The Heart - Our Inner Refuge
Our heart center is an energetic space within us. A space that is layered with the accumulation of a lifetime of love and loss, joys and pain. It’s a treasure trove of rich resources — such as finding a soft place to land when feeling hurt, a place of embrace and restoration for a weary soul … Within you may find a swing to sit on in quiet reflection … a bench near the sound of a twinkling fountain, many nurturing surprises await you deep within the sacred garden of your heart center. Here too, you’ll find the listening ear of your knowing soul self ... to guide you, to really hear you, and to gently ask you what it is you most need in the midst of a struggle.
However, when left untended, it becomes like any other place we put things we’re not sure what to do with … like a closet, a basement, an attic. Consider what a space becomes when we only use it to store stuff that we no longer cherish, or that feels too painful to sort through at the moment. When the heart is left untended emotionally, it ends up a dumping ground for the loves lost, the hurts and the pains we’ve brushed off, stuffed under the rug, tried to ignore. It becomes a minefield of unrequited suffering. Likewise, when the heart is left unattended energetically, when we are not mindful of our energetic boundaries, we wind up swimming in emotional debris that is not our own.
It’s important to set boundaries around what is ours and what is not. The heart can be an overwhelming space when our empathy is unbounded, undirected, unregulated. When empathy runs wild we feel like a boat unmoored lost at sea - flooded in the emotional energies of those around us without purpose or direction. The heart might also be shuttered tight when we’ve had too many hurts and have decided we’d just rather not feel at all. In this case we are left with no place to turn to within for nurturing when in need. When the door to the heart is closed, this leaves us desperately seeking what others cannot give us - an inner sense of safety, peace, ease, worth. Ultimately, we find that both of these conditions of the heart leave us feeling uncomfortable or unfulfilled.
How then do we tend our heart?
The first step is to begin to see the amazing treasure that we have here. What’s the greatest treasure you’ve known in your life — Love? Comfort? Beauty? Peace? Companionship? Wisdom? The heart center encompasses all of these, and moreso, it offers all of these rich resources every moment of every day of your life! Next, we begin to treat our heart the same way we tenderly care for our beloved. (Whoever that beloved is in your life: partner, child, mother, friend, pet). Imagine giving this level of care to your heart … check in each day and see how she’s feeling, listen to her when she’s down, notice the subtle things she needs, help her set boundaries, look out for her, enjoy her, be with her, prioritize time with her.
Imagine tending your heart the way you would care for your dearest loved one … how would your life be different?
Tending one’s heart does not create the sacred garden, it’s already there, a gift from the Divine. But tending to your emotions and setting boundaries with your empathy, allows your heart to be a place of inner refuge … a place where you can drop in any time and feel the unconditional love of Divine Light! A place to rest, a place to come home to.
Much Love and Many Blessings On your Journey!
Lynn and Cheryl