If your heart had a voice, what would it say? Would it speak vibrantly, wildly and freely? Or would your heart’s voice be timid, weak and faint? The heart center, also known as the 4th chakra in Eastern philosophy, is a storehouse of intelligence and insight. If you haven’t yet developed a way to listen, live and speak from the power of your heart, it’s time.
The heart has long been dismissed as a “sentimental” or “emotional” center, empty of viable decision-making power or effective leadership, and definitely not to be relied on for practical living. This, however, is a modern myth that ancient cultures and mystics directly opposed in their traditional practices. Ancient cultures placed the heart at the very center of the most important choices needing to be made.
Current day research by the Institute of HeartMath (IHM), an internationally recognized nonprofit research and education organization, shows that the heart literally has a brain. IHM reports that there are at least “forty thousand neurons in the heart—as many as are found in various sub-cortical centers of the brain.” Our hearts literally have their own thinking capacity.
What does this mean to you and me? It means that learning to hear the voice of our hearts is a practical, powerful skill, and one which can lead to improved decision making, improved communication, increased energy levels and an overall healthier state of being. This will take some training and practice.
5 Principles to Discover the Voice of your Heart:
Principle One: Your heart is an intelligent guiding power.
The Heart’s Code, a book by PhD Paul Pearsall, shares the incredible story of an 8-year-old girl who had received a heart transplant from a 10-year-old girl who was murdered. After the surgery, the heart recipient had repeated nightmares. She would wake screaming, her dreams filled with images and information about the man who had murdered her donor. As the scenes repeated themselves nightly the information couldn’t be ignored. The details were taken to the police who then apprehended the perpetrator. Everything the heart transplant recipient reported was accurate. This true story exemplifies the heart’s profound understanding and knowing. The heart is highly intelligent. Acknowledge it.
Principle Two: Your heart has a distinct voice.
If you traveled to France, French lessons would be in order. To travel the world following your heart, you must learn to interpret the language of the heart. While the brain sees life as something to be conquered, controlled and managed, the heart sees the universe as supportive, flowing and synchronous. If something doesn’t work out the way the mind pictured it, resistance and frustration often ensue. The heart lives in flow and trust of something bigger at hand. If things don’t go the way the mind wants them to, which often they won’t, the heart embraces the situation as perfect for what it is. To hear the heart voice, you must discern between “mental chatter” and “heart whispers”. The heart speaks fluidly through intuitive feelings and gentle promptings. To hear the heart voice you need to still your mind. Meditation is key. If you feel fragmented, confused or scattered, you are likely in your mind, not in your heart.
Principle Three: Your heart values all life experiences through inclusivity.
Inclusivity is the ability to include all of your life experiences as valuable aspects of your growth, purpose and learning. While you wouldn’t want a rattlesnake in your bed, a rattlesnake plays an important role in the natural eco-system; it has value. While the mind will the judge the rattlesnake as bad and a thing to get rid of, the heart will put it in its proper place, out of the bed into the desert. So, too, does the heart approach life experiences; they all have their place and time. The mind judges; judgment leads to separation, and what you separate from you eventually attract. For example, if you dislike an attribute of a romantic partner and judge it as bad, unconsciously you are energizing it. Instead of judging, the heart utilizes inclusivity and discernment. If you were a victim of trauma as a child, the experience remains a valuable part of who you become in the world; there is wisdom and value in your willingness and ability to feel and heal the experience. The mind will judge your experience as bad and wish it had never happened, but this may be the very experience that leads you to become, for instance, a remarkable healer.
Principle Four: Your heart is a master problem solver.
Physiologically, the heart is the quickest and most important organ to activate our creativity and best thinking. By managing the rate at which the heart beats through breathing patterns, the heart literally induces the “relaxed” nervous system, which in turn reflexively causes the proper amount of blood flow to be shunted to the organs and brain for health, vitality and clarity. The mind rides on the coat tails of the breath. A steady breath equals a steady mind. Learn to breath evenly and deeply during your inhalations and exhalations. By implementing this simple practice, the heart acts as a master biological oscillator pulling the body into a state of coherence where optimum thinking occurs. In the same way that a symphony requires all instruments to play in tune and on time, the heart is the conductor orchestrating our emotions and mental states to operate in harmony.
Principle Five: The heart seeks collaboration.
The self-improvement industry is built upon individuals developing a strong sense of self and becoming the best “I” you can be. The heart movement is about accepting who you are and becoming the best “us” you can be. Where competition and greed are underlying currents in our modern day marketplace, collaboration and connection are the way the heart thrives. The heart doesn’t care about perfection or idolatry. It cares about embracing the duality of humanness and transforming separation into unity. The heart doesn’t need to stand out. It needs to stand in alignment.