Guest article by Meera Watts, founder of Siddhi Yoga (bio at end of article).
When you decide with your heart in life, it becomes the kind of life that is full of bliss.
The most devout Buddhists and deeply spiritual people will attest to living life with your heart. It is the place of honesty and pure love that negates all the fear you have.
The mind is where the fear lives. It is where you go when you live in the past or worry about the future. The heart is the here and now. Meditation helps you live more with your heart while letting go of what the mind tells you based on lessons it learned long ago.
Your Subconscious-The Inner Voice
What you may not realize is the inner voice that you listen to takes its information from past situations. The subconscious is what holds all the old data and if a new situation arises or perhaps an old situation revisited, your mind searches for an answer to how to deal with the situation. It may perceive the situation as dangerous even when it’s not as it has triggered something in you. For example, burnt toast might make you panic and run out of the kitchen if you’ve been involved in a fire before. Most people would just curse and run to pop up the toast but we all deal with things differently based on experience.
So how can you get what you truly want in life when the mind is constantly feeding you with fear of the unknown or the once-tried-but-failed events in your life? Through meditation.
One of the most profound ways you can resolve conflicts between your head and heart is by shutting up that inner voice for a little while. While the mind does have its place, it often feeds you information based on fear. Allowing the heart to be your guide means first letting go of the mind for a little while. When you meditate regularly, you learn to control the mind so it chatters less. In Buddhism, it is referred to the monkey mind and you can’t let it run ramped or you may never get what you truly desire in life.
How Meditation Shuts the Mind Up
Closing your eyes, sitting in a peaceful environment, and taking breaths to help you relax will allow the mind to slow down a little. When you can sit in the quiet peace, you’ll notice your mind much more. To turn off the light on the voice, observe or judge what it is saying. It is usually negative chatter anyway so it serves you no purpose. As you pay attention to your breath and allow your third eye to open, you may notice a gentle buzzing in your body or light radiating around you. If you get into this space and the mind is quiet, you may start to get visualizations.
With your heart open wide and your mind silent, you may begin to see what you really want in life. Maybe even things you didn’t know were possible.
Conflicts in Life Between the Heart and Mind
If you’re in love with someone but they aren’t meeting your expectations, this is a good example of the mind to heart conflict. Your mind tells you to be afraid that they will take advantage of you. Maybe this comes from a past relationship or low self-esteem that nobody could truly ever love you back. Whatever your reasons, you are allowing your mind to work you up to the point you’re going to end it. There really is no logical reason based on the immediate present. You just feel afraid to get hurt and you can’t pinpoint why.
Then your loved one calls or they come home and all that uncertainty disappears. Your heart can rule your life once again and you can feel at peace in your relationship. The thing is, one day your partner may disappoint you and your heart might be tested. If this happens, the practice of meditation can come in and help you out of your hole. Trying to work with reasoning probably won’t help and your heart and mind will play tug-of-war.
Immediate Meditation Benefits
When you have an experience where you’re panicking or unsure in your life, a little meditation can help correct your anguish. Close your eyes standing, sitting, or laying. Take a deep breath in and concentrate on opening your third eye. It sits just above your brow line right in the middle of your forehead. When you can tap into the 6th chakra, you re able to see life in a different way. Continue to breathe in deeply and hold your breath at the top and bottom for a count of 4. Breathe through the thoughts that are causing fear and anxiety in your body. Open your chest up and allow your heart to be present.
The subconscious mind is important for things like how to run away from a Wholly Mammoth. Now that our lives are much less about surviving, this part of us isn’t as necessary. It does try to infiltrate every moment of our lives whether we need it or not. When you meditate, you give your heart a chance to speak your truth about what you really want. Through breathing and relaxing you allow the mind to quiet down so you can make rational decisions on a conscious level.
Author Bio: Meera Watts is a yoga teacher, entrepreneur and mom. Her writing on yoga and holistic health has appeared in Elephant Journal, Yoganonymous, OMtimes and others. She’s also the founder and owner of Siddhi Yoga International.
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I hope you enjoyed this guest article.
With love and light,
Polly
