Opening the Heart

Some years ago I was in a relationship and we both began to realize that we were in different places in our lives. We realized we wanted different things, so we decided to break up. Ellen was angry for some time, but after a while we came back together as friends. I cared a lot about Ellen. I always enjoyed seeing her and really valued her friendship.

Eventually Ellen met someone else and I was very happy for her when she told me about it. Then all of a sudden she stopped returning my calls. I didn’t know what was going on. Sometime later I learned that the man Ellen was seeing told her he would leave her if she chose to continue the friendship with me.

It really hurt to lose a friend and I felt a lot of sadness about it. Then after a month I noticed I was feeling a sense of deadness in my heart.

I was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time and worked in Santa Fe a few days a week. I would usually drive home late in the evenings after finishing my work. The desert in New Mexico is especially beautiful and those droves were a time of reflection for me.

One night I began to breathe softly and deeply as I focused my attention in the middle of my chest. Initially I felt very numb, but I continued to work with the practice for months during my late night drives back to Albuquerque. I began to experience a faint itching sensation in the middle of my chest during my second or third night of practice. The feelings gradually grew stronger and became more accessible over the coming weeks. Layer after layer of old emotional residue began to dissolve and flow through my body and mind. Powerful feelings of longing, loneliness and emptiness began to emerge. Other physical and emotional feelings and sensations of warmth and of being connected to the source began to flow from a deeper place within as I continued to digest the old emotional residue. These enjoyable feelings grew stronger as I continued to breathe into them. At times the experience felt very transcendent.

People hold large volumes of old emotional residue stored in their bodies. That’s because most people are not digesting all the hurtful emotions and experiences. And the hurts often do not heal. So often it just numbs out and we continue to accumulate more. I can see all these old hurts and losses as I look into people’s auras. And all that baggage shuts people down. It creates obstructions that prevent new opportunities and experiences from coming into our lives.

Breathing softly and deeply as you focus your awareness in the middle of the physical sensations and emotional sorts of feelings in the middle of your chest will help you digest the old hurts and other mental-emotional residue. You will melt the armor over your heart. And when that happens you will emanate a greater emotional warmth and your capacity to love will grow. More love will flow to and from you.

Some of you may have experienced a lot of heartbreak or be in the middle of a break up or difficult relationship. The feelings that emerge can be very unpleasant. And sometimes it’s really painful. You may also experience those feelings in other parts of your body. These feelings will change as you continue to breathe into them. They may soften or dissipate. Feelings of warmth or of being connected to your source may emerge. Breathing into the hurts will help you to get over losses quicker. And when it’s necessary you will find it easier to let go and move on in your life.

Heartbreak can be debilitating. It can leave one with serious emotional wounds. Sometimes patterns develop in our body and mind that cause us to attract more hurtful experiences. These patterns also prevent us from being loved. And some people never fully heal. Sometimes we need the assistance of a healer to heal the wounds and to bring us to a place where we can attract love into our lives.

At times you may start breathing into feelings pertaining to your present relationship. That will often evoke a whole progression of feeling and memory associated with other relationships and experiences from your past. Following the progression of feeling and memory will take you to the source of the conflicted issues that have plagued your life. Many of the patterns that have paged your life will begin to soften and dissolve as you continue to work with this practice.

Sometimes you will find what seems to be an absence of feeling. But as you really pay attention, you will probably notice more subtle feelings such as tension, constriction or heaviness. You may experience a flat or neutral feeling. Or there may be subtle tones of emotion in the background. Some people mistakenly assume that nothing is happening if they are not experiencing some dramatic feeling or release. The feelings you access will often be subtle, and that’s normal. Every time you work with this practice you are awakening your body-mind conscious.

Some of us are in loving and supportive relationships. Breathe into the love you feel for someone special. The love will grow stronger and begin to flow through out your body. Warm loving feelings will nourish you. Breathe into them as much as possible.