Five ways to fill your heart

Five ways to fill your heart

Several months ago, I watched an interview with the “father of modern mindfulness”, Jon Kabat Zinn. He spoke about how in many eastern languages the word used for mind and heart are often the same. There is no difference between them. He suggested that the practice of mindfulness could just as easily have been called heartfulness.

I love this concept of heartfulness. It resonates deeply within me. Where can I find the joy in this moment? How can I fill my heart today?

By consciously connecting with your heart energy, you are calling upon

• self-compassion
• self-acceptance
• openness to experiences
• greater connection to yourself and others
• being fully present in each moment

In short, all you need for SELF LOVE

I quite often will move through the day encouraging an awareness in myself. How can I be more loving to myself in this moment? How can I bring more joy into my thoughts and intentions? Sometimes this is easy sometimes it is not. The power is in the practice.

Here are five easy practices to help you cultivate heartfulness.

Inner Smile Meditation

1. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, relax your body, and focus on your breath
2. Allow your breathing to become calm and peaceful
3. Take yourself back to a time when you were intensely happy. Take your time to create the most vivid picture that you can. As you relive this experience feel a gentle smile of happiness spread across your face.
4. Take this smile up to your eyes, making them sparkle behind your closed eyelids.
5. Feel a warm glow develop as your smile expands to fill your whole body – from your forehead, down the back of your head, your neck, shoulders and arms, then down through your heart, your abdomen and digestive organs and all the way down to your feet.
6. Sit joyfully in your body and smile.
7. Affirm: I am happy to be me. I love and accept myself, just as I am right now.

Nature connection

Next time you go walking take time to observe where you are. Notice all the wonderful things you can see around you. Listen to the sounds you can hear (the birds, a stream or even your own footsteps). Feel the breeze on your face.  Notice the seasonal changes. Notice the effect of the weather. Feel connected to the environment around you.

What is the magic you can sense around you each time you walk in the nature?

Breathe into the heart

1. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, relax your body, and focus on your breath
2. Breathe slowly and calmly, feeling your body expand on the inbreath and relax on the outbreath
3. Place one hand onto the centre of the chest, over the breastbone, and then bring the other hand on top.
4. As you breathe in imagine that you can breathe into the space under your hands.
5. Gradually sense that you are breathing into the heart and out from the heart.
6. Each time you breathe in imagine that your heart power is growing, allowing you to breathe in compassion, joy or kindness
7. After a few minutes relax your focus on your breath and open your eyes and let your full heart steer you through your day.

Create and attitude of gratitude

Start or end your day by naming five things that you are grateful for. It might be something big or it might be something seemingly inconsequential. It doesn’t matter. As you name each thing you are grateful for allow yourself to feel the emotion behind. The thankfulness for a steaming hot drink on a cold day. The pleasure in getting dry after a sudden downpour. Let your heart become full of gratitude as you relive each moment.

Move joyfully

So often when you think of movement you think of exercise and of course enjoying how you exercise is certainly key to it becoming a habit. What I am asking here is to extend your enjoyment in moving to include a more intuitive approach. More like how a cat stretches when basking in a warm spot, a bird shaking its feathers in a bird bath, or a dog chasing a ball. Those primal movements that we can all do “just because” that bring us pleasure and joy.  It could be as a simple as a stretch or a yawn.

Take time to play with movement, explore different things. Be open to finding new ways to move.

Make it your mission to move joyfully each day.

If you would like to fill your heart with energy this Spring then please come along to my Spring Vitality Day Retreat.  Nurture yourself with  gentle yoga techniques to re-energise and rejuvenate so that you can feel refreshed and ready to enjoy life to the full.