Just the other day I was
reminded of an old mantra I learned years ago.
"My mind is the servant of my heart." A mantra
is a prayer of sorts that is repeated over and
over with the intent to unlimit the mind.
Expanding the mind is what we do every time we
learn or incorporate something new. And there is
a lot to learn when it comes to revealing our
human potential as souls experiencing life in a
physical world. It's amazing how intellectually
involved we can get with the soul's journey. We
so badly want to understand that we tend
to lose our focus on feeling. Feelings
are the expression of soul. When we want to
consciously embark on the soul's journey, we
must get in touch with these feelings. Soul must
be experienced, felt. Heart can attune us
to feelings. Heart can help balance ego and cue
us when we have tipped too far over into the
perils of personality.
We live in a society
focused on doing. We collectively measure
success by what we have accomplished materially,
by what we have to show for our labors. And
though possessing things might help allay
our fear of survival, these things will one day
pass out of our grasp, much the same as the body
does upon physical death. If all is eventually
dust to dust then, what is left to mark our
journey through life? This remainder, what we
leave behind, might be thought of as our soul's
imprint. Few of us like to think we will pass
through this life unnoticed or unappreciated.
Reflecting on this is often what sets us on a
path of self realization. Some of us know we are
meant to share something with humanity. Others
feel moved to "leave the campsite cleaner than
we found it," to quote an old Boy Scout saying.
What does your
heart tell you? How does emptiness gnaw at you?
Sitting with our feelings of fearing we are
somehow not enough is a double-edged sword. One
edge threatens us with self destruction. The
other edge sharpens our own inner quest and
urges us onto some greater vision for what we
will contribute. If we can sit with discomfort
long enough, if we can stay with uncomfortable
feelings while validating our right to exist, we
often feel moved and, in the process, may rattle
loose a kernel of uniqueness. This little egg,
if you will, is our potential creation. It is
not something the personality births but is
rather a divine spark of Soul's expression.
Then Mind can come in and evaluate it. Then
Mind can go to work, figuring out how best to
fashion its expression. If somehow we then begin
to fret and worry, we have lost communication
between Mind and Heart. Mind and its fears of
survival are taking over. The mind's process of
rationalization can work to remove every shred
of confidence we have. We then begin to think of
ways our plan will never work. Mind sabotages
Heart and we slump back into despair.
In the French language,
the word for heart is coeur. From this
word coeur comes the English word courage.
Heart helps us take courage, and we must not
lose this courage if we are to succeed in
bringing our soul's seed to fruition. Yes, it's
scary. Yes, it takes us out of our comfort zone.
Is it worth it? The "it" being the journey of
soul we so often hear about? Each of us must
come to this on our own. We don't make a
decision as such, for that implies this is a
mental process. It is not. Remember soul is
experiential, it is experiencing our creative
potential. Creation might be defined as form
emerging from chaos. Chaos is the mother of
creation, and we may experience an increase in
chaos as we encourage Soul to awaken within. And
though immersing ourselves in chaos might be the
road to our own creative process, we must also
be aware that our minds will not necessarily
support this process! This is where the little
mantra comes in handy, "My mind is the servant
of my heart."
Mind seeks order, and we
might start feeling a little crazy as we move
into deeper layers of our being. Rather than
waiting until we are in crisis however, it is
important to seek ongoing guidance and support
and to allow ourselves time to reflect and
meditate on this inner awakening. We might not
"figure it all out," but we can learn to accept
movement in our world, accept the basic nature
of reality which is that nothing remains fixed.
As we accept this more and more, we learn to "go
with the flow," allowing ourselves to be moved
to a greater degree by our instincts and
feelings.
Acceptance of movement
enriches our life experiences, taking us into
deeper levels of engagement with our own unique
nature. As we accept our uniqueness, we begin to
experience a genuine longing to know and care
for others with equal intensity. Instead
of categorizing and labeling others in our
familiar way, we are more able to see and value
the richness of heart we all share. Each human
being holds something within them that is unique
and valuable. And crazymaking as it might be at
times, revealing this value to ourselves is the
work of soul. As Robin Williams says, "You're
only given a little spark of madness. You
mustn't lose it."
