The Heart Is 3-Dimensional
A Quality Life Community Retreat at Wolf Creek Outpost, Woodland, Utah. 2010
There are many heart-opener poses in yoga, but the one I favor pays attention to the heart that beats on the back and is sensed by others. In other words, the heart hears.
Join me in being mesmerized by the miracle that is the human heart by watching this short 3-D medical animation.
I often think of the body as one big puzzle. It’s the anatomy that thrills me.
I love anatomy!
Did you know that “The heart is a sensory organ and acts as a sophisticated information encoding and processing center that enables it to learn, remember, and make independent functional decisions,” HeartMath Institute Director of Research Rollin McCraty wrote in the paper, The Energetic Heart: Bioelectromagnetic Communication Within and Between People.
What this means is: the heart can and does offer you intelligence. The phrase “listen to your heart” isn’t just a corny old adage. It’s wisdom.
“Heart Math”--his is fabulous! Researchers are learning that this marvelous machine, the size of a fist and weighing on average less than 10 ounces, also possesses a level of intelligence they are only beginning to understand. Evidence shows the heart also plays a greater role in our mental, emotional and physical processes than previously thought.
The Heart Hears!
“So… what is it saying?” I suppose many things. Choosing which “thing” to pay attention to can be tricky. Getting to that place of listening to your heart and then experiencing what it is saying can be heart-breaking or, at the very least, confusing when we’re used to overriding messages from the heart with our supposedly superior logic. So what do we do about this?
I suppose a good place to begin is Mindfulness.
Dr. Patricia Rockman states, “Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges from intentionally training to regulate our attention and emotion and a willingness to encounter, at least temporarily, whatever is arising so we can come to fully know our direct experience.”
…willingness to encounter
I teach middle schoolers. I teach yoga. I founded a non-profit yoga program called A Quality Life Community for cancer survivors. “Willingness to encounter” NEVER comes willingly! Well, hardly ever.
I should probably follow the philosophy that I often teach of “Never say Never.'' along with some other favorites of “Can’t say Can’t.” That last one always makes the 10-year olds in my life scream back at me, “You JUST said it!” (I love to rile them up this way!)
I’m enthused to be certifying in a course called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction -Teens . I find this program beneficial not only for my school teaching practice but also for my Yoga for Wellness practice. It’s taught through stressedteens.com by Gina M. Biegel, LMFT, who is a psychotherapist, researcher, speaker, and author in the San Luis Obispo Area who specializes in mindfulness-based work with adolescents.
More than ever, I’m aware of how necessary it is for practitioners such as myself to continually immerse ourselves in thoughtful programs such as this that emphasize mindful qualities of living, informal practice, and developing an awareness of one’s thoughts. It appears, through experience in mindfulness-based stress reduction, that teens often benefit from activities that focus on noticing and awareness of self-other judgments, worries, things out of one’s control, and pain and suffering. Many mental health difficulties arise from these aforementioned thoughts and then working through this heightened awareness through healthy means.
Yoga for Kids 2011
Obviously, it’s best when parents and teachers such as myself are able to support people in learning mindfulness early, but these skills can be learned at any age!
“Ok, now I’m Mindful. What do I do next?”
Supporting the back of your heart ventures back to the thought patterns entailed with the “Willingness to encounter.” The back of the body, in general, represents the past—that which is behind us. Sometimes when we have pain in the back of the heart, the heart is trying to remind us of something that happened in the past that has something in common with what’s happening in the present.
To uncover the spiritual meaning of pain in the upper-middle back, ask if you’re getting enough support in the back of your heart. Get more in-depth information on how to support the back of your heart here.
I teach yoga. Practices like yoga, if taught properly and with care for the individual practitioner, can go a long way toward resolving tension in this area, but often the upper-middle back will not release until something changes emotionally.
Taking a look at what you might need to do in order to shift something around how you are supporting yourself, how you are being supported, and what lessons from the past may be trying to reach you in the present.
I have a friend who attended our Writer’s Movement retreat in Moab. She is working through some things in her past that don’t just create emotional and physical discomfort, but will also create dialogue and a story designed to help others. Because, you see, her pain is not just for her own experience and enduring but rather for the recovering and healing. It also is not experienced for herself to endure, but for recovery and healing of those around her - especially young hearts.
Writer’s Movement Retreat. Moab, Utah 2022
The older three-dimensional heart healing the younger three-dimensional heart
My co-teacher for our next Riders and Writers Retreat is Jeannette Snyder. We whole-heartedly invite you to this offering, especially if you are looking to hang out and ride horses, hike outdoors, experience ranch-style living for a weekend, eat delicious food, engage in some yoga and mindfulness, and YES–receive some guided writing instruction.
I love working with Jeannette for these reasons:
As a Writing Coach, Jeannette has helped me find my own voice. I’ve watched her offer me and others emotional guidance and encouragement that feels exciting while also feeling safe, especially in a writing circle!
In a 1:1 experience, she highlights creative structure and offers critical feedback that helps you permanently improve your writing skills. She supports you as she helps you establish writing goals and stay on track with projects.
She invites you to write with an open heart in joyful alignment with this George Saunders quote:
“Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.” ― George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone
Something that Jeannette and I agree on—a belief and a knowing I hope you share with us—is that a life lived with a wide-open heart is a life worth living. It’s worth the vulnerability and the risk.
It’s important to step into spaces where your heart can be tended, both on the physical plane and spiritual plane. If you feel so called, join us at Riders and Writers. Let’s tend to our magnificent hearts together.
This year I’ve put a lot of energy into learning more about writing. As a final offer in today’s email, I wanted to share Five Ways to Write with an Open Heart
Write your stormy first draft: Write without censorship. Let the child have its way so you can feel what you feel. Snot bubble cry if you need to. Remember, this draft is only for you.
Find a way to get some distance from your work: Put that draft in a drawer. Burn a copy so the ashes can float freely on the wind. Make lists of what it’s all about. Distance will help you make meaning from your work, which is essential.
Write about the heroes as well as the heartache: While it may be true that if it bleeds it leads, resilience is based in hope. Saturday’s events may have brought out the worst in some people, but for others, it brought out the best.
Get spiritual: This doesn’t necessarily mean religious. Spirituality is simply the way we make meaning and find hope. Dial in to community and all that is good and just in the world. If you do nothing else, allow your mind a few minutes to be still. If you’d like some resources regarding self-compassion, check out Kristen Neff’s website.
Opening up the Heart; A Quality Life Community Retreat at Wolf Creek Outpost, Woodland, Utah. 2010
Take time outs: While it’s great to process these events and work toward justice, it’s also important to take breaks. Write about difficult feelings for no more than twenty-minutes at a time. Walk in nature. Find activities that sustain you. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Treat it like one so you can, to quote Reverend Alvin Edwards (a speaker at Heather Heyer’s memorial), wear out rather than rust out. In other words, don’t let the writing life become so intense you bow out.
Silliness at Wolf Creek Outpost, Woodland, Utah. 2010
