part0024

Let’s journey into our access code once more, and expand its possibilities. The access codes we have explored so far are the feelings of appreciation, love, care and other feelings we can experience from our memories of times when our hearts were full. These amazing feelings that are our spiritual hearts’ access codes are many and varied. The ones we have focused on are contained in the memories of moments when we were living our core values. These feelings are uplifting and positive. Their uplifting quality may be serenity, just as much as it may be passion or the uplifting quality of joy.

It is helpful to have identified a number of different specific memories to have available in activating your spiritual heart. You may want to identify memories of differing intensities as you create your heart memory repertoire .

I have identified a few very special, more powerful memories that I go to when I meet the greater challenges of life. I’m not thinking here of the everyday stuff, the frustrations, time pressures, irritations and hurt feelings that are common to life’s everyday interactions. We can have lots of wonderful memories – from puppies and sunsets to a friend’s hug – to use in transforming those daily reactive moments.

For highly charged or extreme situations, the memories I go to are so powerful that they overcome even the harshest reactions. I took some time to search through different memories to find a few that contained exceptionally powerful feelings. These are feelings so strong that by using them I can access my spiritual heart, even when my emotional upset is extremely strong.

One of the most powerful memories I have is of being in a small high school auditorium. I am sitting there, watching the play Camelot. The young actors are doing a great job – for high school students. As the play unfolds, its magic expands as it captures our awareness and draws us into its world, which becomes more real with each passing moment. The reason this play has become so powerful is the impact of the student who is playing King Arthur. When he is on the stage, we are seeing a true king – his power and his anguish are so real to us. When he sings, we enter into his world, feeling deeply the joy or sadness being expressed in his song. It is an amazing performance, and it opens my heart – affecting me in a whole new way as I watch this incredibly talented actor. His impact on me is profound – because this young man is my son. It is Peter. He is amazing. This boy I have known for eighteen years is now suddenly a person who has stepped into a new realm – and who has shown, at this young age, a mastery that few in life’s long pursuit of such skill will achieve. My heart is open – it is filled – it lifts me to a very powerful place, a place of respect, of pride, of deep love and great appreciation. This is my powerful heart memory.

In the feelings of love and wonder that filled my heart in that moment, and in each moment that I remember it, there is enough power to free me from the strongest adversity. The feelings are so powerful that I don’t even have to take a breath through my heart. The power of my heart opening pulls me into the deep, focused breath.

Your heart, too, has memories that are this powerful. People have shared with me moments from their childhood that are still filled with powerful heart feelings. Some of the memories were spiritual experiences; some were highly intense moments that occurred for them in what would seem to someone else to be an everyday interaction. Each person has spoken of how much more powerful and helpful these special memories were, once they identified them.

Many years after my heart had captured this memory of Peter playing King Arthur, I had an experience that required me to reach for the exceptional power of this memory in order to activate my heart. I was preparing to go out and share some inspiring thoughts with over a hundred people. The people had come many miles to connect with this wonderful information that I had for them.

Five minutes before I left the room to go down to the auditorium, a man opened the door to the room and stepped in. Even as the man entered, I felt that something was wrong. The man curtly told me to remain sitting, and he aggressively came and stood before me. From only a few feet away, he leaned over, pointing at me. With his face only inches from my own, he proceeded to angrily threaten my life.

He spoke of the pain he wanted to cause me, and how much he wanted to see me suffer that pain. He went on to describe, over and over in graphic detail, how he intended to kill me. He kept saying that he wanted to put a bullet through my brain. He was filled with a depth of raw anger and hatred that I had never seen in a human being before.

I was strongly impacted by his rage, the hatred that emanated from his being, and the raw violence and pain that he spoke of. Although I could not fully counter the impact of his hatred while he stood there before me, I did activate my heart – which guided me by telling me not to respond. My spiritual heart helped me understand that he was on the edge of acting out his desires, and that any response on my part could push him over that edge. After describing again how he wanted to kill me, and that it would be worth it to go to jail to do what he had described, he headed for the door. Turning one last time to growl out that he was deadly serious about what he had just told me, he left the room.

In the next few minutes, I would have to walk into a room of people waiting for inspiration. But the impact of the experience had shocked my being. This man’s pure hatred heavily impacted me. It was difficult for me to pull my attention from that experience to focus on the people I was about to address.

The people in the auditorium, clearly, needed none of that. They had come to be lifted and inspired – not violated by the effect of that man’s hatred.

So in that moment, I again called upon my heart. I needed the power of my spiritual heart to strengthen me and free me from the impact of the man’s hatred. As I used the Heart Wisdom Tool, I was able to shift my body, shift to my physical heart, in a way that lessened my anxiety. I remembered memories of moments with my grandchildren. I could feel those memories while breathing through my heart. This was helpful, and the shock and anxiety I felt lessened .

However, I needed to be entirely free of the powerful reaction that this man’s anger had produced in my system. The people I would address in a moment needed to experience real, tangible peace from my presence. I needed to go out and connect with them, heart to heart, responding to their needs – not mine. I needed the full power and presence of my spiritual heart.

I activated my spiritual heart again. I placed my hand on my heart, breathing deeply. I focused intently on the memory of Peter on that stage long ago. I reached beyond the impact of the man’s anger, to the power of the feelings of pride, appreciation and love that my memory held. It was as though I was once again in that auditorium, watching the powerful performance of this talented young man. Those feelings of love and amazement were so strong that I could feel them change my body as my physical heart responded – becoming coherent, and uplifting my body.

As that love filled me, I began to experience more than the prior shift of my physical heart. I felt the transformative power of my spiritual heart. I called on it to fill me, to lift me. I called on it to take care of these people through me – and it did.

I walked onto that stage. When I looked at the people in the audience, I was excited about the wonderful inspiration I had to share with them. They did not need to learn of my difficult experience. The man had left, so I knew that what had happened could be handled later. At that moment, I got to experience being there, in my heart, with all of them. I felt love for them. I was grateful that I could choose the quality of this moment with them, and not give away my power.

After speaking, I did take time to allow myself to experience and be aware of the powerful impact that the man’s hatred had on me. I gathered the support I needed, called the police, and took steps for healthy self-care, because I then had the time and opportunity to do that. It takes self-care, love and wisdom to deal with life’s traumatic experiences effectively. We do not need to let difficult or highly impactful experiences remove us, or incapacitate us, from the demands immediately before us .

As I took my steps of self-care, I also focused my heart’s intuitive wisdom on the man who brought such hatred into my world. As I very sincerely asked for a more effective response, my heart opened my understanding. I understood that he had no ability to control his rage or his hatred, once he opened that door. In understanding a little of his world, I realized what an effort it had taken for him not to act out, in that moment, the violence that he was imagining so graphically.

My spiritual heart guided me toward compassion and forgiveness. That inner peace is one of the most beautiful and meaningful gifts that our spiritual hearts can provide. It also brought clarity that while forgiveness could release me of my resentment, it did not change the need to effectively address the situation and the physical danger that it presented.

The demand immediately before me that day was both a personal and a professional one. Following a traumatic experience in your life, your need might also be professional – or it might be for wise action for yourself, your children, your friends, or for others around you. Your spiritual heart has this power to deliver you from the natural reactions of the mind and body so that your choice, not the actions of another person, will determine your responses.

Your spiritual heart can furnish you with wise daily guidance on questions before you. It can stop the everyday reactions of fear, anger, or insecurity that get triggered in our day-to-day interactions with others. Equally important – just as my spiritual heart had the power to free me from the extreme impact of the man’s hatred and threats – your spiritual heart has the power to free you from the tyranny of emotions that follow your painful confrontations with others. It has the power to give you choice in how you respond, and in how you meet the demands of life that remain in front of you.

It is often these extreme situations where we need the greatest wisdom. Your spiritual heart has the deep, powerful wisdom that you need to meet every situation in life, from daily frustrations to the extreme happenings that can seem so overwhelming. This power and wisdom is always available to you in your spiritual heart. Here is an example .

Lani is a friend of mine who worked at a grocery store in our area. Lani is one of those people who lifts everyone’s spirits by her very presence. I can’t be around her without smiling and feeling better. The people she worked with – the employees, the employers and the customers – really enjoyed Lani’s presence. Lani has a deep commitment to connecting to her heart. While she can seem almost ethereal because of her delightful outlook on life, she is one of the wisest persons I know.

One day when Lani went into work, her supervisor and another manager called her into the office and asked her about a simple transaction that had taken place a few days before. Lani went over the procedures she had followed, remembering them quite clearly and sharing them openly. In so doing, she realized that she had made a mistake in that process. It was a mistake that she had made once before, so, in going over the steps she had taken, she easily realized her error. As the managers pointed out her mistake, they suddenly appeared uncomfortable. They explained to Lani that the store’s rules required that if a person made the same mistake a second time, they had to let that person go. Lani was suddenly being fired.

I’m sure you can imagine the strong feelings that would naturally impact Lani. She was suddenly without income. Lani lived very simply, and her income barely covered her life’s expenses, which included caring for her children. Getting fired is an experience of rejection even in the best of circumstances. The mistake that Lani made was obviously, to her and to her managers, an innocent one. They knew that Lani was a person of high integrity. The firing had to feel very unfair.

As those feelings impacted Lani, she told me they almost took her breath away. Her hand went to her heart. With that simple connection, Lani brought her awareness to a memory that was deeply familiar to her. She remembered the powerful feeling that she was loved. This was a memory where she felt connected to her spiritual self, and to its wisdom that she knew had guided and cared for her all her life. It is a strong, vibrant feeling that she knows well. This feeling is strong for her in the same way that my memory of Peter’s performance is for me .

As she called upon her spiritual heart, it guided her to acceptance. It opened her awareness to a number of parts of her experience. First, she became aware of the two people before her. She understood that they had no choice, and that this was a painful experience for them. She knew they really cared about her and did not want to be doing this. She realized that they had no choice – and simple acceptance released her from any futile emotional struggle. With that realization, she had access to her feelings of care for these people.

With this flow of awareness came a “knowing” that she was cared for. She knew that her needs would be met, and that this was only a change, not a lessening of care for her. These understandings were not just the mind’s thoughts as it tried to deal with a hopeless situation. These were deep understandings that were lifting her. She was experiencing a strong awareness from an expanded perception that looked beyond that moment, in that room, to a greater reality that she had witnessed unfolding in her life over many years. From a moment of fully justifiable anxiety and defensiveness, Lani was in a clear experience of understanding this greater love and care for her .

With sincere care, Lani responded to the managers by saying she understood that they had no choice. She acknowledged their concern for her, and told them that she really knew that she was cared for and would come through this change just fine. She was able to affirm them and herself. A moment of victimhood that had been triggered by their pronouncement was vanquished by the greater power within her spiritual self.

Lani’s gracious understanding of these two people and herself uplifted everyone, providing a view of a person connected to the power of her spiritual heart, a power that was greater than the momentary events of her life.

Lani told me, with delight, another understanding that followed those that I just shared with you. She said she remembered asking her heart about taking the job at the grocery store when it was first offered to her. At that time, her heart told her that she should take it. It further told her she would be there for two years. The day she walked out that door was two years and two weeks from the day she was hired. She understood that her spiritual heart had told her, even before she began, that it would guide her away to some other experience in her life at the right time. Within a few days, it did so in a very fulfilling way.

When Lani went home, she was not the victim of some company’s inflexible rule. Rather, she felt free. She knew that she was an empowered woman, guided effectively into what would be an ongoing, uplifting adventure of love and care for her.

Several weeks after this experience, Lani told me with a smile that a customer from the store had approached her. The customer was a woman who had recently been injured, and who needed support to meet the challenges presented by her injury. Lani was hired to assist the woman. She found herself in a position that she enjoyed much more than working in a store. The position also provided a greater financial support for her life. This type of service, through personal care for others, was one of Lani’s deepest desires.

Once you find this power, and learn that you can rely on the spiritual heart’s wisdom, you will be able to use that beautiful wisdom to guide your life with a new sense of ease, through the experiences and the questions before you. This wisdom has changed my life in wonderful ways. I know that your spiritual heart can do that for you as well. Its amazing wisdom knows how to guide you to bring what your heart really desires into full expression. I hope you let it guide you to the true fulfillment of the deepest desires of your heart.