Reconnecting with the Heart Center

Here’s something I notice: If I go more than four or five days without doing some sort of meditation, breathwork, or embodied movement exercise, I start to feel a sense of discomfort in my chest. It’s an odd sort of discomfort; a kind of combination of tension and hollowness.

If I immerse myself in the News of the Day or Social Media, the effect is compounded.

And if I am without other human contact. . .well, then it feels as if there is a lead weight that takes up residence in my chest.

When I lose connection with my heart, it’s difficult (nearly impossible) for me to experience a sense of connection with others and the outside world. I lose my awareness of the subtle energetic connections between all beings, the planet, and the universe. It’s a profoundly disorienting feeling.

I went through the first thirty-five of my life spinning in disorientation. The idea of a ‘heart connection’ wasn’t in my vocabulary or Map of The Possible. So I strove for external markers of approval, read voraciously to keep my mind occupied, and developed a vicious sugar habit to fill the void.

When I experienced a sense of deep connection to my heart for the first time, it was so intense that I blacked out. My system had no frame of reference for what was happening and essentially had to reboot. Over the course of a few hours, I lost and regained my sight, re-learned how to breathe in a new way, and even reacquainted myself with the fine art of walking.

It was terrifying.

The exercise below is intended to provide a much more gentle, playful experience of connection. Enjoy!

Exercise

Place your palms gently over your heart and breathe into that area allowing the chest to rise and fall. Consciously elongate the breath allowing it to take up more space and time.

As you breathe, imagine that there is a brilliant source of light and power at the center of your heart. Notice what color that light is. What form it takes as you turn your attention to it.

Breathing in, allow the energy of the breath to enter into the heart, powering it up. Allow the exhale to stoke the heart’s fire. With each breath, allow the warmth and energy of the heart to spread through the body, like rays of the sun, pulsing through your arms, legs, and up through the throat to fill the head with light.

Breathe with this energy for a few cycles.

Bring awareness to the not-so-secret connection between your energy, your personal Sun, and the universal energy moving through and around you. Each breath can deepen this connection and relationship.

Now allow the energy of your heart to expand ever so slightly off your body. To support this, lift your hands away from your chest and hold them just a few inches in front of you. See if you can feel the energy filling the space between your palms and your body.

See what happens if you ask the energy to expand further or intensify. Move your hands a bit further from your body and allow the space to fill with light. Imagine a nimbus of light surrounding your entire body and connected to the center of your heart.

Play a bit. What happens if you ask the energy to expand further? How far out can it expand before it starts to feel tenuous or frayed? Bring it back to a comfortable place where you can genuinely feel the energy of your heart surrounding you.

Imagine moving through the world surrounded by this light.

What does it feel like to enter a room emanating this energy? How might that warmth and presence affect others?

Now take a few breaths imagining what becomes possible if everyone were to move through the world in this way.