Getting Out of My Head and Into My Heart

I used  to live in my head all the time, defined by my To Do Lists, forging an identity based on being “productive”, obsessed with planning, making Pro vs, Con lists, lots of judging and comparing, pleasing and perfecting…

My head was a really noisy and not so fun place.

How about you?  Do you ever stop to consider how much you spend your time thinking, controlling, worrying and figuring stuff out?  

If so, I empathize.  It’s mentally and physically exhausting.  It floods our bodies with toxic stress chemistry that wreaks havoc on our health and well-being.  

I learned a life changing lesson years back that changed everything.:  Think Less, Feel More;

Get out of living in my head and connect to my heart. 

Our heart contains the wisdom of feeling as opposed to the head-wisdom of reason. 

Rediscovering this exquisite connection was the key to having a deeper, more real experience of all the things that I was so busy chasing with my head:  physical health, fulfilling relationships, balanced lifestyles, purposeful living, personal contentment etc.

While the mind plays a brilliant and invaluable role, it’s not where you or I are  meant to live.  Our minds tend to stir up the endless drama and stress, acting out our fears and insecurities.

When we rely on ordinary thinking, cut off from our deeper emotions, we can end up living in a virtual reality feeling inauthentic, disconnected, uninspired.  It makes it really challenging to prioritize nourishing ourselves. 

Our true heart is not limited by self-doubt, shame, chaos or neuroses.  When we connect to our heart we can relax, awaken in our body and experience a different way of knowing, trusting and navigating our lives. 

I’ve seen firsthand how we become more accepting of ourselves and able to meet our shortcomings and old patterns with more kindness and understanding. 

And it turns out that our Heart isn’t just a cardiac pump.  It has its own nervous system, it’s an endocrine gland and has the largest electromagnetic energy field in our body.

Ancient tradition teaches that our heart’s function is to house wisdom, emotions and most of all our essence or soul.  This understanding alone creates a whole new inspiration for takng caring for ourselves.

It’s no longer a fluffy metaphor, science is well on its way to explaining the higher dimensions of our heart proving it to be a source of astounding intelligence that we can call upon to have more balance, greater health and personal fulfillment.

A great deal of my work with people is helping to get out of their heads and into their bodies, more specifically into their hearts.

My favorite ways to connect to my heart include yoga, mindfulness, breathwork and meditation.   These practices help you to slow down, focus your attention in the present moment and shift into the role of a non-judgmental observer of your inner world.

In the quiet calm and stillness, you learn to hold yourself with tenderness and compassion and contact the lost sacredness of life.

When we can train ourselves to naturally place our attention in our heart, we feel at home in ourselves and in the world.

We stop the battle between our body and mind and healing happens. 

So, in the spirit of Valentine’s Day why not give it a try:

Pause…..

Let your eyes softly close…..

Place your hands one over the other in the center of your chest, the location of your Heart Center….

Breathe slow and deep from your belly…..

Now just FEEL…….just BE