Heart and Mind

hese four heart openings will allow you to move back to what your heart desires - to freely love:

1. Release the past – We need to forgive the past, let go of any old unfinished business and move on. The past is over and it needs to be completely released. Forgiveness of self and others greatly help. Today is what matters. Let everything else go. A heart can love endlessly in the here and now.

2. Express emotions – Emotions too often get stuffed because they can seem overwhelming. If we simply acknowledge how we are feeling, those feelings soon change into other feelings. Emotions can be expressed in healthy ways that keep the heart open and giving. Two exampled of healthy emotional expression include talking and journaling.

3. Move from judging to acceptance – The judging mind congests the heart. We are trained to judge everything as “good or bad.” We can drop the judging and move towards accepting what is, accepting differences, and appreciating uniqueness of all beings. This returns our heart to being open to its endless flow of love.

4. Feel the body expanding or contracting – The body gives us constant messages because it is either opening or closing in all its interactions with the world. Explore what keeps the heart open and notice when the heart closes. In that awareness you can love where there are openings and do your best to change difficult situations into more hopeful ones. The heart wants to love.

Next The Mind

These four mind openers will help you continually expanding your mind:

1. Examine beliefs regularly – Old beliefs can zap the life out of you. Learned thoughts of guilt, self-doubt, not deserving etc. can stink up your life. Most beliefs are not true and many seriously hold us back. Be aware of what beliefs are shaping your experiences and examine them with kindness. If they represent truth keep them. If not, let them go.

2. Be mindful of thoughts – Your experience of life is created by what you think. Your best bet is to watch your thoughts, be hopeful and positive and do what you can to be present to what is. You can let those mind contracting thoughts pass right on through. If we are mindful of our thinking we can keep our minds open. An open mind keeps expanding.

3. Be aware of ego-mind at work – The ego-mind’s task is to keep you safe from what it fears. You can recognize the ego-mind at work: when you need to be right, when you get stuck in blaming and complaining, when you want more power and control. The ego is also skilled at rationalizing why the mind should be closed. Step past the voice of the ego. Open instead to ways of expanding into what is possible.

4. Find your way to your higher mind – This mind is the voice of the infinite and eternal within you. You can call it the voice of the soul, your intuition, or your wise mind. It is accessed through listening inward, through being open to guidance, by living in the present moment. This wise mind is connected to the wisdom of all humanity and the Universe. Everything that you need to ever know is contained within this voice. All you have to do is be open to listening.

You now have eight ways to bring more openness in mind and heart into your way of being in the world. Your open and full expression is more important that you may ever realize. Today is the time to move into action.

With open minds and hearts we can spread compassion, consciousness, peace and joy out into the world. In this elevated state of awareness, all of our concerns and problems can be resourceful resolved.