WE ARE MEANT TO BE HAPPY

We are meant to be happy.

That has always been something we strive for in this life. In fact, if we look at the motivations behind our thoughts and actions—conscious and unconscious—they are all to get us closer to the feeling, or at least the idea, of happiness.

Some of us have long asked why we cannot hold on to happiness. For all of the scholarship and human insights across the centuries, nobody has found a complete and enduring answer. Perhaps because it has been too close to see…

The answer, the key, is our heart.

We have been told throughout our lives to “follow your heart.” This has been written in countless holy texts as well, across virtually all religions, since the very beginning. This is because our heart - even without us realizing it - feels the Love that comes from True Source, who loves us completely, and always wants the very best for us.

In opening and using our heart, we are blessed with lasting peace and happiness that we can feel—actually and really feel—in our daily lives. Our daily life is actually a manifestation of how strongly we are connected to our Creator, the True Source. Thus, an open heart is also the real key to our spiritual advancement in getting closer to True Source, the Source of Eternal Peace and True Joy.

Why is our heart the main connection to True Source? Why is our heart the center of beautiful feelings? Why is our heart, not our brain or other parts of us, the key?

Our heart is the key because our true self is within our heart. Our true self that is within our heart will continue to live on even after this lifetime has been completed. While our physical body is only a temporary “shell”—flesh and blood that will one day turn into dust—our relationship with True Source is eternal. We need True Source and True Source’s Love not only when we are alive on this earth, but forever and always.

As we are still in our physical body, our heart (not the physical heart but the spiritual heart – the center of our feeling) is where and how we remain connected to True Source.

With this connection, our heart communicates with True Source and receives True Source’s Blessings. In receiving True Source’s Blessings, we can feel so many beautiful things within our heart, including the feeling of lightness, calmness, peace, happiness, and joy beyond all things we have ever felt from our worldly experiences.

Being calm and joyful at every moment of our life may sound fantastic, even impossible. Now recognize that it is your brain making this judgment, imposing this false limitation. In this regard, you may have quite a bit of work to do in getting out of your own way. Our brain is so strong—we have spent so much of our life within our head—that it can overtake our heart at the beginning. However, our heart knows that peace, calmness, and happiness await us once we begin opening and using our heart. It is only a matter of opening it up to let True Source’s Blessing do the best for us.

How beautiful and exciting it is to consider that all these wonderful feelings are within us at all times. All we need to do is to open and use our heart to be able to feel and enjoy these wonderful Blessings.

May you open your heart to the Creator and use your heart to experience the peace, calmness, and happiness within.

- Irmansyah Effendi, M.Sc.

STARTING TO USE YOUR HEART

Head Vs Heart

It is time to start working with your heart now. First, you will feel the difference between using your head (brain) compared to your heart. So let's do the following exercise :

1. Think of something serious for about 1 minute.
Do you notice that after thinking about serious for a minute your head, especially your forehead area, feels a bit heavy or you feel pressure in that area? This is caused by using your brain. When the brain is used seriously, you feel pressure and your head is heavy.

Do you also notice that you are aware of this more than you usually are?

2. Assume that you are right in front of the person whom you love the most. Feel how happy you are by being close to that person

Are you aware that the happy feeling you are experiencing is not coming from your head, but in your chest? This is because the center of feeling is not your brain, but your heart. We are talking about the non-physical heart here, the center of happy feelings. The heart is the center of positive feeling only. All negative feeling such as anger, hatred, sadness and so forth, do not originate from the heart, but from the emotional heart, commonly called the solar plexus.

So, there is something else within you, something that is very important for the better quality of your life. Although your brain is essential in helping you perform your tasks, without your heart you will never be really happy, and without being happy your life is empty. The heart is crucial for your sense of happiness and well being.


(taken from The book of "REIKI TUMMO" An Effective Technique For Health and Happiness" by Irmansyah Effendi. Published by Yayasan Padmajaya Press)

The Power of Smile

The Power of Smile

Emotion is an energy and affects our physical body directly. Negative emotions decrease willpower, turn down efficiency at work, and adversely affect health and mind. We smile in physical layer by contracting 15 difference face muscles and in turn moving more than 230 from 630 total face muscles. Based on a research, smiling motivates brain to release endomorphin which slows down infections, relieves pain, inhibits stress hormone, and increases heart beat and blood circulation. Three minutes of smiling has the same effect as upper body exercises. Five minutes of smiling has better results compared to five hours of high intensity exercise. Ten seconds of smiling has the same result as paddling a boat for three minutes. Smiling is a really wonderful exercise.

You are happy because you are smiling…

Smiling is a way to express divine happiness in you heart. Everybody smile when they are happy. So how can we smile without a reason? Does it not feel weird or unnatural? We will change our way of thinking for a while. Aside from smiling because of a happiness, actually we can be happy because we are smiling. SMILE TO INVITE HAPPINESS. A research has shown that just by pulling both ends of our lips to smile will incite positive biological reaction in our body.

Release your emotions by smiling

Our brain is not meant to process two separate information at one time. We cannot be happy and sad at the same time. We are only be able to be happy or sad but not both. This is a protection mechanism by which our brain prevents ambiguities which potentially damage our mind. What to do if you want to smile while experiencing negative emotions? Initially, you might feel tense because of the emotions. However, try to smile and you will experience a miracle. Negative emotion will just go away and disappear.

Smiling is not just simple movements of face muscles. Smiling affects your life positively. It is not easy to smile when we are faced with hard situation, but try to pull you lips. And you will soon realize the negative emotion will disappear by a smile. Try to smile everyday and see the difference on your face. Realize the continuous change to a better way. Don't people say that smiling invites fortune?

Smile even when you are on your own. The Smile of your deepest heart is always there, trying to surface. Happiness and the joy are our divine nature.

HEART SHARE

SPIRITUAL ASPIRANT FOR OVER 30 YEARS

As a spiritual aspirant for over 30 years, and in my profession as a Ph.D. Psychologist, I have practiced numerous techniques and approaches for enhancing well being and spiritual growth…

… yet none of them can compare to the profound peace, joy, and love experienced from going into the depths of our heart.

I now realize that the path of the Heart is the most direct approach to our ultimate fulfillment. Many of us know that we are meant to follow our hearts, listen to our hearts and live from our hearts. About 4 years ago I thought I was grounded in my heart and I now realize that I had only scratched the surface of my heart. Even though I had become an established and successful meditator who could easily experience an extended space between my thoughts and the pause between my breaths, I was not truly heart centered nor was I experiencing the inner depths of my heart. The last three years of my life have been the most profound, since I realized and can experience the deep joy and love radiating from the core of my heart.

I am so grateful to know that opening our hearts completely, is a great gift that we offer ourselves, our families and our planet. From the depths of our heart we experience the direct loving connection to the True Source, the Source of Love and Light. As I let go, and allow my heart to love the True Source more and more, the joy and love continues to deepen beyond what I ever imagined. What is so amazing to me, is that my efforts, skills, or ability to focus, has nothing to do with enhancing the process and are actually obstacles that block one from going into their heart. It is simply my willingness to feel what is already their, and to allow the love to bring me deeper into the love. This sacred process is available to all of us who are willing to let love work the way love truly is. I trust that if you listen to your heart call, you will feel that Love is calling you home to the core of your heart, your true self. I am grateful to share the journey of life with so many hearts that are feeling the inner calling to be instruments of light and love, the way the Source of Light and Love wants us to be.

- Ed Rubenstein

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LOVING TRUE SOURCE MORE

“Learning to open my Heart has changed my life completely. There are no words that will adequately describe the Love and Joy that I have experienced since the opening of my Heart.

It has been truly miraculous. I recommend this for everyone. I now know that Loving True Source more is what life is really all about.”

Jack Bracewell

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Sometimes you feel like you have been searching your whole life for something, and you don’t even know it until you find it. That is the way it was for me when I met my own heart.

I knew that I was longing for a feeling of Home and a connection with the Creator through which I could just be me and be loved and love in return, no matter what. I had a sense that this was what our adventure on earth was all about. I already knew that what I longed for wasn’t in being successful, having a loving relationship, being attractive, having children or a beautiful house. As nice as these all are they require a lot of feeding, and the results are often uncertain.

I meditated for 32 years, and taught meditation to others. I listened to and spoke inspiring words. I met people who seemed to have what I was looking for, but found they were not able to pass it onto me. I tried to give up and settle for less, but I got depressed and felt even more empty and lost than before. After traveling through the lessons of two marriages, stepparenthood,and a career as a psychologist, a friend of mine told me what he had learned through a gifted teacher. That the key to our connection Home is the heart, not the physical muscle that pumps our blood, but the non physical heart that we talk about when we say “follow your heart” or “a pure heart”.

It is the heart that you pick up and dial and then listen to in order to connect back again to the feelings of love, calmness, and joy. I had been trying for years to get to those feelings through a peaceful mind,which hadn’t worked very well. I thought if your mind was quiet enough then what was underneath the mental chatter would be love and joy. What I found was that a lot of calm mind could get pretty boring, and that it was hard work keeping it calm even some of the time when living a normal life. That is why most people seeking to quiet the mind usually had to go to a retreat place to find it. At times, I had tried to use my head to connect with my heart by focusing on being loving or visualizing being loved. What I hadn’t realized was that I had to go directly to the heart, not through any other part of me, in order to be able to feel what is within it, Divine Love and Light.

It has been three years since I first began experiencing and enjoying the feelings from my heart, feelings gentle, beautiful, sweet and powerful at the same time, beyond anything I could have imagined. All my good feelings had always been coming from there, I had just not known how to access them. More wonderful still,I now experience that the heart is the key to our connection with our Creator, the Divine Source, which is why the wonderful feelings are there, not in our heads. Being in our hearts leads to a life lived in love, which leads us closer and closer to our true Home and destiny as human beings, to our Creator.

How wonderful it is for me to be able to say that this is no longer a far off dream or something written about in a holy book, but something that is available now.

- Dianna Stone, Ph.D

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I NEVER IMAGINED……

“I never imagined that the spiritual path could be so easy and so much fun. I am having more joy than ever and I am growing spiritually faster than ever. I have been doing spiritual practices diligently for 35 years.
But until I took my first Open Heart workshop, my spiritual path was like swimming upstream against a raging current. Now my spiritual path is like being carried downstream, letting the love of my heart gently carry me home.
My first profound spiritual experience came in 1970. So, I have long known that the spark of the divine is within me. But I didn’t know how to easily and consistently access that spark. All the pathways I had been taking involved going through my mind. Unfortunately my mind is full of pitfalls, and those 35 years have felt like climbing a steep mountain on an uncertain path. Allowing my heart to take me to the divine spark within is like relaxing on deck of a boat on a warm, sunny day while the boat carries me to my destination.
I feel as if I have found what I have been searching for my entire adult life. I am so grateful. I am letting go of the struggles of my mind and enjoying the sweet love of my heart. I still stumble and fall on my path at times, but now my heart is always ready and able to pick me up and guide me ever deeper into the love that is my birthright as a human being.”
- Bob Kaplan
(taken from : www.heartsanctuary.org)

SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IN BRIEF

Spiritual growth to us simply means how to be closer to the Divine Source (the Creator) in your daily life, to be healthier, more peaceful, calmer and happier and to attain the ultimate goal of your life, enlightenment and then Yoga. We are sure that the heart is the key for only your heart can receive the blessing from the Divine Source. Blessing from the Divine Source is the only source of true peace, calmness and happiness. Blessing from the Divine Source is the mightiest power, so that it is the best help you can receive for your every need not only in your daily life, but also for your spiritual growth!

As the ultimate destiny is to return to the Divine Source, it is not the goal only for certain groups of people who believe that they are interested in the spiritual journey. It is the real goal of life itself. Then, returning to the Divine Source is not about how much you can do or how much you know. It is not about going to a higher or better place. It is about going closer to the Source of your True Self. So, what matter is how much you love the Divine Source. You need to realize this goal in your daily life so that you can really live your life to be closer to the Divine Source. You need to really live your life to share the love with others and to love the Divine Source more before you can reach the ultimate goal.

source : http://www.reikitummo.com/SpiritualJourney1.html

Reiki TUMMO®: A Path to the Heart

Reiki TUMMO®: A Path to the Heart
Irmansyah Effendi

All truth is in your heart, not in the physical heart, but in the core within yourself where your true self resides. To access that truth you must open your heart and Reiki TUMMO® can help you do just that. Reiki TUMMO is not a tradition founded on Usui Reiki. It is a technique that developed independently and goes beyond healing to assist you in your spiritual growth.

Spiritual progress in Reiki TUMMO is based on learning to use your heart more in your daily life and opening your heart for true insight and understanding. When you learn Reiki TUMMO, you are introduced to energy channeling for healing, but also as a tool to lead you into your heart so you can learn directly from your heart, rather than from others.

With Reiki TUMMO attunements, your main chakras open and the main energy channel within your spine, the sushumna, opens from the top of your head to your tailbone. The sushumna is crucial for your health as all of your vital organs are connected to your spine. When this channel opens, energy flows freely. Negative energy is released easily and clean energy can flow in effortlessly. The opening of your sushumna, together with your ability to channel energy, improves your physical, mental and emotional health significantly.

These benefits are simply the beginning. In Reiki TUMMO Level 2, your Kundalini is awakened. The Kundalini, a natural power within all human beings, is sought by those who are serious about their spiritual growth. Kundalini is the special energy that helps you to thoroughly cleanse your energy body continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, the Kundalini is hard to awaken. Spiritual seekers can spend years of practice to have their Kundalini awakened and, even with special practices, they still have to take specific precautions so the strong energy of the Kundalini doesn’t create problems. In Reiki TUMMO, your Kundalini is awakened instantly and safely. Once it is awakened, your Kundalini will help you with the cleansing process and you can expect to have better health, feel happier and enjoy rapid spiritual growth.

A core practice of Reiki TUMMO allows the practitioner to let divine energy flow into the heart continuously, cleansing, purifying and opening the heart. Divine energy is the most important factor in helping you to be within your heart, rather than simply observing or focusing on your heart. By being in your heart, you experience divine light filling your heart with infinite joy and peace. You experience bliss. As you are also connected to the earth’s core energy, you experience the bliss while still living in daily and routine situations. So, you enjoy all the beauty of living in your heart while going about your regular activities and living a typical life.

The good news does not stop here! We all know that the heart is the key to the real truth for all truth is within our hearts. The only question is how to access the truth when the brain dominates our lives and blocks any connection to the heart. This is what Reiki TUMMO is actually about. Reiki TUMMO prepares you for an advanced technique that allows you to go into your heart and find the truth within. Only with access to the real truth within your heart can you grow spiritually.

In Reiki TUMMO, you connect with your heart, with divine energy and with the earth’s core energy. As you connect to your heart, you feel the peace and the stillness that is always there. Your connection to divine energy is an essential element in spiritual development because divine energy is the most effective energy for cleansing and opening the heart. As you get better connected to your heart, your heart will become stronger. Since the heart is the center of love and compassion, you will feel more peaceful, relaxed and happier in your daily life. A stronger heart and a better connection to the divine energy will also elevate your awareness. When you encounter a situation that would normally trigger negative emotions, you will simply smile instead of being angry or upset. It is wonderful to have a heightened level of awareness for you can live your life with love and compassion rather than negative emotions. A stronger heart and a better connection to the divine energy are mandatory in preparing you for further spiritual study.

Once you are ready to let your inner heart guide you all the time, you are prepared for more advanced studies. You will attain your soul consciousness and then your true self consciousness easily. This does not mean that you simply connect or communicate with your true self. Instead you are fully conscious as your true self within. At this point, the true meaning of life and the real goal of life will be so clear that you will perceive life as a joyful journey to return Home.

For upcoming workshops on July 10-11 in Overland Park, Kan., please contact Mihir Thaker at Mihir_tummo@yahoo.com, call (913) 685-4468 or visit www.padmacahaya.com

Irmansyah Effendi is the founder of the Reiki TUMMO system of healing and spiritual growth and author of over 10 books on healing, meditation and spirituality. His new book: “Reiki TUMMO: An Effective Technique for Health and Happiness” has been recently published by Yayasan Padmajaya Press in the United States.
Copyright © 2004 Irmansyah Effendi

(Source:http://edgelife.net/issues/2004/07/effendi.html)

“HEART TO HEART" Vocabulary

“Heart to Heart” Vocabulary

We are shifting into a new paradigm which is based on the realization that our Heart is our True Center, not our brain. Therefore, concepts and vocabulary to describe and understand the Heart experiences are limited in our language. The below vocabulary is an educational tool to help us better understand the differences between the head and the heart.

Heart: Our center of feeling. It is located in the center of chest at the level of the armpit. This is not the physical heart; it is our non-physical heart.

Head/Brain: Center of thinking and center of ego

Emotional Center: People often confuse this with the heart. It consists of the emotional patterns stored in our systems and is connected to our solar plexus. There is a direct relationship between the head/brain and the emotional center. When we are not heart centered, they trigger each other and respond to each other throughout the day.

True Source: The Source of Light and Love and the Source of all True Selves (core of our hearts).

Heartfullness: With deep gratitude and appreciation, being fully present in the moment and embracing the Love and Light of the True Source.

Mindfulness: A limited paradigm about being in the present that involves a calm mind while being the observer of all experiences. You cannot be mindful and be fully in the heart, because when you are being mindful, you are an observer and that is a mental state. Being Heartfull is a joyful feeling state in the here and now.

Feeling: Subtle feeling that are the natural by-product of our hearts, such as peace, calmness, gratitude, appreciation, joy and love.

Blessing: Letting the Love and Light work in our hearts to help us in every way.

Head/Brain States: Any thinking or emotional response that keeps us in a head/brain dominant position. Examples include, worry, fear, judgments, arrogance, inadequacy, anger, sadness, anxiety, and dwelling on the past or the future.

Emotional Reactivity Buttons: Emotional patterns that tend to repeat themselves when we live in our head. At times they can re-activate frequently, based on triggers in the environment.

Brain Dominant: Head/ Brain is dominant as a result of your identification with brain states. This is the position in which most people live, most of the time.

Heart Dominant: Heart is dominant and brain is peacefully and agreeably acting as the executor, carrying out the loving wisdom and guidance from the heart. This is the very best way to learn, grow, and live in the world.

Choice Point: Your every moment gift of being able to quickly shift from any head/brain state to Heartfullness.

Excuses: Justifications that the brain uses to convince you that you have a really good reason why you are feeling the emotions or why you are not happy or fulfilled. Excuses prevent you from realizing that every moment is a choice point, and the opportunity to shift from the brain to the joy and fulfillment of one’s Heart. The Heart doesn’t have or use excuses.

Letting Go: You are relaxing and smiling without effort, feeling the nice feeling, and allowing the nice feeling to take you deeper into your heart.

Blockages: Stuck energy patterns which keep our hearts from expanding to a new level of openness. Blockages around the edges of our heart limit us from a deeper experience of the True Joy. They are like clouds which prevents us from feeling the Love and Light of the True Source which would like to radiate from the core of our heart.

Heart Cleansing: The natural cleansing process of releasing stuck emotional patterns.

Normal: The head/brain states that we hang out in most of the time, and have come to believe are real.

True Purpose: Sharing the Light and Love as an Instrument of the True Source.

Earth School(Life): The planetary classroom, we call life, which provides the profound gift and the greatest opportunity, which is to fulfill our True Purpose and live in the True Joy.

Discontent: Suffering that results from the bondage of different brain states.

Contentment: Effortless peaceful, calm and joyful feeling that is the natural by-product of being in the Heart.

Wake-up-call: As we realize we have been living our life in the bondage of brain states and we begin the journey of fulfilling the True Purpose of life. We begin to follow the calling of our heart.

Illusion: Failing to hear the wake-up-call and continuing to live as if somehow the brain will lead us to True Joy, or believing that accumulating or fulfilling desires will eventually lead to fulfillment.

Inner Heart: The core of your heart that is the spark of the True Source. The inner heart knows the deepest truth, and leads us to the True Source. Most inner hearts are not active yet.

Longing: Longing is the deepest most natural and joyful yearning of our inner heart to be fully connected to the True Source.

Desire: Desire is the brain’s way of distracting us from the true longing of our heart. Desires help us to remain in illusion because it keep us thinking that it will lead to fulfillment, when in reality, allit does is lead to more desires. Desire is the brain’s way of filling the vacuum that is created by a life not lived in Heartfullness. Heartfullness is complete in itself.

Brain Intelligence: What society typically calls “normal” and how educational systems and families have taught us to function. It’s how we learned to think, reason, rationalize, categorize, judge and problem solve. It happens to typically be self-centered and motivated for personal gain. The bottom line of brain intelligence is often, “What’s in it for me”

Heart Intelligence: The innate loving wisdom of our heart that guides us to make choices which allow us to fulfill our True Purpose. Heart intelligence takes our needs into consideration, however it is not self-centered based. It accesses the bigger picture that is often beyond the perceptions of the brain. It guides us to make loving wise choices. It helps us to have greater clarity about situations. It gives new insights, perspectives and attitudes about efficiently managing whatever challenges that come up in daily life.

Stress: A physiological reaction that arises from brain states in which one perceives themselves as threatened or uncomfortable.

Stressors: Events or circumstances that are perceived to be stressful due to the state of brain dominance. This occurs even though one’s life is not really being threatened. During Heart Dominance or Heartfullness, the same event or circumstance would not be perceived to be a stressor. That event or circumstance would be viewed as an opportunity to be an Instrument of Light and Love.

Being in the World but not of it: When we live in Heartfulness, we function in the world as an instrument of light and love, without being pulled into worldly preoccupations and dramas that result from emotional states and brain dominance. We live your life like the Lotus, a symbol of love, which maintains its sweet scent and never gets dirty, even when living in the muddy waters.

Limited Identity: A brain dominant position related to who we have convinced ourselves to think we are. It consists of opinions, beliefs, values, rationalizations and excuses. It helps to justify why we believe what we believe, why we feel about things the way we feel, and why things are the way they are. It’s a product resulting from past experiences, colored lenses from unresolved issues that taint perceptions, and personality patterns formed from the conglomeration of head/brain states we associate with. Our identity is a self-creation.

True Self: Our true identity as our true self resides in the center of our heart. This is the real you that is the spark of Light and Love from the True Source. We are meant to radiate the Light and Love of the True Source. Everyone has a true self, however, not all sparks of light and love are radiating. Our true self is who we really are on the deepest level of being, beyond all boundaries of space and time. Living our True Purpose, loving the True Source completely and following the path of Heartfullness leads to the realization of our true self. Then the Light and Love of the True Source is free to shine through our being, just the way that the True Source likes.

(source : www.heartsanctuary.org)

STEP TO OPEN OUR HEART

IT’S EASY

The great news is that no special talent is needed to open your heart. Everyone has a heart, and it is your birthright to open your heart and enjoy. Some will be able to feel their hearts right away, while for others it can take a little longer.

If you are having difficulty with feeling your heart, it is because you are not relaxed enough and you are trying to open your heart, rather than feeling your heart open.

Feeling your heart is very different from observing your heart. If you are observing the experience, you are not properly in your heart.

Initially, some people may not be aware of the feeling in their heart because they are only used to “feeling” from their physical senses, such as being pinched or tickled, hot or cold, sweet or salty.

The feeling from the heart is most similar to what you feel when you are happy and joyful. This is not to be confused with emotional expressions.

RECOGNIZING THE DIFFERENCE

Head

1. Take one minute and think about a problem you are having at work, home or elsewhere.
2. Now realize which part of you was active and what happened. Can you notice that your brain or head was dominant?
3. You may have experienced a pressure or heaviness in your head area as you thought about the problem. This is normal and it is how many people experience most of their lives.

Heart

1. Remember a happy or joyful moment you have experienced. Re-experience the feeling of the happy or joyful moment again. Don’t visualize or try to capture the details…. just relax and re-experience the feeling again, as if you were in that moment.
2. Now, realize which part of you became activated and what had happened.
3. Many of you will have experienced a nice feeling in the center of your chest. That is the very beginning stage of feeling your heart.

The above exercise can help you distinguish the difference when you are in your head and when you are in your heart. It is important for us to know the difference. If we are not able to clearly distinguish head from heart, then we will be very limited in our capacity to live a heart centered life.

(source : www.heartsanctuary.org)

TYPICAL CHALLENGE OF USING HEART

Thinking You’re in Your Heart

Many people know that we are supposed to follow our heart, listen to our heart and live from our heart. Indeed, many people think and believe they are in their heart. However, thinking, believing or visualizing will not bring someone into their heart because these are functions of the brain. We cannot follow our heart from our brain nor can we use our head to get into our heart.

Why it has been so hard to get in Your Heart?

Experiencing the peace, joy, love and gratitude of our hearts is actually a simple process. However, due to our conditioning, we have learned to be brain dominant and come to believe this to be a normal and complete existence, for our educational training has taught us to use just our intellectual and mental functions. Therefore, most people have never received proper guidance or education on how to be in their heart, the greatest gift that life offers. People ‘try’ to be in their hearts and fail to realize that it is this “effort” that keeps them anchored in their heads. Most commonly, when people think they are in their hearts, they are really in their head. Or a part of them may be scratching the surface of their heart while the biggest part of them is observing the process. This act of observation keeps them separated from their heart, yet they may think they are having a great heart experience. In reality, they are only experiencing a minute fraction of what is available. Joy and love are boundless and can only be experienced in the depths of the heart, when we are able to be in our hearts with our full being.

Hesitancy in Opening Your Heart

Even though we have been told the importance of opening our hearts, we are often hesitant in doing so. The reason is that there is a concern, or perhaps even a fear, that opening our hearts will make us vulnerable or that we may get hurt again like we did in the past. We may equate an open heart with emotional hurts from our past. Paradoxically, opening our heart does not mean that we will be easily exposed to negative emotions. On the contrary, as our heart opens and becomes stronger, positive heart felt feeling will grow and automatically reduces negative emotions. Our heart cannot hurt us. But, completely opening our hearts will heal us on the deepest levels so that we can feel whole, complete, satisfied and fulfilled from moment to moment in our lives.

Emotions versus Feeling from our Heart

There is very big difference between ‘emotions’ and ‘feeling’ from the heart. Anger, fear, worry, resentment, guilt, sadness, jealousy, insecurity and arrogance are examples of the many emotions that people experience. Following emotions is not productive because it’s like putting wood on the fire. By following emotions we end up complicating our relationships usually leading to repetitive and unpleasant experiences. Following emotions also dirties the field of the heart and creates clouds that block the radiance of the light from our hearts. By contrast, ‘feeling’ are the subtle qualities of our heart. Love, joy, compassion, appreciation, and gratitude are feeling from our heart. That is why we say “heart felt love and gratitude”. Being filled with positive heart felt feeling is the key to happiness and true fulfillment.

Our Limiting the Direct Heart Connection

Rather than experiencing the direct connection between one’s heart and the True Source, many of us have typically connected (or been taught to connect) to an intermediary. The nature of an ‘intermediary’ means that something, or someone, is placed between the direct connection of the core of one’s heart and the True Source. Consequently, the fullest expression of love is limited. Similarly, when we offer devotional sentiments to any being in human form, or any being on another dimension, we limit ourselves and our spiritual potential because we create a boundary between the core of our heart and the Source of Light and Love.

(source : www.heartsanctuary.org)

OPENING OUR HEART

Opening our Hearts

Opening our heart as big as possible is the greatest gift that we offer ourselves and to the world. Opening our heart has a profound healing affect on all levels of our being as well as on our families and communities. The more we allow our hearts to open, the more we can share love. For peace, joy, and love radiates from the core of our hearts. If we really listen to and feel our inner calling, we will realize that our hearts want to open and let the light and love to do wonderful things for ourselves, our families and communities.

When we open our hearts, we deepen our spiritual connection to the True Source, and this allows us to live genuinely and authentically in the sacredness of love. Then we can begin to realize that the True Source, as the Ultimate Source of Love and Light, has Loved us completely in every moment of our existence. Indeed, there has never been a moment in our existence, when this was not the truth, because True Source can never stop Loving us and all beings.

(Note: We prefer the term ‘True Source’ because it is a neutral term which does not have a charged history. Feel free to replace the term ‘True Source’, with whatever phrase for you which represents the Ultimate Source of Love and Light).

Where does the Peace, Love and Joy Originate From?

The deepest peace and love that is available to us in our earthly existence is the spark of light and love in the core of our hearts. This spark is the purest aspect of our deepest self and is directly connected to the Source of Love & light. The more we allow the blessings of love and light to purify and open our hearts, the more the love and light from the core of our being becomes free to radiate in all directions to every heart everywhere. Everyone has a spark of love and light in the core of their heart. However, not every spark is radiating freely and sweetly.When we first begin to open our hearts, the nice feeling we experience may only be felt as a peaceful and calm feeling. As the layers of our heart are purified, not only are we able to feel the peace and the calmness, we are able to feel the deep joy, love and light that radiates from the core of our heart. At any time we can then just stop, do nothing and realize and feel that the Love is sweetly pulling us deeper into the Love….toward the core inside of our heart. And this never stops if we allow it to take us there. When the clouds of impurity surrounding our hearts are dissolved, then the love and light can be experienced without obstruction in its purest joy.

Why we are here?

The ultimate purpose of our life is to love the True Source completely with all of our heart. To the head/brain this statement might seem debatable. However, the core of our heart, which is calling to take us ‘back home’ to the Source of Love and Light, knows this to be true. But the direct path home to the cherished goals of our existence can only happen by embracing and surrendering completely to the purest love - the most subtle, most sublime form of love – that of the Ultimate Source of all. It is only through this purest love that our essence of being can return home.

We are being invited to open our hearts and be instruments of Love and Light by sharing the blessings of this love with the hearts of every being. When we share this love as an instrument, we are also loving the True Source and getting closer to the home of our True Self. This means we are getting closer to the Ultimate Destination available to us. So now is the time for our deepest awakening – loving The Source of Love and Light completely with our heart and whole being and becoming the instrument of light and love that we are intended to be.

Our life on earth is a great gift. To live our life without opening our heart and loving the True Source completely is to miss out on the real meaning and purpose of why we are here. Equally, being mindful, or using intellect or logic, cannot take us home.

(source : www.heartsanctuary.org)

LEARNING ABOUT HEART

Since Using our Heart is very important, Why We have Not Done this Before?

Our education has focused on the “education of the brain”.

Head/brain Intelligence is what society typically calls “normal”. It is the way our whole educational system and families have taught us to function. It is how we learned to think, reason, rationalize, categorize, judge and problem solve – all qualities valued, and therefore reinforced, in later working life. Yet, head/brain intelligence is frequently self-centered and motivated for personal gain, for the bottom line is invariably “What’s in it for me”. “Butting heads” is an expression that represents why there is so much friction and conflict in people’s lives and in the world. While heads have a tendency to collide, the nature of the heart is to share.

We have been distracted in following the impulse of the brain rather than the heart

We have come to believe being brain dominant to be a normal existence. As a result, we have not fully realized how this colors our perceptions, determines what we think is reality, or how this keeps us disconnected from true joy and our deepest purpose here on earth. For example, ‘Desire’ is often one of the ways that our heads/brains distract us from realizing that contentment and fulfillment can only be experienced in our heart, because our heart is the center of peace, love and joy. Following desires help us to remain in illusion because they keep us thinking that they will lead to fulfillment, when in reality, all they do is lead to more desires. Seeking desires is a means of attempting to fill the vacuum that is created by a life not lived in Heartfullness. But, chasing desires is similar to running on a treadmill. No matter how long you run, you don’t get very far, and you end up where you started. By contrast, when you follow your heart, you are truly getting somewhere. You are tuned to the deeper pulse of life, and you are expanding into light and love.

The difference between emotions and feeling from the heart, were never clarified before.

Many of us did not realize that there is a difference between emotions and the subtle feeling of our heart. The subtle feeling of our heart are the natural by-product of love, whereas emotions are created from our reactive responses to the environment.

We were not taught how to enjoy and be in our hearts.

We learned in almost every moment to be brain dominant, and very seldom did we truly get to experience our hearts. There was not a proper understanding or experience that our heart is the center of feeling and the key to happiness and joy. Many of us were actually taught not to feel, because all priority was given to the rational thinking mind.

Our hearts have not been sufficiently open due to accumulation of stuck energies polluting the layers of our hearts

Our hearts have become more closed because our hearts have been filled with negative emotions from past experiences, interactions, and misunderstandings. An important part of opening our hearts is the process of allowing the blessings from the True Source to help us forgive others and ourselves completely. Where we have held onto emotions of judgment, anger, fear, sadness, resentments, disappointments, arrogance, self-righteous positioning, or other emotional expressions, then the negative energies from these have muddied the field of our heart. As a result of these stuck energies, our hearts have not been able to open completely. But no one, except ourselves, can dirty the field of our heart and only the Love and Light of the True Source can properly cleanse and take us into the inner depths of our heart.

We have not yet learned to follow our heart from within our heart.

We have learned to achieve and accomplish through focus, effort and trying. These ways fail us when we try to get into our hearts, for we can only experience our heart by letting go of all concepts, thoughts, focus and effort. Instead we can relax and enjoy the gentle feeling of our heart.

What Our Heart is Not

Our heart is not a place where we get hurt; it is a place where we heal.

Our heart is not a place where we are taken advantage of; it is a center for making clear, insightful and wise choices.

Our heart is not a place where we can be manipulated; it is the center of clarity where we can experience truth.

Our heart is not a place of weakness, but the place of our greatest strength.

Our heart is not a place that can be contaminated by others, because we are the only ones that can pollute the field of our heart

(source : www.heartsanctuary.org)

HEART, center of Joy

What and Where is Our Heart?

Our heart is our center of ‘feeling’. By contrast, our head is the center of thinking and the center of ego. A happy fulfilled life is lived immersed in Love, joy, and gratitude. These are feeling, not thoughts, so this is why knowing your heart is crucial. By learning to follow our heart we learn to utilize our heart intelligence which guides us to make loving wise choices, thereby supporting us to be successful on all levels of life. The heart we are referring to here is not our physical heart. It is our non-physical heart that resides in the center of our chest, at the level of our armpits.

When we first learn to become centered in the heart, we usually need to help our heart become more active. So, it is very helpful to touch the heart at the exact point at the center of the chest at the level of the armpits using one or several fingers without applying pressure. Touching it will make your heart become more active. At the core of our heart is our True Self, the spark of Light and Love. It is our true identity and who we really are at the deepest level of being, beyond all boundaries of space and time. This spark is the purest aspect of our deepest self and is directly connected to the Ultimate Source of Light and Love, The True Source.

(Note: We prefer the term ‘True Source’ because it is a neutral term which does not have a charged history. Feel free to replace the term True Source, with whatever phrase for you represents the Ultimate Source of Love and Light).

Our heart, is therefore, the:

• Key to our connection to True Source
• Center of peace
• Center of calmness
• Center of true happiness/joy
• Center of love
• Key to our physical, mental and emotional health
• Key to our spiritual growth
• The center for heart intelligence

Why Heart?

• Our heart is special because it is at the core of our heart that we have the direct connection with the Ultimate Source.
• Our heart is, therefore, the door to our True Home, and our ultimate destination. This is why it is so important for our hearts to realize and remember that the True Source is the Source of Love and Light, and the Source of our existence.
• Our heart is the center for receiving the blessings of Love and Light from this Source.
• Our heart is the center of feeling the peace, calmness, love, gratitude and joy because the blessings of Love and Light are radiating every moment of every day.
• Our heart is calling us, and inviting us to relax, smile, and enjoy all of the gifts that Love and Light offers. Moreover, our heart wants to be free to be an instrument of this Light and Love.

Why Follow Our Heart?

When our hearts become dominant we begin to utilize our heart intelligence, which is the innate loving wisdom of our heart. This is our deepest level of intelligence that supersedes intellectual or emotional intelligence. Heart intelligence guides us to make choices which allow us to fulfill our deeper purpose and to learn life lessons that we may have been failing to integrate. While it takes our needs into consideration, it is not self-centered, for it accesses the bigger picture that is often beyond the perceptions of the brain and guides us to make loving wise choices. Heart intelligence helps us to have greater clarity about situations. It gives new insights, perspectives and attitudes about efficiently managing whatever challenges that come up in daily life.

While our heads/brains often just react to situations, our hearts respond in a way that can turn stressors or obstacles into learning opportunities. However, becoming heart centered does not mean that we stop using the brain. We still need to utilize the brain to help us function in the world - instead, it comes under the influence and guidance of the wisdom of our heart:

Typically, though, we allow the brain to dominate. This results in our actions, behavior and responses being influenced by our mind/brain and ego:

When this happens the heart closes, and life is experienced more superficially. When the brain is dominant, one of its tendencies is to judge people or size them up into categories that often fall into ‘good enough’ or ‘not good enough’, ‘like’ or ‘dislike’, ‘approve’ or ‘disapprove’, ‘worthy’ or ‘unworthy’, or other dualistic concepts. As a result, relationships lack substance, quality and authenticity.When our hearts are open, we are not bothered by idiosyncrasies or differences in people. Relationships bring great joy, we are more accepting of others short comings, we easily forgive, and sharing love becomes our treasure. Open hearts live authentically and genuinely with love, humbleness and gratitude. And the more that we are able to open our hearts, the more we are able to experience peace, joy and connection with The Source of All.

(source : www.heartsanctuary.org)