Opening Your Heart
Opening Your HEART
by Gil Hedley, Ph.D.
WhyAreWeWhispering.com
Sometimes our hearts ache, filled with grief or bitterness or loneliness.
To avoid these feelings, we often close our hearts, and may gradually forget what an open heart feels like. Reopening then can be a delicate operation, yet access to the sensations of the heart are available to every one of us, at a pace perfectly reflecting where we are right now. That access is our pulse.
STEP ONE / Sitting comfortably, take a few slow, easy breaths on purpose and choose to focus on the physical sensations of your heart. Place your right wrist, facing upright, into the palm of your opened left hand. Let your left fingers gently curl around the right wrist, so that your left finger-pads settle and lightly press at the thumb-side groove between the tendons and the small bony prominence of the right wrist.
Pause.
Notice the sensation of rhythmic throbbing beneath your finger-pads. Just sit with that, appreciating the movement of your heart at your wrist. It’s quite the miracle, right there at your wrist.
STEP TWO / Raise the left-hand finger-pads ever so gently up to the groove at the right side of your neck, just between the bulk of muscle at the side of your neck and the central structures of your throat. Avoid pressing, as the movement of the heart here is full, and close to the surface. Breathe slowly and comfortably while you feel the sensations of your heart reiterating through your neck: your heart really is a whole-body phenomenon.
After half a minute or so, return to feeling the wrist pulse, and notice that you may continue to feel the rhythm in your neck simultaneously.
STEP THREE / Gently lie on your back comfortably on a couch, bed, or floor. Breathe easily while reveling in the fact that allowing a few nice relaxed breaths is a genuine gift to yourself, which you absolutely deserve. Rest your hands over the center of your belly, just beneath the rib-margin. Spend at least a minute or two just resting like this. Having already accessed the finer movements of the heart whispering through your wrist and neck, you may find it easy to sense the grander flourishing of your heart’s movements in your belly, stirring beneath your hands, in your chest, and even deep in your back along the front of your spine. Just let it do its thing, and notice the variety of sensations that accompany the movement of your heart.
After repeating the steps of this practice over the course of a few days, you will soon find it easy to allow the motion of blood spinning through your heart to rock your whole body. It’s fun and relaxing, and brings you into a pleasant connection with yourself.
WhyAreWeWhispering.com
Sometimes our hearts ache, filled with grief or bitterness or loneliness.
To avoid these feelings, we often close our hearts, and may gradually forget what an open heart feels like. Reopening then can be a delicate operation, yet access to the sensations of the heart are available to every one of us, at a pace perfectly reflecting where we are right now. That access is our pulse.
STEP ONE / Sitting comfortably, take a few slow, easy breaths on purpose and choose to focus on the physical sensations of your heart. Place your right wrist, facing upright, into the palm of your opened left hand. Let your left fingers gently curl around the right wrist, so that your left finger-pads settle and lightly press at the thumb-side groove between the tendons and the small bony prominence of the right wrist.
Pause.
Notice the sensation of rhythmic throbbing beneath your finger-pads. Just sit with that, appreciating the movement of your heart at your wrist. It’s quite the miracle, right there at your wrist.
STEP TWO / Raise the left-hand finger-pads ever so gently up to the groove at the right side of your neck, just between the bulk of muscle at the side of your neck and the central structures of your throat. Avoid pressing, as the movement of the heart here is full, and close to the surface. Breathe slowly and comfortably while you feel the sensations of your heart reiterating through your neck: your heart really is a whole-body phenomenon.
After half a minute or so, return to feeling the wrist pulse, and notice that you may continue to feel the rhythm in your neck simultaneously.
STEP THREE / Gently lie on your back comfortably on a couch, bed, or floor. Breathe easily while reveling in the fact that allowing a few nice relaxed breaths is a genuine gift to yourself, which you absolutely deserve. Rest your hands over the center of your belly, just beneath the rib-margin. Spend at least a minute or two just resting like this. Having already accessed the finer movements of the heart whispering through your wrist and neck, you may find it easy to sense the grander flourishing of your heart’s movements in your belly, stirring beneath your hands, in your chest, and even deep in your back along the front of your spine. Just let it do its thing, and notice the variety of sensations that accompany the movement of your heart.
After repeating the steps of this practice over the course of a few days, you will soon find it easy to allow the motion of blood spinning through your heart to rock your whole body. It’s fun and relaxing, and brings you into a pleasant connection with yourself.
Your heart is always there for you. Enjoy!
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