Purify your heart through service. Make it a fit abode for God to dwell
-Sivananda
Over the years, I’ve unintentionally become the heart person. In my career, and now in my overall life. Knowing the human heart has been the great motivator for me. And as a result, the years spent researching and learning and experiencing the full spectrum of the hearts power has expanded mine. Very painfully at times, I might add.
Rumi said: You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.
I would agree.
Heart work is not just for poets and lovers; it is for anyone longing for a deeper connection with themselves and with others. Heart work is a fast and practical way to cultivate meaning and joy, and it’s being backed by research.
The Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark has found time and time again that it is the quality of our social relationships with loved ones that leads to a content, meaningful, enjoyable life.
The Institute of HeartMath has produced mounds of research on the psychoemotional connections between the heart and brain, between the quality of our emotions and heart rate variability. Their research suggests that people are happier and healthier when they are attuned to their heart.
Philosophical doctrine such as Vedanta also point to the heart when it comes to happiness. Bhakti yoga, for example, is the practise of loving devotion, which leads to an expanded heart and mind.
Research shows that elevated emotions such as empathy and compassion are more easily accessible in those who have mastered their mind through practises such as meditation. These altruistic qualities exist in the higher, more refined centres of the cerebrum rather than the lower functioning cerebellum (which is fear driven and survivalist by nature). That being said; if you master your mind, you can better access the higher centres of your brain which leads to heart centred living. Think of it as a human software upgrade.
Bhakti yoga expands both the heart and the mind, resulting in the dissolution of ignorance, hate, and suffering. In Bhakti, seva {selfless service} is a tool used to put love in action in order to eradicate barriers between ourselves and others.
Learning to tune into the heart, like any other skill, takes repetition and attention. It is a practise. Learning to shift from conditioned love to unconditional love takes time. As the guru’s say: “You wouldn’t put conditions on your breath would you? Then why would you put them on your heart?”
Loving without expectation of anything in return is liberating. It is no longer relevant that your love be requited by others; the point of the practise is to love without attachment. This is why it is a selfless service: it’s not about us.
This can be difficult, especially when the mind gets involved. Loving with an open heart requires vulnerability. Brené Browns research reminds us that vulnerability is a measurement of courage, not weakness.
How can we practise selfless service? Volunteering to help others is a great start. Parenting with love is selfless service. Helping a friend or relative when they need support counts. Most of us are already doing it.
Let your service soften the boundaries between yourself and others so that you can recognize that we’re all in the same boat, spiritually speaking. The more room you make in your heart, the greater capacity you have for joy. The trick to joy, like most things in life, is that you must freely give away that which you seek in order to gain it. Give away all your love and see how much comes rushing back at you. Even when it hurts.
Cue: You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.
Amanda is a Halifax-based Manual Osteopathic practitioner who has trained with the College d’Etudes Osteopathique as well as the British College of Osteopathic Medicine. Amanda practises a heart-centred approach to Osteopathy and enjoys working with humans of all kinds.