Courage To Be Present In Our Heart

Right now in the world there's so much division and different opinions on things,

And it can be very difficult to feel open-hearted,

Even to people that we really care about.

And certainly it's hard with strangers.

And one of the things that we know is that it never helps to have a hard heart.

I never talk about forgiveness because I think it's kind of something that happens on its own.

I don't do practices of forgiveness.

I don't link open-heartedness or kindness to forgiveness.

I think forgiveness is such a loaded word,

And it has a lot to do with,

If I forgive someone it means that I think what they did is okay.

So we're deliberately staying away from that concept.

We're not working with forgiveness.

We're just working with an open heart and kindness for ourselves and for others as well.

So I think that makes the practice easier in some ways.

I think it makes it less difficult to have an open heart to someone if it doesn't mean anything around what they did was right or wrong or why or anything.

We're not really working with that.

We're really just bringing our attention in.

And what is it that we can do to cultivate an open kind heart?

So the next eight days,

That's what our focus will be.

We'll look at it from different directions.

We'll work in the subtle body,

In the heart.

So let's start with tuning into what's going on in our heart right now.

The fact that we're here doing a practice,

Listening to a guided practice on open kind heart,

Or even that we're here doing a relaxation practice is very significant.

It really means that we're open to possibilities.

We're open to relaxing our body and our breath.

And that's a bigger deal than what we might think.

A lot of the ways that people cope is that we harden our shell.

We distract ourselves.

Sometimes we get into something kind of active to distract ourselves,

More of like a fight response,

Or a flight response.

We get really into video games.

Gosh,

Our brains,

Our neurobiology is so set up to get hooked on that kind of thing.

And sometimes we get kind of numb.

Sometimes we get involved with some kind of an addiction.

And all of those are ways that we distract ourselves from what we're feeling inside.

It takes an act of courage to be present within.

And the French word for heart is the same root as courage.

So somewhere along the line,

There's been a recognition of that.

So as we're starting the practice,

We could really give ourselves some acknowledgement that we're here.

We're doing a practice.

We're willing to cultivate being present with ourselves,

Which is wonderful that as we do it,

We discover there's nothing to be scared of.

And we get kind of hooked on knowing who we are and experiencing who we are and realizing that a lot of those barriers,

A lot of the fear,

Is actually unnecessary.

And that those tight shoulders or the clenching in our teeth or that fear in our gut is part of who we are and it has a reason,

It has an origin,

A lot of which is in our childhood,

A lot of which is in the world we live in.

And then we take a few deep breaths and we let our body relax.

And we come to experience the safety of that.

We come to experience that it's really okay.

In fact,

It's quite wonderful when we're present with ourselves.

And that that fear that we might have that as we go deeper into knowing who we are,

That we're going to discover something really distasteful is really just a fear based on our childhood strategies to try and stay connected.

We take on core deficiency beliefs that aren't true.

They're just not.

And now we can let those go and we can experience the wonder in a way,

Experience the wonder of knowing ourselves and of opening more and more into kindness for ourselves.

And notice your whole body,

Head to toes.

Notice your response to those words.

And we have a response in our thought stream often.

We might be arguing a little bit with it or just thinking about it.

That's fine,

Of course.

That's what that layer of the mind does.

And also we could notice our body.

Oftentimes,

Large muscle groups start to soften.

Maybe our shoulders settle away from our ears.

Notice what's happening in your body.

Notice what's happening emotionally.

I am cultivating a kind,

Open heart.

Let the words just drop in.

Soften your forehead and eyebrows and let go of any worry,

Any thought activity just behind the forehead.

And for a moment as you breathe out,

Let your forehead soften,

Your eyebrows,

Your eyes.

Notice your mouth and jaw.

Notice the air as it flows in through your nostrils,

Down into your throat.

If you're clenching your teeth,

Put some space there,

Top to bottom.

Take a few deeper breaths.

Let your tongue be still,

Your vocal cords still.

Notice your throat,

The sides of your neck,

Down into your shoulders.

The back of your neck into the large muscles of your upper back and let go of any tightness or holding or bracing yourself,

Any sense of heaviness.

Let all of that relax.

Deep inhales,

Long exhales and let your body soften.

From the sides of your neck and shoulders,

You could be aware of your arms and hands.

Let them be at rest.

Coming down through your back body to your hips and legs,

Let your legs also be at rest.

And as you notice your front and back of your chest and then down into your stomach area,

Notice the rhythm of your breath.

Notice how your body moves as you breathe.

Let your belly soften as you breathe out.

Allow your breath to become more continuous and smooth.

And then bring your attention up to your heart center.

On a physical basis,

The heart and lungs are protected by the rib cage.

There's a large covering of muscles around the rib cage,

The large muscles of the chest,

Large muscles of the back.

So let's see if we could just soften the armor around our heart.

The next couple of minutes as you breathe out,

Soften your muscles from your collarbones to the lower rib cage.

Along the sides of your rib cage up to your armpits.

The back of your rib cage through the shoulder blades up to the back of the neck.

And as we're breathing out,

We're just letting go of that layer of protection.

Let your shoulders soften away from your ears.

It's safe to relax and soften.

It's safe to breathe deeply.

Big inhales.

Notice how your chest expands,

The rib cage expands.

You have lots of room for the air coming in.

And then everything softens,

Releases.

Keep all of your attention on your breath and on the movement of your chest,

Your back.

And then just to bring in these words,

It's safe right now in this moment to have an open heart.

We're not talking about later on when you might need to protect yourself from somebody who's shaming you or protect yourself from anything,

Really.

We're just talking about right now in this moment,

Could I enjoy an open heart without getting into too many words about it?

Let your attention rest in your heart center.

For the next little while,

It's okay to let my heart be undefended.

I can let those walls soften just so that I could experience my own heart center.

No pressure.

There's no particular experience we're looking for.

Notice what's here.

This is something we could come back to again and again during the day.

Let our shoulders relax,

Soften the back,

Soften the chest.

Experience an open heart for a moment without thought,

And then of course that will come in.

Just as a practice,

Relax your body,

Take a few deep breaths,

Bring your attention into your heart center and experience what's here.

And you'll probably notice that at some point thoughts come back in.

They might come in right away or you might have a moment or two without them.

And during some of the practices this week,

We'll look into or inquire into the thoughts about this.

It can be very interesting and kind of like a mining expedition to see when is it that we closed our heart?

When did we start protecting ourselves?

Many of us have long histories of needing protection,

And we're not in any way suggesting that it's wrong to protect ourselves or protect our hearts.

It's more that we're updating our information on that.

The way the nervous system works is that we overprotect.

Better to be safe than sorry is the theme song of the primitive brain,

And that really limits us as adults.

So it's a good thing to work with.

I'm willing to cultivate an open,

Kind heart.