by Dr. Steven M Johnson, DO
Thank you to my eurythmy colleague Karen Derremeux for her contributions to this exercise
During this practice, it is important to free yourself from intellectual and analytical thinking. You are “letting go” so to speak, and giving space for something to emerge out of your moral-imagination, inspiration and intuition. You want to feel this space you are creating in the physical region of the heart. This starts by developing a “stillness” where your consciousness lives between the expansion and contraction of your breathing. Don’t over focus on your physical breathing but rather the space between expansion and contraction. When you have achieved this meditative state of peacefulness the exercise will become more and more helpful.
Step 1: First start with several slow breaths in and out. Feel the contraction and expansion in your body until you are no longer forcing the breathing but simply experiencing these qualities of expansion and contraction. Take about three to five seconds between the in-breath and out-breath until you feel a stillness between breathing in and breathing out. Allow this stillness to permeate your awareness in the region of the heart. If you feel lightheaded, pause and breathe less deeply. When you are ready, go on to the next step.
Step 2: Become aware of something that causes you discomfort or stress and sense how the stressful feeling unfolds within your body and emotions. Also, note how it affects your breathing and heart rate. Breathe by expanding and contracting through this feeling until you feel you can penetrate it. Feel your heartbeat relax.
Now, imagine that you simply move this uncomfortable sensation onto an imaginary ‘table’ next to you. Do not try to understand or analyze things. Take a moment and feel that you have “let go.” There is no rush. When you have come as close as you can to this experience, say to yourself “I am centered and at peace”
Step 3: Now, imagine you are breathing (expanding and contracting) through your heart. Try to imagine a sense of light and warmth growing in your heart like a candle flame. Keep your awareness there until you feel the light and warmth circulating from your heart out into your body and up into your mind. Do this until you feel calm and centered.
Step-4: Bring a positive memory, feeling, picture, verse or ideal into your mind that touches the heart-space you have now created. It just needs to be something that brings meaningfulness into your life. Consciously place this in your heart and claim it as the way you want to think and feel. Claim this heart awareness as your center. Imagine that this strengthens the light and warmth already growing and circulating out from your heart, not only into your body but into the space around you outside. Try to feel this as an experience of beauty, love and fulfillment. Truly feel this through and through.
Remember this image and state of being so you can learn to recall it again and again when needed in times of stress or difficulty. Remember how this image kindles light and warmth within you!
Step 5: Now, using your intuition, common sense, and sincerity, ask your heart…why are you suffering and how can I heal you! Be completely open and do not analyze this question. Listen to what might emerge in your self-awareness. Think of this as a self-enlightenment and be open to what speaks to you. Affirm that you want to let go of the reactiveness or illness that lives within you and clouds your potential to be free and healthy. Affirm to yourself “I am my own truth”. My heart-wisdom knows how I can heal and be the person I am meant to become.
My heart can guide me to my highest self.
I am not a victim to outer circumstances.
Say to yourself several times:
“I will persevere”
Step 6: In the heart-space that you have created, listen carefully to hear a response. Listen to what your heart says in an answer to your questions and affirmations. Perhaps, imagine this to be your higher angel speaking to you or the voice of your higher self. If there is no immediate response, hold a space for the days ahead for an answer to reveal itself. Sometimes this can take three or more days or even a week to manifest. Again, trust your heart and your ability to persevere.
The exercise is concluded!
This is an effective way to put your reactive mind and emotions in check, listen for a possible solution and take a new step forward. This exercise is a doorway to intuitive intelligence and builds a reliable bridge between the heart and mind, thus connecting our thoughts and actions. This builds “coherence” which results also in self-regulation via your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Further, this strengthens your higher-self to overcome overwhelming emotions like sympathies and antipathies. It also manifests as a balance of thinking, feeling and self-directed action.
Through this exercise, we learn to trust that wisdom emerges through self-awareness. You begin to feel that you are acting out of your own truth. Rudolf Steiner taught in relation to inner-development that the heart can become a truth organ whereupon we can judge what is true or false by the sensation of warmth or coldness in our hearts. In modern times, this is essential. I also like to believe that every time one succeeds in achieving coherence, it opens the door for others to do the same.
Take a few minutes to write down in your journal the thoughts or feelings you want to remember from this exercise. A wonderful extended practice is to observe your mood, feeling or imagination in your heart and mind upon waking, especially after practicing this exercise. What is it speaking to you?
The more you practice this with daily stressors, the more it becomes a habit and soon you will become self-aware in the moment and learn how to meet and transform stressors, negative feelings and the pain of being ill. When you accomplish the whole of this exercise in the present moment, you have achieved “heart-Presencing.” It does not mean life will be easy. Life always has a way of giving us greater challenges when we are ready. But if you achieve a consistent level of coherence through all of this, you will shine like a star guiding others to a higher destiny.
Submitted by:
Dr. Steven M Johnson, DO
Collaborative Medical Consulting, Chatham, NY.
About