Heart Centered Is…

May 20

The Human Meeting Place of

Spirit and Soul

Heart-centered knowing, or heart consciousness, I’ve discovered, is near impossible to comprehensively describe in a blog...but here’s a go at it. It’s about a deep place of knowing with your non-linear Self. It is embodied and non-local and mysterious all at once. It isn’t limited to the time-space continuum of rationalism and local knowledge we are conditioned to live by. Heart-centered consciousness brings the deepest, most meaningful and whole experience of life to life in a moment. Its ancient message has been repeated in sacred texts, scriptures and by spiritual masters throughout time. Heart-centered knowing is our true north. It aligns our internal compass in the direction of our Soul and puts our sacred life adventure on course. As I see it, acting from the conscious heart remains the most difficult yet crucial choice point there is.

“…we are living in a reverse society, because we reversed all the laws for living and we are doing exactly the opposite of what we need to be doing…people fear really listening to their hearts, of living their hearts; hence the noise and speed is essentially an escape from following their own hearts.” Ilarion Merculieff Unangan

Heart-centered living is especially challenging in modern times. We have been conditioned to live and learn with the head leading from our earliest days. This style of learning is helpful in mechanical, technical and transactional moments but it isn’t necessarily balanced with the heart’s knowing. Over time, the head becomes more practiced and hardwired, leaving our more human moments fraught with stress, heightened emotions or pressed time interfering with the heart’s knowing. This inner process, the heart’s knowing, requires reflective practices such as meditation, contemplative self-connection, silence, stillness and time in nature to balance and strengthen.

Like the Soul, heart-centered qualities have attributes that can be experienced, shared and felt but not necessarily taught. A heart-centered parent might have a greedy, self-absorbed or even narcissistic child or vice versa. Unfortunately, there isn’t a playbook to follow the heart’s knowing, which makes the journey both ubiquitous and one of a kind, unique. Heart-centered knowing is living with authenticity, personal meaning and integrity. It puts us in right relationship to our Soulful selves, our surroundings and the world. With the heart leading and the head following, we navigate our own sacred life stories from the inside out. It’s a form of relating, a way of being and a necessary part of common humanity and our collective evolution.

Here are some head/heart comparisons:

Heart Centered Attributes

Courageous
Wise
Kind
Peaceful
Joyful
Gentle
Compassionate
Empathetic
Innocent
Open Hearted
Grateful
Vulnerable
Humble
Graceful

Head Centered Attributes

Aggressive
Intellectual
Polite
Controlled
Pleasant
Weak
Pitying
Dutiful
Naive
Lacking boundaries
Beholden
Conciliatory
Afraid
Skilled

In comparing these attributes what do you notice? How would you describe the differences between compassionate and pitying or innocent and naive? We instinctively know the difference from a feeling place but in a moment, it would be hard to describe those differences. This is the challenge between the heart’s knowing and the head’s understanding.

When I was writing my transformational memoir, Orchid of Fate, one of the editors suggested I include “terms of reference” for readers. At the time, it felt more like a self-help thing to do and Orchid of Fate is a personal story of transformation. I was naive about the subjectivity of words. Looking back, I realize it might have been a good idea.

Many people have personal definitions of power words like heart-centered, love, money, wealth, success, Creator, God or the Universe. As a writer and a meditation teacher, I realize that words are only representations of what a person actually believes. Often, we use the same word in a conversation but our personal meanings vary. The more personally meaningful a word is, the more contextual, subjective and powerful it becomes. Therefore, not all words should be readily assumed as having a universally shared meaning. Especially spiritual words. They rarely do.

Heart-centered is definitely one of those terms. I’ve heard people assume it means sentimental, touchy-feely, or emotional. Please...No! Heart-centered, as I know it, is the human meeting place for deeper consciousness, subtle body connection and meaning. It is the proverbial shiva-shakti union, the archetypal masculine and feminine cadeusus, yin-yang and spirit-soul dance. It arrives when we become conscious enough to integrate the polarities we’ve inherited and incorporated through our experiences. Like a rhythmic dance, heart-centered consciousness is in tune with the nuance of moments and somehow this attunement creates more harmony, peace and even joy in our lives. Maybe it’s our true nature to be heart-centered? Perhaps living a heart-centered life is an act of Self-love or the point of life.

For sure, heart-centered consciousness is a quality of being that is much easier to describe as what it’s not than what it is.

So here goes what heart-centered is NOT:

hierarchy
moral codes
dogma or doctrine
formulaic
emotionality

impulsiveness
reactivity
rote
without boundaries
without human form

Many words, including heart-centered, reduce to the familiarity of a feeling or impulse within the body. The subtle body has a tangible connection to the nervous system and what we experience through emotion and feeling. As time goes on the words we choose to repeat and live by become increasingly subjective and contextual. Like heart-centered, they no longer live on a page but rather become something we know and believe in ourselves.

“Spiritual” words like heart-centered hold A LOT of relative subjectivity. As a writer, I care about the subjectivity of words. Spiritual power words like... love, peace, Creator, Universe, God, etc... hold more relative subjectivity than descriptive words like fast, blue or bright. I met someone who hated the word “love.” Yet this person worked with rescue animals. It seemed they were rebelling against their own subjective experience of “love,” not the universal meaning it holds. The more subjective a word becomes, the less objectivity language holds. The harder it becomes to communicate through language.

Much strife and digression come from unconscious word subjectivity. By making the word a symbol for what we feel or have experienced, we argue about the meaning and hide from the deeper truth of our feelings at the same time. Words, like stories and archetypes, are powerful symbols that hold the energetic power of the gods. Yet without an embodied physical location, even powerful words, like money, love, Creator, Universe and God can become meaningless.

Part of living a Heart-Centered Life is locating subjective meaning at the subtle body level.

This requires going beneath the reactivity of the head’s familiar and conditioned realm to an authentic discovery of personal truth and deeper meaning. Heart-centered words always connect to the physical body. Like Mother Earth, they give us ground. They have a resonance or tone that provides a real experience. Being heart-centered is a full-body experience, not an esoteric idea or spiritual abstraction. We may use language to express it, but really, it is a way of being in the world that is different from head-centered living.

Both head and heart have their places and their time in our lives

…but from a spiritual perspective, be it Vedic, Hebrew, Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist, there is a right order to things and that spiritual order, like the metaphysical laws directing the universe, states that the heart leads and the head follows:

“…The people who will be most suited for dealing with these increasingly challenging times are the people of the heart.” Indigenous voices from Turtle Island on the changing earth.

Your Next Step:

If you feel called to connect with your Soul’s purpose, power, and passion, I’m here to guide you. As a Sacred Seer, Soul Alignment is my calling. I help bridge the gap between your current awareness and your Soul’s deeper messages.

Drawing on ancient subtle body-seeing, evidence-based practices, and decades of Soul-centered wisdom, I support clients in aligning with the powerhouse of their Soul — so they can live their purpose with passion, in service to people and the planet.

When you're ready to decode your Soul’s messaging, through a dream, life paradigm or personal vision, I invite you to connect with me through a one-on-one Soul Alignment session. Together, we’ll discover the secret language of your Soul so you can live aligned with life. Take the Soul Alignment Quiz.