The Power of the Heart: Finding Your True Purpose in Life (32 page)

It is an inner battle that you have to trust your intuition, you have to trust your heart.

Place your trust in your heart to stop yourself from translating your anger into abusive words or actions. The conscious decision to turn your anger into love will enable you to steer your own course and prevent negative emotions from taking over the helm. Think of your fears as recurring gifts that give you the chance to grow.

 ISABEL ALLENDE

It’s very hard to remember love when we are scared. Being afraid is one of the strongest emotions in the world.

It can be challenging, when you’re feeling negative emotions, to remind yourself that both you and your tormentor are beautiful souls connected at a higher level of consciousness, and that your anger is no more than an impulse from a frightened part of your personality.

How do you actually do this?

 LINDA FRANCIS

Even though I’m feeling pain in my heart, I open my heart. I just breathe into my heart. I open my heart and I remember things I’m so appreciative of, like my grandchildren, times when I’ve been at a mountain, or by a stream. I just open myself to the love that I felt before in my life. Then I can change the perspective that I’ve had, that this frightened part of my personality has.

 RUEDIGER SCHACHE

If you’re able to find in every situation in your life the bad aspects and the good aspects, then you will be able to break through all your fears and follow the guidance of your heart. Focus on the good aspects. That’s your way.

 GARY ZUKAV

You don’t need to let these painful sensations or judgmental thoughts determine what you do or say. That is the point. They do not need to control your actions or your words, even while you are experiencing them. The more you do this, the more these parts of your personality lose their power over you. They still come, you still feel them, they still hurt, but you are no longer controlled by them.

Negative emotions will continue to arise in your path even after you’ve connected to your heart. If you choose not to express them, they will not govern your life, but you do need to be
aware of them and examine them. You can make that choice. Open up to loving thoughts. It is only your fear that interprets another person’s behavior as, say, an accusation.

Act from your Authentic Power. The other person, seen by the fearful parts of your personality as the instigator of a negative emotion, actually has nothing to do with your fear.

When we find ourselves in a mess . . . we can make ourselves miserable, or we can make ourselves strong.

—PEMA CHÖDRÖN

Negative emotions begin to lose their grip on you from the moment you choose to turn away from them by opening your heart, from the moment you truly love and your heart is compassionate toward others. When your personality is fully aligned with your soul, you can listen to the voice of your heart, even at moments when a negative emotion is threatening to engulf you.

 PAULO COELHO

There is nothing wrong with fear. The only thing that is wrong, is to be paralyzed by fear. I think that from the moment that you allow fear to paralyze you, then you are lost.

Every time you experience a negative emotion, you have the choice to transform it into love.

Because the intention underlying a negative emotion and behavior originates in a frightened part of your personality, the energy of that
behavior will come back to you. After all, every one of your intentions is energy. And the energy you emit always comes back to you. This is the law of action and reaction, of cause and effect. So, whatever verbal abuse and anger you resort to, you will receive back from those around you. You can only break the vicious circle of negative emotions when you choose love over fear.

What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.

—PEMA CHÖDRÖN

The loving energy of your soul can inspire your personality and enable it to find fulfillment in giving and receiving love.

Resilience is possible for you as well. Whatever your circumstances, having dignity and the practice of mindfulness and loving-kindness can transform your life into a path of understanding and love. The world needs this wisdom and love more than ever. Through our own practice each of us can add seeds of goodness to our family, our community, and the Earth. In this way, we share the true pilgrimage of the spirit wherever we are.

—JACK KORNFIELD