Lead With Your Heart
“Lead with your heart” has become a mantra for me over the years.
If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, then you’re familiar with the cue, lead with your heart. It encourages you, the yogi, to immediately change your posture. You bring your shoulders down and back in order to strengthen your upper back and chest muscles that have been weakened by your seated/ lounging posture. You lengthen the spine so that you can move safely without damaging any discs, as well as creating space in your hips. You fold forward safely from your hips in order to prevent injury to your lower spine. And as you fold forward your heart leads the way. By following this cue you can move deeper into the forward motion safely, freely, AND experiencing a great release - AHHHHHH
Living life with passion takes vulnerability, resilience and courage. Yet there are so many reasons why we hide our heart, shield our light, and silence our voice; all usually originating in fear including:
Fear of being rejected
Fear of being disappointed
Fear of being misunderstood
Fear of success
Fear of failure
Fear of loss and grief
Do any of these resonate with you? Are there any others?
These fears may show up in our bodies as poor posture, therefore blocking the flow of energy and causing us to suffer from tight muscles and stiff joints. Emotionally we may shy away from intimacy and love, including love of self. Intellectually our thoughts and decisions may reinforce that we aren’t good enough. Spiritually we may feel unworthy and disconnected from Spirit.
Maybe leading with your heart seems TOOOO risky to you. Perhaps you listened to it in the past and experienced emotional pain and were led off your path. So now you’ve shut down, and cut off any and all emotions. Even if this has been your experience, it’s ALWAYS worth taking another look within. Doing so is integral to your relationship with yourself, your relationship with others, as well as, how you show up in the world.
So we must be courageous and risk rejection, failure, disappointment, etc. And in this, we bring to the surface the GREATNESS that is inherent in each and every one of us! No one has to “let us be great.” We're great because we’re alive, because we’re human, because within each of us exists a beautiful heart that deserves to be heard, seen, accepted and loved.
Moment by moment we can make the choice to lead with our hearts. So as you inhale, bring your shoulders down and back, lengthen your spine and exhale as you fold forward, leading with your heart THEN….
Audition for that part
Tell your family member or friend what you need and want in that relationship
Be honest with yourself about how you feel
Post your song, picture or video online
Let go of that relationship
Start your own business
Say yes to a date or conversation with someone of interest
Take the lead on that project
Have the difficult conversation with your partner
Put yourself in position for that promotion
TAKE THE DAY OFF!
Take the time to journal about who you want to be and then what you need to do to become Her
And as we accept the challenge to live authentically, we create space for the opportunities coming our way. Even when we come face to face with our fears - because they WILL arise as we level up - we can acknowledge and sit with them, then move forward STILL loving and trusting ourselves. AHHHHHHHHHH