Make yourself a priority
follow your heart
Being open, trusting and full of faith that the path you are on is part of being in accordance with who you are. Only the heart can lead you this way, not the jealous or broken heart, filled with fear, but a heart filled with love: a love of yourself, creating only the best for you in every moment. When we fully respond to our heart – or to love – we can then give to others freely with compassion and care. The more you give love freely, the more you receive it back, and your capacity to hold and cherish this love grows.
Most of the fight that goes on with us involves the conflict that we have within ourselves over whether we are right or wrong in our way of being. We are constantly trying to keep up with the way society has deemed fit to be. Opening our hearts allows us to forgive. It allows us to see our truth, and to follow it.
Opening your heart – if it is closed – can begin by stepping into awareness. Become aware or conscious of the grudges you hold, or the anger you have inside toward someone. Notice if you are affected by someone; notice the way you behave when you do not get your way. Standing in your identity as you know yourself to be – or your ego to be – does not allow for new possibilities to arise, or to create from them.
Putting down your sword and your shield and standing in open love can be the hardest thing to do, yet the result is the most powerful learning and healing you will ever have. If you can do this with yourself, forgive yourself, you will ease the process of opening up to others. If you feel frightened of someone, open up to feeling the fear. Hug them or communicate with them, letting them know that you are afraid, but wish to be open and free. Communicate that you want to love; you can even ask them for help. They may come up with suggestions as to how you can be open and loving. To do this requires that you embrace the vulnerable within you.
Remember everything we hold on to is the past. The past has an uncanny way of creating the same path for us in our belief systems, our patterns and our ways of being. One way of dealing with these past issues is to let go of them. It sounds rather simplistic, but the bottom line is that you can let go if you want to. Ask yourself: why do I need to hold on? How does it serve me to hold on? What does keeping this wound do for me?
Try it and let go. Put down your need to be right, and know that it is simply our reality. As everyone has their own reality, we do not need to convince others of ours.
Sometimes, in trying to open up your heart, even the idea of it can be enough to position you for change. Get a feel for it. Do ustrasana (camel) or urdhva dhanurasana (wheel) to open the heart and get the blood flowing. Cleanse and energize yourself from the inside out. This will support the change that may bring through the desire to heal your wounds, to let go of the hurt and to return to love.
When you are mad at someone, stop yourself and reopen your heart. In your anger you close your heart, not only to the other but also to yourself. So in harming the other, you are actually taking away from yourself. Rather, give to yourself, and you will give to the other.
What is anger but an expression of the need to be right, to defend your own ego or identity? What is there to defend if we are all connected as one? Start to recognize the love around you. What small actions can you take to increase the love in your life? A heart that gives protects the soul as it allows the flow of life to be constant. Let us give ourselves this “life blood” – this flow of love – in order to receive the much needed nourishment that fills our souls and gives life to this planet.
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