 | In these practices, the smile is not just used to pretend we're feeling good when we're not. And the positive 'qualities of the heart' are not just used to suppress what is really going inside. The qualities we focus on are never to suppress any underlying tension but, on the contrary, to allow all that requires attention to be able to come up, be expressed, integrated, released. [Click below to read more] |
Inhaling ...
... inviting in an expansion of the qualities of the heart:
Joy, Courage, Faith, Gratitude, Compassion, Love
Exhaling ...
… releasing and making space, trusting and allowing for the divine wisdom of the life-force to express itself.
Both the inhalation and the exhalation can be imbued with joy, pleasure and gratitude.
... inviting in an expansion of the qualities of the heart:
Joy, Courage, Faith, Gratitude, Compassion, Love
Exhaling ...
… releasing and making space, trusting and allowing for the divine wisdom of the life-force to express itself.
Both the inhalation and the exhalation can be imbued with joy, pleasure and gratitude.
LET A FEELING CRACK YOU OPEN
Here's the bad news:
You can't get 'over' a feeling.
You can't get 'past' it.
You can't release it.
You can't let go of it.
You can't transform or transmute it.
You can't even heal it.
All these ideas come from the mind,
not the body, not the Heart.
They are all subtle forms of violence,
sneaky ways of saying 'no' to a feeling,
aiming for its disappearance,
its death.
We learn to let go of 'letting go'.
We stop trying to release.
We end the exhausting effort to heal.
Instead, we are present.
We offer a feeling our simple presence.
Our non-resistant attention.
Our love.
Here's the good news:
In this field of presence
the feeling is no longer a problem,
an enemy, an aberration, a stain,
a block to freedom.
It is no longer 'something wrong'.
It is no longer 'negative'.
It is no longer a threat.
It is no longer an unwanted child.
You are now its guardian, its protector,
its loving parent, its Home.
And held lightly, in a still space of allowing,
the feeling stays for a while, or moves on,
or returns,
or never returns,
but either way,
you are healed from the need
to find healing elsewhere.
You do not heal feelings, you see,
they heal you, when you allow them
to guide you back
to your original Wholeness,
your loving nature,
your breath,
your place on this Earth.
- Jeff Foster