Listen to your heart
It is easy to listen to your heart when you are in love, you can feel it! It swells and emits energy, positivity and joy. At other times the chatter of your mind may drown out its more subtle expressions but your heart is quietly speaking your truth all the time. The Walters Method trains you to hear it when you most need to. Free tutorial here.
We are trained to listen to our heads
Most of us are born with open, loving hearts, it is our natural state, just look at a 3 month-old baby! But life teaches us to tune out from our hearts and turn our attention to the incessant chattering that goes on in our head. Small wonder that we suffer from confusion and anxiety. Our busy head cannot give us the quiet, wise guidance that our hearts offer.
Part of growing up is about learning to fit in and follow the rules set by our families, communities and cultures. We are praised for being well-behaved and scolded for speaking our mind, being disruptive and challenging the rules. This can make us question ourselves and feel separate. It feels safer to fall in and accept how we ‘should’ behave.
We also suffer traumas, major and minor. And struggles that teach us that life can be scary and dangerous, and that it is safer to avoid certain situations and people.
Plus, we get conflicting information from the world that can lead to confusion and self-doubt until we don’t know who we are, what is right for us and who we should please.
Our heart remains clear
Our hearts are unaffected by the confusion, busyness and fear of our thoughts. It is quiet, clear and consistent. When we learn to listen to our heart it guides us and reveals what is true for us. When we follow our heart we can live with integrity, compassion and undiluted energy.
Our heart communicates to us through sensations in the body. If we are making a decision that is good for us it feels open, positive and deeply calm. If it is a decision that goes against our values, our purpose or our safety it feels agitated, heavy and closed. And we can trust it, it doesn’t lie. Our heart guides us to live from the heart.
How does mindfulness help?
A mindfulness practice quietens our thoughts and builds the ability to focus on our heart so we can let it guide us. However, for many of us our busy thoughts, fears and anxiety distract us and we are unable to ignore them. We need teachers, guides and a toolkit to help us to move our attention from the demanding and distracting activity in our head to the quiet, safety and comfort that is always present in our hearts. The Walters Method offers that toolkit.
A useful tool to use in the early stages of quietening the mind, clearing thoughts and accessing some heart-wisdom is the Conscious Writing exercise. It is in my ‘Starter pack’ for students of The Walters Method and you can access a free tutorial online here. It is recommended by many teachers of modern spirituality including Marianne Williamson.
The Conscious Writing Exercise
In the exercise you simply write. You write out all your thoughts, letting them tumble on to the page. It does not matter if what you write is illegible or full of mistakes and half sentences. You don’t need to read it back, just keep writing for a set amount of time. As you offload the foremost thoughts and worries others begin to arise and as each is scribbled on to the page some space begins to clear in your head. This leaves room for deeper thoughts to come forward and as you write these out some gems of wisdom, love and certainty often arise. At the end of each session ask yourself ‘What would love say?’ and write down your heart’s response.
Give it a try
Twenty minutes of conscious writing a day can be a complete life changer. You will notice immediately that you are calmer and more centred and there is less clutter in your head, after a week you may be surprised at how calm and considered you are becoming.