Feel with your Heart

We live so much of our life in our mind. We over analyze, our mind spins around with thoughts. We get attached to the thoughts, we get hooked. This is living anchored in the ego, in the mind derived sense of self.

What I suggest is that instead we anchor into our hearts. In order to do this we have to soften and open. We have to break down the walls around the heart, we have to let go of the accumulated stress, and habitual tensions. And then we can honestly feel from the center of our heart. We can feel the different sensation in the body. This is how I love to practice yoga, from the heart.

I come to my mat, I soften my heart, and then I drop into my heat and feel. As i move into a yoga posture I bring my awareness to the different sensation that are arising. i see how I can move differently to increase the sensations. When I practice like this it is safe. Because I know if i listen to my heart truthfully it will never guide me into a pose that I am not ready for. However if i am practicing anchored in the mind, i analyze and judge. I look around the room and I can feel my mind wanting me to push my body so i can look like my neighbor, or my teacher. This is a sure way to get hurt because I am no longer following the truth of my heart. Instead I am following the ego.

Practicing following the heart on the mat is a great way to develop intuition off the mat. Intuition isn't a gift that some people have and others don't. No, it is a skill that we have forgotten because we don't live authentically from the heart. We have good reason not to trust and follow what the mind says. But if we can learn on the mat to soften our heart, to be truthful, to follow and trust the sensations that arise, we can take that honest internal listening off the mat. Then when we are out living our life we can continue to live and act from the heart, truthful, honest, and playful.

This is a practice. It is hard. It isn't something you switch on. It takes awareness. It takes a lot of forgetting to follow the heart, noticing you forgot and starting again. I feel this cycle every time I practice asana. I always have the intention to let go of my ego and practice following the sensation. But multiple times throughout the class I catch my ego mind taking off, then I come back to my breath to my sensations and I begin again. The more you do this, the more you develop your ability to notice when the ego takes over. And the gap becomes shorter and shorter until, and you inhibit your heart fully for longer and longer periods of time.

many blessings.