Tis the Season ... FOLLOW YOUR HEART
In every way, wishing you the enduring glow of whatever this time of year means for you.
FIRST, a few lines about this time of year, the end of 2022.
THEN a glimpse into … FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Qualities of the Heart
Creating space
A series of steps
A practice for restoring your heart awareness
FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Here’s a few lines about this time of year. We are in the final few weeks of 2022.
Business cycles are closing for the year and readying to soon restart in 2023 (but not yet!).
In some ways, this may be a time to collapse from the grind over the past year. Or push a bit further through the demands of preparation to ‘enjoy' what "Tis the Season” means for you.
It can be an opportunity to reflect on what is important to you, spiritually, relationally, purposefully, …, realizing your progress, along with the intention and plans for moving forward over the next year.
Embracing “The Holidays” as a time for celebration through our religious or spiritual practices.
Navigating the relentless marketing about the glow of Christmas ornaments and gift giving, …, in search of re-discovering the child-like & innocent wonder about the magic of life that is symbolized by this time of year.
Here’s a glimpse into … FOLLOW YOUR HEART
The felt-sense of our heart is always resonating within us. The focus and pace of living in our culture, however, creates layers of fog that buffers our awareness of it, as well as ways for tendering its care.
Yet it's always within.
Qualities of the Heart
An awareness that is alert and observant.
Stillness with a subtle resonance.
No thoughts or words - these are not the language of the heart.
Images and feelings flowing almost unnoticeably, along with intuition and day-dreams.
A subtle vibrancy you can sense emotionally and physically.
Creating Space.
Have you noticed when something has your full attention, with interest, everything inside you, and then around you too, has shifted gears for slowing - slow down?
The distractions are disappearing.
What you are experiencing seems more real, even vibrant.
Yet, when most of your time is likely moving at a non-stop pace, while juggling several balls in the air, then even considering slowing down can be beyond the scope of your radar.
Can you relate to this?
Slowing down can seem impossible unless, and until, something significant enough penetrates your attention about creating real-space for yourself.
How does this speak with you?
A Series of Steps.
Notice - This is your-time to create space for yourself.
What is, or will, motivate you to do this?
What doesn’t change or improve if you don’t?
Decide and commit to do it.
Actively use your inner-circle of trusted-supports.
Create a plan with structure for guiding and ensuring you will start and continue. Keep it simple.
Schedule and protect times when you will progressively step out of the noise into more calm and quiet. For illustration:
7 or 8am, sit mindfully for 5 or 10+ minutes.
Midday, be mindful for a moment before lunch. Then eat mindfully.
5 or 6pm, go for a 20+ minute walk whereby you are quiet and simply aware of your environment.
9pm, listen to calming music for 10 or 20+ minutes.
11p, or before bedtime, sit mindfully for 5 or 10+ minutes.
As often as you can, daily or weekly, do something you really enjoy.
This week, get a massage.
This week or month, visit nature.
Self-care practices that fortify your spiritual, mental, emotional and physical foundation.
Daily mindfulness guides the way.
What can you add to this process?
Which of these steps will you do and build upon?
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
A Practice For Restoring Your Heart Awareness.
Your heart awareness is always there inside you. Your focused attention might be elsewhere, but it always accessible to you.
When possible, be in a quiet place.
Creating a background of structure can be helpful, such as, listening to music, moving around ’slowly’, being in nature, stretching, and anything that helps you.
Begin with a few easy breaths, actually feeling it flow through your body. It can be helpful to count your breaths which guides your attention. For ex., 1 (in-breath and out-breath), 2, 3, 4.
Allow your attention and breathing to be spacious rather than focused.
As you experience an increasing calm, imagine easing into the awareness of your heart. Simply imagine it. Release expectations.
Be child-like, open, alert, curious.
Ease your awareness from the thinking space of your brain to the felt-sense of your heart.
Spent a few moments feeling your heart’s resonance. It is very subtle.
With practice, you can develop the ability to ease into the felt-sense of your heart. As you start, your attention will likely get distracted and bounce back to your thinking after a few seconds. So keep returning to the felt-sense of your heart again and again.
“Without the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance.” T.S Eliot
FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Initially this may seem more like a good idea rather than a practical reality that is calling you.
Simply focus on doing what you can along the continuum of easing more and more into your heart awareness. As you dance back and forth between your heart and thinking, you can progress one moment at a time.
As we get up in the morning, it’s often from one thing to the next. There’s no time for the uninterrupted space for re-learning to reside in your heart awareness. Yet, what a difference it makes when you do this on a regular basis.
Getting started, scheduling and disciplining yourself is important. This process becomes a vitalizing experience. You can be pulled forward in engaging it as an integral part of your day.
As you continue to apply these practices, the qualities and potential of your heart awareness reveals itself. You can feel flows of lightness and ease, along with sensing a subtle intuition about something. You will simply know it. The challenge can involve realizing when this is happening, and then not over-thinking into discounting it.
Your heart is the core of who you are. Developing a rapport with it follows the principals of any relationship. Acknowledge it. Love it. Communicate with it.
Asking questions helps focus your awareness and inspire response from it. By practicing this over time, you become more familiar with the language and experience of your heart.
Note 1: Sections from this article were referenced from my first book, Unwavering Heart: 5 Steps to Living with Fierce Authenticity, 2013 2017
Note 2: Photo above is from my retreat in Vale do Capão, Bahia, Brazil.
Two Questions
What about this article is touching your heart?
Over the next few weeks, and moving forward, how will you be ... re-discovering the child-like & innocent wonder about the magic of life that is symbolized by this time of year.
FOLLOW YOUR HEART
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Author via amazon.com
Unwavering Heart: 5 Keys to Living with Fierce Authenticity, 2014
Unwavering Heart: 5 Keys to Becoming your Destiny, 2017
otan@otanpatrickford.com 1.973.229.7174 https://www.otanpatrickford.com