Many of us have been taught to live
from only one of our six senses, our mind. We have forgotten,
lost touch, with the other five senses available for
our perception of life. Assuming no physical disabilities,
every moment of life, we can see with our eyes, we can
smell with our nose, we can taste with our mouth, we
can hear with our ears, and we can touch life with our
skin.
Living from the heart is allowing our
body/mind sensations to come to our attention, moment
by moment. In reality, every moment of life is new and
every situation is fresh and clean. When we live from
our head only, life can appear to be repetitious, sometimes
exciting and sometimes boring. We are continually seeking
pleasure and avoiding pain. Much of my life has been
in this seeking process. An inner feeling of uneasiness,
that I should be somewhere I am not, with someone I
am not, having something I don’t have. Instead
of living from my whole being, I have been in the process
of having this and wanting that, of being this and becoming
that. The cycle of emotional suffering is very painful
and I have learned that it is all self inflicted.
Living from the heart means we are
connected deeply with the core of our real being. We
know who we are and where we are all the time. We are
connected with the source of life.
A child is born in the world, he has
an experience, this experience goes into his brain,
he remembers the experience, he desires the experience
again, if he gets what he desires, there is pleasure,
if he doesn’t get what he wants, there is emotional
pain for him and or others around him. At a very young
age, the child has formed an image of himself and of
the outside world. When the outside world fits the inside
image, there is pleasure, when there is no match, there
is pain. The cycle of seeking pleasure and avoiding
pain begins.
He starts using his intellect to figure
out what works and what doesn’t. This becomes a
habit, an ingrained pattern in the brain. Patterns repeat
until replaced. The longer a pattern is repeated the
deeper ingrained it is. His brain becomes conditioned
to look at life in a certain way, with certain beliefs.
This pattern continues until something happens in his
life to show him that his version of life no longer
works. This is can be viewed as life waking him up.
To live from the heart means to live
from feelings, body sensations. We learn to trust our
own feelings and rely on them.
We learn not to rely on our mental and emotional states
alone. We learn to distinguish between emotions and
emotional reactions.
When our mind and body are not in sync,
in the present moment, there can be tension and conflict
in the body. Mental and emotional movies can create
drama in our minds and our brain sends chemicals flooding
the body alerting it to dangers that are not real, they
are only in our mind.
We can learn to slow down our thinking
process so that we can observe our thoughts and feelings.
The brain is a receptacle for thoughts, an instrument,
a tool. Slowing down the function of the brain will
slow down the production of thoughts. Thoughts produce
feelings, sensations in the body. Feelings produce emotions.
An emotion produces energy in the body.
We can slow our brain down by meditating,
by praying, by deep breathing, by exercising, by touching
our body and letting it know it is safe, by allowing
thoughts to come as they will and seeing clearly that
we can let them go as quickly as they come.
A clear mind and a receptive heart
is a recipe for a healthy and vital life. My hope is
that everyone will realize that all suffering, with
the exception of physical pain inflicted on one person
by another, is self inflicted. When we realize that
we are creating our suffering, we can stop doing that
and observe the thoughts and feelings instead of becoming
them.
It’s takes time to drop conditioning,
but the rewards are well worth the effort and we have
plenty of time to do this. Time is a function of the
mind. Time comes from nowhere and goes nowhere.
Tomorrow never comes, everyone knows.
Tomorrow never comes, it just goes! Awareness of the
body/mind functions over time reveals to the observer
the truth that this present moment is all there is.
Michael D. Johnson lives in Jackson,
TN. Michael has been on a spiritual quest for fifty
two years. After being a CPA for 25 years Michael decided
to be a stay-at-home Dad. He homeschools his 8 year
old daughter and 7 year old son and helps his wife in
her jewelry business.
