Peaks and valleys.....the path of an open heart.

Yogis,

Living life with an open heart……………….

                Leading life from the heart……………….

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  It’s almost cliché.  Of course we all try to do that.  Of course we want that.  But are we strong enough to really do it?  Do we even know what it means?  Can we live from that place of vulnerability all the time and not simply when it is easy?  Because when the heart is wide open……it will get hurt. 

This is why we practice fire before coming up to the heart.  Having an open heart takes a whole lot of courage.

This is what having an open heart might look like.
 

See those peaks.  Oh we all spend our lives seeking those.  Joy.  Pure bliss.  Unconditional love.  They make us light and airy, as if floating above the earth.  The heart blooming like a perfect rose, about to burst right through the front of our chest.   Powerful.  Exhilarating.  When we are here we love everyone and everything.

Now…..see those valleys.  Sigh.  Grief.  Unfulfilled longings.  Wrenching sorrow.  Lost love.  These drop us down with a loud thud, feeling as if it isn’t possible to go any lower.  The heart clenching into a tight fist.  Withdrawal.   When we are here it seems it is all we can do to keep from drowning. 

Well then,  I just won’t allow myself to feel those valleys.  That’s easy.  When life presents one to me I will just shut down my emotions.  I will go on as if nothing is happening.  I will look the other way.  I just won’t GO there. 

And that is certainly a choice we can make.  But you know what?  Here is how it looks when we choose it.

 

Because if we pull in from the lows, there is an equal and offsetting retreat from the highs.   Living here is called “comfortably numb”.    And we can find this place through busying ourselves, alcohol or drugs.  And many do.  It can seem safer.

But this isn’t living.

The only reason the grief feels so all encompassing is because the love we had was so brilliant.  The unfulfilled longings feel so hollow only because we have tasted the sweetness of fulfillment.  They are one in the same and if you dampen one you dampen the other.

 

So can you keep an open heart through the waves?

This is why we practice fire before getting to the heart.  It takes tremendous inner strength combined with the unwavering faith that we find in the heart to be able to sit with it all.   To feel it, be with it and watch it knowing that like everything outside the soul, this too shall pass.   

I know I for one want this. 

 

 

So I will SEE it……and continue to practice.  Baby steps toward becoming comfortable in the uncomfortable.  Not willing to settle for a life half lived.  Knowing I am always held.

Drawing the shoulders back to expose my heart,

SARAH