More on the Heart-Mind Connection

The thought manifests as the word.  The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit and habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care, and let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings. - Buddha

The mind thinks; the heart speaks.  The mind formulates what is said by the heart and you can usually tell which brain you are operating from by how you feel.  If you don’t feel good, you are locked into the head.  Feel good, you are aligned with the heart.  It is really very simple.

Yet in our latte-on-the-run society, we are continually disconnected from our emotions. We have become hard core junkies for speed and our thinking is focused on that which is outside of ourselves.  We check in with our cell phones on continual basis and very rarely do we check in with ourselves. 

All emotions are basically a thought attached to a feeling.  Both are energy.  The only impediment to feeling a feeling is thinking. Once we start describing a feeling we are no longer feeling it.  So in order for you to become more aware of how you are feeling, you need to expand your awareness of the thoughts you are thinking.

Negative thinking is always an indicator of resistance.  It is always of the mind.  This resistance will usually manifest in the body as tightness, aches, pains and disease.  Where it is manifesting in the body is an indicator of your thinking.  For example, if you are experiencing neck pain...you might want to ask yourself who is being a pain in the neck?  Got shoulder pain...what burdens are you taking on that you don’t want?  Skin problems...who’s getting under your skin?

If you take the time to listen to your thinking, you will discover most of it has some root in fear.  You will also discover that the mind has a tendency to react to situations.  It is interesting that when you break down the word react, you end up with re-act which is what the mind does.  It operates from past judgments and information.  In the world of the mind, everything is just a reinterpretation of events.

When you move to living from the heart, you stop evaluating people and situations based on past experiences.  You start responding to events and people based on the moment.  This does not mean that you never get angry or upset.  What it means is when you do get angry, you allow the anger and then you move on.  You do not harbour the emotion.  You do not become attached to the emotion.  You have the option at any moment to change the emotion.  Change the emotion, you change the perception and you change the situation.  All power rests within you.

Here are a few ways to connect with your heart.

 

1.  Smile with your heart or eyes.  It is said when we fall in love our eyes open wider and become softer.  So practice smiling with your eyes.  Pretend there is a happy face on your heart centre. Let your heart centre smile. Try it. You might be very surprised as to what happens.

 

2.  Lead with your heart.  Ask yourself often:  ‘What emotion do I want to feel?’  Perhaps you want to feel confident.  Ask yourself:  what does confidence feel like? What does my body feel like when I am confident?  How do I breathe when I am feeling confident?  Practice occupying that emotion.

 

3.   Suspend Judgment.  Stop evaluating life.  When you are evaluating and judging everything and everyone you are operating from the mind and you relinquish your capacity to respond.  Every situation is new and you have the option to see it that way.  Start exercising your emotional options.

 

Here is a catchy little tune by Goldfrapp...

 

 

 

 

 

Energy in Motion

Lake Superior and Good Feeling Emotions

The third major component in the creation of your reality deals with your emotions.  Our e-motions are actually energy in motion and they are vibrations.  The emotions we are feeling send out signals  that attract to us the situations we encounter in our daily lives. 

There are really only two emotions:  love and fear.  Each is at the opposite end of the vibrational spectrum and between them is a variety of related emotions.  In the range of love, we have the feelings of joy, bliss, happiness, worthiness, security, etc.  At the spectrum closer to fear we have emotions such as: anger, greed, disappointment, hatred, jealousy, anxiety, frustration, etc.

There are no are no wrong emotions.  All emotions are valid and provide you information about where you are focusing your energy.  Like a gas gage on your car, your emotions are indicators telling you where you are on the vibrational spectrum. 

Many of us never make the connection of how our emotions are actually fueling our thoughts and words.  Instead we allow our feelings to run amuck and we end up stuck in both emotions and thinking that are not working in our highest interest. 

With regards to our emotional growth, here is an interesting point to ponder.  At an emotional level, the majority of adults have not grown up beyond the age of thirteen.  Meaning most people are still using the emotional behaviours they learned as a child to cope with adult situations. So next time you are faced with an individual exhibiting bullying tactics in your life, you might want to see them as a frighten child in adult body. 

When we do not acknowledge the emotions we are feeling, they don’t go away.  Instead these repressed feelings surface in other ways in our life.  We end up sick.  We put on weight to protect ourselves from our outside world.  We move through the day with aches and pains or we become lethargic.  In some instances, we continually bump into furniture and hurt ourselves. 

In order to work with and understand your emotions you need to become aware of them.  What does the word love feel like to you?  What about the words:  easy, secure, fun, happy, confident?  What happens to your body when you allow yourself to step into these emotions? 

The more you become aware of how you are feeling throughout the day, the easier it is to shift your emotions.  Shift your emotions, you change your thoughts and you change your point of attraction.  When your point of attraction shifts, you may find that the people and circumstances that brought you grief no longer show up in your life or you handle them differently. 

One further point I want to make regarding the shifting of emotions is this:  confronting the person you are angry with when you are in an angry mood will not always improve the situation.  Sometimes it is better to do the inner work and wait until you are in a better frame of mind.  Anger begets anger and we end up saying things we later regret.  Sometimes it is better to move the emotion first.  So how do you move those emotions that are not serving you?  Here are a few tips:

Ø  Do some physical exercises...go to the gym...do some yoga...go for a walk...

Ø  Chop vegetables.

Ø  Stop ranting to everyone about the situation or person.  The more you talk about it the more it gains momentum.

Ø  Cry.  Sometimes crying offers us a release.

Ø  Look for a better feeling thought.  For example, if you are feeling frustration you could tell yourself: I am doing alright.  This too shall pass.  Everything always works out for me. 

Ø  Breathe.  All your emotions are connected to your breathing patterns. Practice taking long slow deep breaths and remember to exhale. 

Next post I will discuss more about our emotions.   For now here is a video of Daniel Goleman explaining his theories of emotional intelligence.