A mindfulness practice: listen to your heart in a busy world
Read on to enjoy a guided audio to support your process of listening to your heart and intuition.
Have you ever heard the whispers of your intuition and slammed the door? Looking anywhere for an alternative and silencing that deep knowing. Of course we do this– intuition holds the truth– and sometimes the truth is painful.
The Heart Whispers
Your “heart brain” has 40,000 sensory neurons picking up on a wide range of cues both within the body, such as pain, blood pressure, hunger, or inflammation and outside the body such as light, touch, sound, scent, or taste. These sensory experiences are fertile with information about what to move towards and away from.
Sometimes what we hear from the heart is absolutely incredible: “Enjoy the journey,” “You are worthy,” “I am right where I’m supposed to be,” The heart can offer a deep sense of the abundance and beauty of life, evoking gratitude to be alive.
However, as we walk through the wilderness of life, we will also hear painful whispers such as, “I can't keep doing this job.“ “I’m lonely,” or “I think my daughter is struggling," or "I'm unhappy in my marriage." The list goes on.
If we are not ready to hear something, we might turn away, suppress, or ignore the whispers. We may feel scared of the consequences should we heed the heart’s whispers, it might require us to face conflict, make significant changes to our habits, seek therapy, or take a leap of faith. None of this is easy, and in our fast paced world who has time for that?
The Heart Knows
This is why awakening the heart can be a challenging practice – it guides us on a path that may at times feel inconvenient or at worst destructive – yet the heart is always operating with your thriving in mind. According to the latest research from the incredible HeartMath Institute, The heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. We must trust our heart-- a complex nervous system that should have an equal seat at the table.
My heart has been whispering to me lately,
“you are tired, something has to give.”
When enough is enough
I have always struggled with over “doing”, perfectionism, workaholism, whatever you want to call it. As a mindfulness teacher and therapist, this used to bring me shame and doubt. “How am I able to teach this stuff when I myself am caught in the hustle?” However a wise mentor once shared with me, “You teach what you need to know." I believe that wholeheartedly now, as Pema Chodron says beautifully, “Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.”
My workaholism is an armor that covers an aspect of myself that feels uncertain of my worth. Do I belong if I’m not achieving or producing? True rest can feel like a distant dream sometimes. Through my compassion practice I tenderly hold my fear of belonging, I listen to her woes and contact my heart’s medicine. I am peeling away my armor (workaholism), tending to the wound (unworthiness), and one step at a time living into embodied worthiness. Sometimes I am sitting in the seat of grounded stillness and others I am filling my time and unconsciously avoiding rest.
Compassion has room for it all.
Like the phases of the moon, there are moments we feel whole and bright and other moments darkness creeps in, armored protectors rearing their heads.
Don’t judge the protectors, it amplifies the pain.
Instead I pour loving breath in the cracks and crevices of my heart, bringing tenderness to what lies underneath the armor. My workaholism needs to know I am safe and she can lay down her arms.
How do I do this?
A Meditation to reconnect with the heart’s voice
I lean on my mindfulness practice ANT: Acknowledge, Name, Turn to Love. Which helps me build a window of receptivity for the experience of being human – and the resilience to listen to intuitive wisdom.
I'm sharing my practice and a guided audio to support your process of listening to your heart and intuition. Learn how to live from this place no matter what it whispers.
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