Jody Rose Helfand

Lately I've been thinking about heart-based living, which means really paying attention to your heart and realizing how important and special your heart is.   I've been listening to the subtle and powerful voice of my heart.  I've been figuring out the language my heart speaks.  I want to share some things I learned so far on this journey to my heart.   Here they are:

1.  My heart speaks to me when I'm meditating, in the shower, working out at the gym, sitting in nature, petting my dogs, sitting in my room on the floor in the dark, listening to inspirational music, and doing other things I love to do.  Ask yourself what you love to do and do it, and then listen to the voice of your heart.  When you do something you love, your heart communicates more with you.  The trick is being aware of the heart's voice during this time. 

2.  My heart speaks to me by beating  faster or slower when I'm doing something that resonates with my life purpose.  It just did this when I was planning an in-person get together with one of my online classes.   I have never met my online classes in-person, since they're obviously online, but something told me this semester to do this and when I was typing the email with the details for this class, my heart spoke to me!  It was beating fast, and it told me it was excited!  This is one way the heart communicates with you. 

3.  My heart speaks to me in subtle tones, always using positive language.  This sound reminds me of how an angel would sound when whispering advice.  When the heart speaks, the trick is to trust its voice and have faith in its voice and sometimes to take action, but without attaching negative emotions to that action.  Be aware of this, because the mind doesn't like it when you listen to the heart.   When the goal is heart-based living, you must challenge and battle your mind's objections, tricks, and manipulations.  Awareness and discipline are really important on your journey to the heart.   

4.  The difference between the heart's voice and the mind's or ego's voice is getting more clear to me.  The mind may try to trick me into being afraid of something-- the mind often leads with fear and the heart leads with love.  If the words are loving and kind that you hear, it's the heart speaking.  If the words are threatening, fearful, negative, unsure, insecure, blaming, critical, it's your mind at work.  This takes practice and like I said before, constant awareness, and discipline. 

5.  My heart loves when I breathe through it.  When I focus on it.  When I concentrate on it.  When I do something I know is part of my purpose, like when I teach-- my heart is so happy and I know this by a feeling.  I feel good when I teach.  I feel good when I exercise.  I feel good when I go to bed before 2AM.  I feel good when I write in this blog.  I feel good when I eat fresh organic food.  I feel good when I listen to music.  I feel good when I do random acts of kindness.  I feel good when I am loving.  I feel good when I imagine my life going in one direction versus another direction-- think about how something feels-- be more feeling.  The heart often speaks to you this way-- focus and concentrate on how something feels. 

6.  When faced with a decision, I try my best not to ask for advice and to trust that my heart knows the answer.  My heart knows what's best for me.  Someone else doesn't.   When faced with a decision to make and the decision isn't clear, I ask my heart what the answer is and to reveal it to me when the timing is perfect and when it's in the best interest of me and all involved.  

7.  I pay attention now and am more observant.  I use my senses more and find that this is a good way to hear the heart's voice.  I quiet my mind and when I do this, the heart speaks.

For me, this is the start of my journey to the heart.  My goal is to lead with my heart.  To have enough faith and trust so I don't need to know why I'm doing something-- meaning my mind doesn't need to know why, because the heart already does!  The idea here is to really trust, and I mean to really trust, not just intellectualize the concept of trust, but to put into action deep trust in your heart's voice.  

What I've learned so far is this: My heart knows the answers.  And now it's time for me to start listening.