Frequently Asked Questions about the Heart
1) Why is the heart so important?
3) What does it mean to be able to feel with our heart?
4) What is the difference between feelings and emotions?
5) What do you mean by the spiritual heart?
6) What are the benefits of opening my heart?
7) Once my heart is open will it stay like that?
8) Can other people directly affect or close my heart?
9) What does it mean if someone is heartbroken?
13) Do I really have to smile to open my heart?
15) How can I help other people to open their hearts?
1) Why is the heart so important?
When we feel most happy these happy feelings come from our chest and not our head. This is because our heart is our center of loving feelings and how we are able to feel and experience joy, happiness, peace and calmness. Our heart is also how we share and feel love which is important for everyone to have for a good quality of life.
2) How do I feel my heart?
It is very simple: while sitting comfortably just relax and close your eyes so your brain is less active. Touch the center of your chest with one or two fingers at the level of your armpits to bring your awareness to your heart. Smile freely to your heart and follow your feeling without thinking how to do so. The best attitude is to not expect anything.
Continue to relax & smile and after a few minutes of following your feeling without any effort you can feel the peace and calmness in your chest and you may feel how your chest expands. This is the feeling from the heart.
To be able to feel your heart more deeply and strongly and to expand more you need to do Open Heart Meditation. This helps to let go of any past emotions that you may have forgotten about or don't want to remember but block your heart and feelings.
3) What does it mean to be able to feel with our heart?
The feelings from the heart do not originate from the five physical senses, which are related to and controlled by the brain and body. The feeling from the heart arises quite naturally and can be subtly felt when we are relaxed, calm and peaceful and in situations where we are most happy and loving.
This feeling can spontaneously happen, for example:
- When we first meet up with our friends we haven't seen for a while, or
- When we are with a close partner we dearly love, or
- When we are out enjoying the beauty of nature, or
- When we are joyfully playing a musical instrument, or
- When we are gladly helping others in need.
We don't have to think about it for it to happen, but when we do notice it happening it is often hard to describe exactly. Most people say it can be felt as pleasant warmth on their chest or something nice is happening that feels most satisfying.
4) What is the difference between feelings and emotions?
Many of us do not realise that there is a difference between emotions and the subtle feeling of our heart. The feelings from our heart are the natural by-product of love, whereas emotions are created from our reactive responses to the environment or to situations encountered. Examples of emotions that erupt are things like anger, sadness, frustration, envy, hatred, irritation, arrogance, selfishness etc and are centred on the solar plexus.
However, feelings and emotions are related: Every time we have negative emotions we diminish our heart and feelings and therefore we don't feel so good; whereas when we open our heart we let go of the negative emotions so they are pushed out of our heart, resulting in us feeling happier, lighter, calmer, peaceful and more joyful.
5) What do you mean by the spiritual heart?
Many people have a sense that they are more than just a living body with a thinking brain and physically beating heart. You also have a feeling heart, which is the center of good feelings and love because within your heart there is your spirit, or true self.
The only way to know or understand more about your heart and true self is to use your heart and feelings to discover it for yourself. Your heart cannot be experienced or understood by reading or hearing about it from other people.
6) What are the benefits of opening my heart?
As your heart opens and becomes stronger, positive heart felt feelings grow and this automatically reduces any negative emotions. You are better able to deal with stress, and in daily life are much calmer, more peaceful and happy.
You can better follow your positive feelings and heart guided wisdom to be able to make wise decisions and communicate well with others rather than being misguided by your emotions. Additionally, you are better able to feel and share the love you have with others which makes life more fulfilling.
These are all things that are priceless in life and cannot be purchased from anywhere. Instead it is something you can do that requires no special talent, it can be freely obtained in a simple enjoyable way, anytime you want and all by yourself.
7) Once my heart is open will it stay like that?
Your heart and feeling are affected by and diminish whenever you have negative emotions, unfortunately this can be hard to avoid in our stressful lives. By doing Open Heart Meditation you are able to remove this stress and so keep your heart more open.
8) Can other people directly affect or close my heart?
Not directly, but whenever you react to situations in a negative way even though you may not show it externally to others you put pressure on your heart and this always blocks and closes your heart.
As you begin to open your heart your level of awareness increases enabling you to choose a different response and so not get affected by other peoples emotions or any difficult situations that you find yourself in.
9) What does it mean if someone is heartbroken?
What people refer to as heartbroken is actually a word to describe unresolved emotional pain. The solar plexus is the center for emotional pain and trauma and can be mistaken for our heart because it produces strong emotional sensations and is located just below the heart. Some people even refer to it as the 'emotional heart'.
Whereas our heart is the center of feeling peace, calm, love, gratitude and joy and only produces gentle positive feelings. If the emotions are left unresolved or not let go of then this negatively effects us and diminishes our heart.
10) Can other people notice that I have an open heart and what effect will it have on my environment?
Having an open heart does not mean that you will be more emotional, appear dreamy or have inappropriate feelings towards others. On the contrary, some people may notice and even say that you are calmer, more patient, less emotionally volatile than before and that you smile more now. You may also notice the positive changes about yourself and other peoples reactions towards you.
When your heart is more open you will be more aware of what is really going on around you and so be able to make wiser decisions about how best to react in any situation that you find yourself in.
11) I feel that my heart is open, but I have become more sensitive to other peoples emotions & problems, how do I deal with this?
As your heart opens your awareness increases so you are better able to notice other peoples problems and emotions than you did before, but also with an open heart you can feel the presence of the True Source of love and light supporting you all the time, which is how you were able to open your heart.
So the best thing to do is to be more aware of the love within your heart, connect with your heart and direct your heart towards True Source and not other peoples problems and this helps you be emotionally unaffected by any situation you find yourself in.
12) Will opening my heart mean that I will re-experience old emotion, pain, hurt and past heart break again?
Some people are often hesitant to open their heart because there is a concern that it will make them vulnerable or they may get hurt again like in the past.
However, opening and strengthening our heart does not mean that you will be easily exposed to negative emotions. On the contrary, as your heart opens and becomes stronger, positive heart felt feelings grow and this automatically reduces and removes any negative emotions.
Your heart cannot hurt yourself because it is the center of loving feelings. Completely opening your heart heals on the deepest levels so you can feel whole, complete, satisfied and fulfilled from moment to moment in your life.
13) Do I really have to smile to open my heart?
Opening your heart and smiling are directly related so smiling needs to be done all the time for the heart to open even though you may not initially want to smile that much. Opening your heart is an enjoyable experience and something that naturally makes you smile freely and happily and you will probably not notice that you have been smiling for such a long time without any effort when you have the right attitude.
As opening the heart is a gradual process your smile improves naturally and this makes smiling easier each time you practice with the heart. Some people have problems with smiling because they may be taking it all too seriously or are trying to force themselves to smile when instead they just need to allow themselves to relax and enjoy the experience to be able to smile freely.
14) I already practice other meditation techniques; will this conflict with opening the heart and Open Heart Meditation?
For people that already meditate and then also practice Open Heart Meditation regularly they typically find that it helps their other meditation practices so they can relax more deeply, it improves their ability to follow their feelings without effort, and it strengthens their heart and spiritual growth.
15) How can I help other people to open their hearts?
You can talk to them about heart and show them how to feel their heart with the simple heart strengthening exercise. If they enjoy talking about and experiencing the heart then you can offer to do the Open Heart Meditation together with them.
We get asked this question a lot by psychologists, psychotherapists and other health professionals. Understanding about the heart and Open Heart Meditation is already in use by many therapists as an effective tool for helping their clients to reduce stress and deal with emotional related problems. Please contact us if you would like more information about how to help with the heart.
