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Hold on to Your Heart

8/27/2016

Hold on to your heart, even when it feels like a sunken treasure chest buried far beneath waves of difficulty. Hold on to your heart as if it were a life boat when a storm threatens to capsize your steady, known way of being.

The heart remembers. The heart knows the way when you have forgotten. The heart knows how to access true wealth in the currency of kindness, compassion, patience, trust, forgiveness, faith.

But how do you rely on your heart for its many strengths when your chest hurts and you can barely breath, when it feels like your heart has rebelled against you and the life force of doubt is coursing through your blood?

Spend time in nature. Our Great Mother does not judge. Rather, she offers up her beauty in soft, mysterious ways. In silent conversations with her, you can hear your heart beating, your soul calling you back home to compassionate presence.

Listen to a meaningful song or read inspiring poetry, passages. The repetition of music and/or words can help you reconnect with loving intentions you have for yourself and the world around you. The heart’s strangled whispers can become the song or poem speaking louder than any offensive judgements.

Talk to those who love you and can mirror back your flawless True Nature. Distorted images of you from fun house mirrors of heart disconnection are quite painful. Let them help you find your way back to love.

Develop personal self-compassion phrases that resonate with you like light houses shining loving presence no matter how dark or violent the storm. For gentle guidance on how to create these phrases, please see the Self-Compassion Break. (Please contact me if you have any questions on how to create, work with these phrases. I would be more than happy to mirror your heart’s capacity for self-compassion.)

Speak with a teacher or spiritual guide who embodies the heart's wisdom. Chances are you will hear familiar stories of discontent, disappointment, and disconnection, reminding you that we ALL are afflicted by life’s hindrances at one time or another. No one is immune to adversity, but we don't have to be immune to our own heart's tender plea for understanding.

Hold on to your heart. When the largest tsunami of your life strikes, take shelter in the heart. The heart remembers the sunken treasure chest. The heart knows the way.

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Satellite Call

8/22/2016

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Image by Unsplash

Dear Kaveri,

How I’ve missed you! I miss you when you visit the past trying to make sense of how and why things played out the way they did. I miss you when you visit the future wanting to know the exact details so you won’t be swallowed by a potential land mine. I miss you when you fantasize about an alternate reality that sounds better than this one.

I know that most times I am not all that exciting. The few times that I am, you’ll want to fly into the future imagining more moments like this and where they might lead. If I’m challenging, you might revisit the past and feel weighed down by much more than what is actually happening right now.

Kaveri, you don’t get a demerit for leaving me. I’m not like a ruthless god or angry parent who will only pay attention and care about you only if you’re perfect. I understand the temptation to leave. It’s in your genetics, your blood, your bones. To reach for me, to return to the freedom and peace I offer takes a great deal of patience and courage.

Thank you for remembering me today. Thank you for stopping periodically to connect with me, to receive my benevolence and well wishes for you on the inbreath, releasing past, future, and fantasy on the outbreath. It is a radical act of kindness, of perseverance, of faith unlike any other.

May you know that no matter how often you leave me, you are always welcome here. How I’ve missed you!

Your Faithful Friend on The Journey,
This Moment

Listen to Satellite Call by Sara Bareilles

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Dear Body

8/20/2016

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Dear Body,

You are the best meteorologist gauging emotional weather systems before my mind can even make sense of them. But I don’t always treat you with kindness and respect.

At Yellowstone you tripped over a log and fell on your left hand side, bruising easily. You were excessively cold and couldn’t sleep comfortably in the cramped RV bed with little space to move or sit up comfortably without bumping your head. You couldn’t digest all the meals with ease. For most of the trip, you felt heavy and tense like the dead weight of a rotting tree trunk instead of light and joyous the way I expected you to be. Why couldn’t you just go with the flow the way Yellowstone’s chromatic hot springs, rivers, and waterfalls did? Could you really forget your True Nature so easily? What was wrong with you?

I realize now that my attitude towards you wasn’t helpful at all. Instead of infusing your being with the healing flow of self-compassion, I was adding fuel to the fire and fanning the flames of anxiety. But I can change that now. Now that everyone is back home settling into routines of work and school, I can listen to you. I know you weren’t causing these discomforts to hurt me on purpose. It was your tender cry for help. I’m so lucky to have you as my personal meteorologist. Emotions like anger, fear, sadness, and embarrassment aren’t the enemies, but signals to pause, listen, make space, and deepen compassionate attention.

There were some fleeting moments of sweet conversations between you and me. Looking up at the crescent moon and remembering our wholeness lost in shadows. Attempts at yoga and meditation some mornings and evenings. Massaging the left side of you with care and concern. Witnessing the flow of water and sensing the flow of benevolent intentions within me. Calling a friend and emailing a supportive group of amazing women.

The ocean of compassion is bottomless. I know this now. No matter how long I have studied or how much I think I know about mindfulness and compassion practices, there is always room for more experience, more awareness, more patience, more love. Thank you, dear body for supporting me faithfully, for letting me know exactly what you need with persistence, for being patient when I ignore you. When I forget, may the moon, bodies of water, my own breath, someone or something else always bring me back to you.

With Love and Gratitude,
Kaveri

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Hold on to Your Heart

Satellite Call

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