Episode 124 - Listen to Your Heart

Your heart feels all the feelings of life. It informs you. It expresses its hopes, desires and fears. It can be sweet and it can be volatile. It reaches out and connects to other hearts. It is your partner in pursuing your dream. It is always there for you. It is the seat of Divine Love and Wisdom. Frequently though, many of us override its message and instead follow our heads. This keeps us from pursuing our dreams. In this episode, we continue our dive into The Alchemist and share our experiences of sincerely listening to and engaging with our hearts. When we learn to do this, there our ‘treasure’ will be.

NOTES:

From The Alchemist:

“Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked, when they had made camp that day.

“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

“But my heart is agitated,” the boy said. “It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it’s become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I’m thinking about her.”

“Well, that’s good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say.”

“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.”

“That makes sense. Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”

“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”

“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. ”

“You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?”

“Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

Heart versus head

The Heart's Code by Paul Pearsall

"The heart is constantly sending out patterns of info-energy that regulate organs and cells throughout the body. Every cell in the body is literally bathed in the info-energy conducted from and by the heart. The heart is central to our system's recollection of it's life; it's memory. All cells store info-energetic memories, and our heart, by nature of it's immense power, millions of cells throbbing in unison, and central location in our body, is the central organ that constantly pulsates info-energy, from, between and to all other organs and cells. Because of the heart's code and the cellular memories with which it deals, every cell in our body becomes a holographic or complete representation of our energetic heart."

Your heart feels all the feelings of life. It informs you. It expresses its hopes, desires and fears. It can be sweet and it can be volatile. It reaches out and connects to other hearts. It is your partner in pursuing your dream. It is always there for you. It is the seat of Divine Love and Wisdom.

Here is one process to try:

Come apart.

Quiet the mind.

Breathe.

Close your eyes.

Place your hand on your heart (or one hand on heart and the other on your belly) and feel it. 

What are you feeling now? (happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, contempt, disgust - or some interpretation of those)

How is your heart feeling? What does it want to tell you? To where is it directing you?

If you hear any kind of loud or critical voice, you are in your head! 

Dialogue and Inquiry

• How aware are you of your heart?

• Where is your attention most of the time?

• What is it telling you? Is its voice clear?

• Do you act on what it tells you? Why or why not?

• When you do, what happens? When you don't, what happens?

• How did this week's 'exercise' impact your life?

Closing Thought

I listen to my heart because it comes from the Soul of the world and will one day return there. It is with me always, informing me and reminding me of my life's dream. I follow its lead...to my greatest treasure, always.