what you feel when you are happy and joyful. These gentle feelings are quite different than emotional expressions, such as sadness, anger, frustration and hatred.

RECOGNIZING THE DIFFERENCE

Take one minute and think about a problem you are having at work, home or elsewhere. Now realize which part of you was active and what happened. Can you notice that your brain or head was dominant? You may have experienced a pressure or heaviness in your head area as you thought about the problem. This is normal and it is how many people experience most of their lives. Heart

HEART

Remember a happy or joyful moment you have experienced. Re-experience the feeling of joy again. Don’t visualize or try to capture the details.... just relax and re-experience the feeling again, as if you were in that moment. Now, realize which part of you became activated and what had happened. Many of you will have experienced a nice feeling in the center of your chest. That is the very beginning stage of feeling your heart. The above exercise can help you distinguish the difference when you are in your head and when you are in your heart. It is important for us to know the difference. If we are not able to clearly distinguish head from heart, then we will be very limited in our capacity to live a heart-centered life.

HEART EXERCISE

Strengthening and Feeling Your Heart

(With permission from the Padmacahaya Foundation)

The goals of this simple exercise are to help you to:

1. Improve attention to your heart

2. Decrease the domination of your brain

3. Strengthen your heart and feeling.

The exercise below may seem simplistic, yet it can be profound. The nice feeling that you will be feeling, is the feeling of your heart. The reason that this is profound is because that nice feeling is a direct link to the True Source, the Source of Light and Love. At the beginning level, the nice feeling will be experienced possibly as a sensation of warmth, openness, expansiveness, light, peace, calmness, gentleness, or joy.

When you feel the nice feeling and allow yourself to let go and follow the nice feeling, then it is the feeling itself which will bring you into your heart. At this stage you will be in the outer layer of your heart. The key to know that you are really there, is that you will be enjoying the nice feeling. If you are not enjoying the nice feeling, then you are not yet in your heart. Simply relax, and stop trying to feel something, because the process of trying or looking for the nice feeling will block your experience. Any effort or attempt to try is a process of the brain that will keep you in your head instead of in the enjoyment of your heart. Some of you will enjoy the nice feeling in your heart the first time you do this exercise. Others will feel something as soon as they let go and stop trying. So, just relax, smile and feel the nice feeling that is already there. Do not do the process below as an exercise. Do it as an enjoyment, like eating a juicy watermelon or having fun playing with a puppy. If you approach this with seriousness, or as a disciplined meditation technique, you will not be successful in experiencing the joy in your heart.

Touch your heart (non-physical heart) in the center of your chest at the level of your armpits. Close your eyes. Relax your whole body. Smile to let your heart and feeling grow stronger. Then, smile to your heart without thinking where or how, to let your heart and feeling grow even stronger. Just keep your eyes closed, be relaxed, and smile to your heart…….{1 minute} If you feel peace, calmness, lightness, expansion or anything pleasant, just follow the feeling. If you do not feel anything, do not try to feel. Just be more relaxed and smile more freely to your heart. Keep being relaxed and smile freely to your heart…Enjoy {2 minutes or longer} Feel the nice feeling radiating to your friends, personal family, and global family for as long as you like. Stay in the nice feeling when you open your eyes. Keep smiling and enjoying.

Key Points

Relaxing, smiling and enjoying make the feeling of happiness/joy/beauty grow stronger and clearer When we try to monitor/strengthen our feeling, the feeling becomes weaker because this involves effort from the brain which makes the brain more dominant. As your heart grow stronger, it will be harder for your brain to block your heart. Relaxing, smiling and enjoying will make your heart and feeling stronger. Cleansing our heart is a very important part of the process to open our heart bigger. This can be achieved through the open heart meditation/prayer.

Heart and Children

It is very easy and natural for children to open their hearts. You can guide children in the Heart Strengthening and Feeling exercise. Children also enjoy doing Open Heart Meditation/Prayer. Supporting children to be in their heart can help them tremendously. It can expand their creative abilities, help them to manage their emotions, improve behavior, enhance interpersonal relationships and help them to realize that true happiness comes from within. If children do not learn to experience the joy of their heart, they are at greater risk of looking outside of themselves for happiness. This can lead to chasing desires or engaging in unproductive behaviors, in the hope of finding contentment. While practicing to be in your heart, you can put on music and come up with creative ways to have fun with your children. After your children are able to experience the nice feeling in their hearts, it is wonderful to give them the opportunity to guide you to be in your heart. Children love to see you smile and be happy. The more you smile and let your heart be happy, the more your children will enjoy. How wonderful it is when we are role models for our children, showing them that our hearts are the key to happiness, love and joy. What a gift to share your hearts with each other in a deep and meaningful way. How blessed are our children to realize and feel the experience of sharing love.