THE AWAKENING HEART

THE AWAKENING HEART

How do we awaken the heart?  What does it mean when our hearts turn to stone, or our hearts wax cold?   It means that we stop feeling.  We must wake up our feelings.   I feel like my heart has been sleeping for a long,  long time.  It has forgotten everything, the veil was drawn and my eyes were not yet open.   What does it take to wake up our feelings?    Crisis brings consciousness.  It is a wake-up call to the heart.    Pain is a teacher, a messenger directing us to pay attention to our spirits, to wake up and see and hear.

                  

“We begin in unity with divinity, but lose our sense of identity with it as we come to this earthly experience.  As we climb higher in our path, we come closer to unity again, so the Divine figures more prominently in our lives.  Little miracles, peeks behind the veil,  happen more frequently.  Crisis may be necessary to achieve consciousness of who we really are.  Crisis cuts us loose from being grounded in the reality of  not perceiving  our true identity. The greatest suffering is the greatest opportunity because from pain comes the transformation, the new birth.  It brings forth the divine child.  The actual journey of healing requires moving through that pain.”

“The human spirit does not go to sleep within us just because of negative life patterns, nor are our lives only a series of tragedies.  Unearthing the positive is as effective a healing process as is clearing out the negative parts of our lives.”          (Conversations With My Healers, by Cynthia Ploski)

“Awareness is the process of becoming fully conscious.  It can trickle into the corners of your mind slowly, as you clean out the cobwebs, or it can dawn suddenly the moment you recognize your patterns and want to change.  Cultivating awareness is a lifelong process.  Every moment presents you with the opportunity to remain awake or slip into unconscious behavior.  The key lies in tracing the root of your behaviors so you can identify the beliefs that cause you to repeat the same patterns.  Every time you feel a sense of discontent in your life is an opportunity to become more aware.  Paying attention to your feelings is the easiest way to get in touch with your unconscious self.  Feelings are the lights on the dashboard of life; when one is illuminated, you can be sure it is a signal of some internal issue that needs to be addressed.”

“Therapy, meditation, prayer and journal writing are tools to help us learn awareness.  Surrounding yourself with others who are on their path and live in a conscious way is the best way to stay awake.  Be patient with yourself, you will know when it is time for you to wake up and move ahead.”                     (“If Life is a Game, These are the Rules” by Cherie Carter-Scott)

   

           My life and my trials are perfect for me, to teach and instruct me in the ways I need to grow.  Everybody and everything in my life comes from divine appointment to teach me.  When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  This morning my husband asked me to change my anger to humility. This was the counsel that he was prompted to give me.  He couldn’t give me the way to do it, that was for me to find.   I pondered and prayed about the meaning of humility. I tried to go deep into my heart to feel the real meaning of humility.  It’s not about self-reliance and independence,   it is about dependence and lowliness of heart.  It is about being teachable.  It is about changing the way I think.  It is about gratitude, being grateful for every situation, the good and the bad.  It is releasing myself into that healing light that comes from the Savior.

We can unearth the positive,   clear out the negative and tune into our source of strength.   The Savior is the source of our strength and light, just as the sun is the source of light to the earth.  Today is dark and gray with huge dark clouds over the earth, but there is a bit of blue sky with a peak of light shining through lighting my soul.   I feel my spirit reaching to the light.  Clouds are symbolic of the veil over our eyes, they keep us from seeing the Son.

 Our mortal experiences teach us who we are, who God is and what our lives mean.  “This understanding is impossible without our experiences that teach us, sometimes painfully, about our own agency and independence. It is only in discovering our independence from God that we come to understand our utter dependence on him.”     (The Broken Heart, by Bruce C. Hafen) 

“The journey into darkness can be long and cruel and sometimes we go deep into it.  A certain amount of desperation is usually necessary before we’re ready for God.  When it comes to spiritual surrender we often don’t get serious until we are completely down on our knees.  Until we see clearly that ‘of myself, I am nothing.’  Until this happens we keep trying all our old tricks, the ones that never did work but   we think might work this time. Once we’ve had enough we consider the possibility that there may be a better way.  That’s when our heart cracks open and God comes in.”     

                    (A Return to Love” by Marianne Williamson)   

             Our heart and our soul wake up through the birth canal of personal suffering, soul searching, gratitude, surrender and trust.   As we gather in all of our missing pieces and awaken the love that is within us, our heart and soul are healing.  We are no longer lost but found.    Because of our sorrows we learn the good from the evil.  As we taste the bitter we are more able to know the sweet. As we taste the sweet our hearts feel wondrous gratitude.

I have a new appreciation for my Savior and His atoning sacrifice.  It really was for me.  Everything around me testifies of our Savior’s love for us. We are not alone.  There are truly angels among us who teach us when we are ready to learn.  They are the healers who bless our lives, they are light gatherers.  They gather light from the healing power of the Savior and bring it to those who are seekers of light.  There is light all around us, in wonderful music, in good books, in everything of good report or praiseworthy.  I seek after these things!                                      
                                                          Suzanne Giles Stagg