06/22/2024
There is a certain way you can look at life that facilitates rapid growth, healing, and self love. There is a particular way to perceive the world and your own experience; through discerning what actions are for your own good and what actions will take away from your overall happiness and wholeness, and through listening to the desires, emotions, and movements of your heart, you gain an intuitive knowing of what the most aligned and integrous path is.
Through listening to your heart, you become more and more in touch with yourself, wholesome, grounded, and joyful about life. The things in your life that are not serving you slowly start to fall out, the habits, patterns, and conditioning that cause you insecurity and pain slowly start to unwind, and every part of your life starts to feel aligned and congruent with who you truly are. The masks and acts you subconsciously put up start to fall away, and you start to learn to accept and love yourself and life more fully, all the ups and downs, all the ranges of emotions and events that come with the vastness of the human experience. Life starts to become more and more fun, and you start to be immersed in more and more opportunity. The things that you want in life start to come to you, and things start making a lot of sense.
The way you listen to your heart is through inquiring within and seeing what the most aligned, wholesome desire you have. When you feel into it, what makes you feel the most love? What have you wanted to do for a long time, but have been too scared to take the leap of faith and go for? What could you do that would make you feel good about yourself simply through the action, without needing any reward? And similarly, what are you currently doing right now in your life for the reward and not for the love of doing it? Are you going to work out of love, or simply for a paycheck? Are you trying to win games out of the love of competition and play, or are you trying to prove to yourself that you are better than others because this is a vital part of your self-esteem?
In the pursuit of following and listening to your heart, there are quite a few pitfalls. There are momentary rewards that may feel good in the moment, but guide us further and further away from our hearts. The heartspace is naturally vulnerable, open, kind, humble, willing, grateful, gentle, generous, soft, and incredibly expansive. In the moments our ego kicks in, we are tempted to be guided away from this space. Bragging to others, controlling or dominating others to feel powerful, seeking approval and validation from others, cowardice and laziness, self-righteousness, these are all emotions and desires that can take us away from listening to our hearts. From the space of our heart, we don't need to engage in any of these patterns to feel whole. The heart is confident, and full of love and delight from it's own source. And through giving, serving, and loving others, we radiate more and more, and the feeling of love becomes more overwhelming. The heart is already full, it doesn't need anything more. From this space, when we give something to someone, it is pure.
On the other hand, many times our actions or intentions do not align with this wavelength. This is completely normal and human, and everyone struggles with this. For instance, when you give someone a gift so that subconsciously the recipient will do you a favor in the future, or giving a gift so that it will win you their favor, or giving a gift to show off how good of a gift-picker you are/ how much money you have, these are all intentions that seek to take something. A pure heart would give a gift and be filled and fulfilled soley from being able to give something away and light someone up, and would want nothing in return.
This is where your awareness kicks in. You can start to notice when these patterns come up within you. Throughout the day, there are countless times where we want to act from a place that is not from the heart. Sometimes it will be confusing and you won't know where your desires are coming from, but the process of inquiry and searching will eventually guide you to clarity through experience. Sometimes we think we are in the right, and we end up doing something that will hurt someone or ourselves. The feedback is usually quite instant, and it stings. This is how we learn to differentiate what comes from the purity of love and what comes from places that cause us more insecurity.
The drama and suffering of life is what opens us up. The only way "out" of the emotional pain you are currently in is through it. This pain is here for us, to help us listen more closely to our hearts, and to guide us towards growth and truth. The shock is what wakes us up and opens our eyes. The pain will be there until you decide to face it. And until that day, it will grow more and more until you are finally ready to go through it. And all that pain that grew over the years will give you the willpower, courage, and energy you need to break through your walls and fears. All that suffering and unbearability will give you the power to make the decision to go through the discomfort, and to never look back. This is one of the reasons why we need suffering in our lives, it is one of the most prominent forces for change and growth.
Simply through having the will and intent and desire to follow your heart, you will learn. Along the way, there WILL be many mistakes you make, just like how a baby falls quite often when they learn to walk. But every time they fall, they intuitively learn where NOT to step, and how to balance better and better so that they can eventually walk effortlessly. Simply through being devoted to your own heart, you will start to see the pitfalls that prevent you from happiness and growth, what to avoid and what takes us away from love, and what to pursue even if it may be uncomfortable and difficult in the moment. The moments of most adversity are the ones that push us to shine the brightest.
Through the lens of your heart, you can start looking at life. You start to see where people are not honoring themselves, for one reason or another. Sometimes it's too difficult to face the truth. Other times the lie they are living in is too comfortable to let go of. And you start to see these things within yourself, and slowly but surely your life starts to unravel and unwind until you are finally back to yourself. And from this space, you don't need anything else. Wholeness, peace, generosity, and kindness permeate your life, and the things you need naturally come to you. You are still faced with challenges and moments of inner conflict: the journey never ends. But as you walk down the path, more and more things fall into alignment, there becomes more sturdiness, joy, complexity and depth to your character, and life becomes fuller and more meaningful. Opportunities are handed to you because people can feel your capability and genuineness, and the desire to fall deeper in love just grows and grows.
