The Power of the Heart: Finding Your True Purpose in Life (9 page)

On any of the continents anywhere on this planet you see a mother holds her child and takes care of her baby and obviously loves her children. When you’re walking anywhere in the world and you see lovers who clearly feel like they have found something special, and you relate to that and you see it, this is the life of the heart.

We can also connect with our hearts by facing difficulties. Our own mortality, the prospect of death, encourages us to listen to our heart and allow its inner voice to speak through any worries or fears. Steve Jobs connected with his heart through awareness of his mortality, which helped him make important decisions. “Because,” he reasoned, “almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

There is no reason not to follow your heart.

—STEVE JOBS

 ECKHART TOLLE

How can we connect with the heart? The starting point is: all you ever have is this moment. So you look more deeply into this moment.

The power of the heart is the power of now, of being aware of the moment. Be aware of the abundance of life right now. If you remain stuck in the past, clinging to the baggage of old disappointments or relationships, you block yourself off from the riches of the present. If you worry too much about tomorrow, you can’t hear your heart today.

 MICHAEL BECKWITH

In order to tap into the wisdom of the heart, we have to listen. Lowly listening. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Be still, turn within and be aware that the answers are not out there somewhere in the world.” The answers, the intuitive guidance, the wisdom, it’s here.

The answers are in your heart. View your life as a series of present moments. The more you manage to inhale and fully absorb this moment, the better you can hear the voice of your heart.

Michael Beckwith

 MAYA ANGELOU

I think that it’s all you can listen to. I know that with the otic ear, one can listen to the birds, and one can hear the rustle of the leaves of the trees, and the river as it flows, and the ocean as it ebbs and flows. However, to really hear is only with the heart. To hear more than information, it’s really wisdom. So that is who you really listen to. And so you become calm, you must become calm.

Reflect on a beautiful moment while you experience it. Allow yourself to appreciate even trivial and ordinary things. See how significant they actually are: a good conversation, a favorite song, a comfortable chair, a ray of sunshine peeking through a blanket of clouds.

As you embrace the present and become one with it, and merge with it, you will experience a fire, a glow, a sparkle of ecstasy. You will become lighthearted, joyous, and free.

—DEEPAK CHOPRA

Seize the day! Play with your child, listen to music, walk in the park, make love, read poetry. Focus on what is good. This keeps you connected to your heart.

 ECKHART TOLLE

To listen to the heart means to be connected with that deepest level within yourself.

The heart is naturally calm and peaceful, clear and strong, the qualities of the deepest level of your consciousness. The closer your connection with your essence, the more loving you will become and the more enjoyment you will derive from everything you encounter on your path.

 GARY ZUKAV

The more you do this, the more the loving parts of your personality and their experiences begin to fill your field of awareness, which means the more loving you become. So that’s the way you begin to express your heart.

As Father Matthew Fox says, “If you get cut off from your passion, then where’s your compassion going to come from?” Even when you find yourself in difficult or sad circumstances, you can rely on your heart for guidance. As you become better at listening to your heart, it will connect you with other people and communicate options and solutions to you. Allow your heart to open your eyes to something your mind may not have considered. The decision that comes from your heart will always be the right one for you.

Now is all there ever is.

—ECKHART TOLLE