Living with Heart
Happy New Year and welcome to 2019.
“True happiness is being faithful to your true nature. The better you know yourself—what it is you love, what inspires you, what you are made of—the happier you will be.”
Robert Holden
What do you love? How do you love? How do you protect that which you love?.
Earlier on in my life I did not know how it would feel to experience and create a life that I loved. I did not know myself well enough to know what I loved and what in life really moved and touched me. I thought love was something one experienced outside of oneself. In therapy and through other explorations, I started to connect with my true self and begun to make choices based on an inner compass rather than on what I thought I ought to be doing. I saw that just by making simple shifts to saying yes to some things and no to others that my quality of life improved.
We live in a world where there are many distractions that can steer us away from connecting to our lives from a place of heart and authentic expression. If we let our minds rather than our hearts lead the way we can come up with rather a long list of shoulds and demands of what our lives are supposed to be like.
The beginning of the year offers an opportunity for a reset. A chance to rededicate ourselves to that which we know truly matters and what we most want to cherish and protect. Many studies have found that the most single important indicator of life satisfaction is found when we follow our joy. However “joy” is not always about lofty goals and ideals. Sometimes “joy” can be found in the way we show up and connect to the present moment.
For example, simply starting my day with a short meditation and taking care of my inner experience of life can have tremendous impact on how I feel and how my day unfolds. Some of our loves might show up on a more social and global level. I am especially inspired by nature and love water in all its shapes and forms. I love being by water and in the water. I love what water represents, i.e. flow, emotions, the essence of life itself. In the past year, I felt moved to consider ways to get more involved in protecting the earth’s water. I found some beautiful organizations to collaborate with and contribute to in a way that is allowing me to protect something that I love.
So this month, I invite you to ponder, what do you love, are you engaged in what you love and how do you protect more that which you love? And maybe most importantly, are you expressing the love that you already are!!
If you are wondering how to live your life with more heart, you might want to check out the Heart Math Institute website. A great resource for living from the heart.
Have a great month everyone.
With much love,
Vivianne
