TUNING IN

by Nicholas de Castella

Summary:

The first step in Living a Heart Centred Life is learning to ‘Tune in’. Tuning in means becoming more aware of what is present - within us. Tuning in is about dropping inside, opening and feeling into ourselves. Dropping thoughts and stories and tuning into our bodily sensations, our emotions and our hearts. It requires us to stop. Stop trying to get somewhere and make something happen. And instead be with what is happening. When we do this we connect with ourselves deeply, promote healing and transformation and gain invaluable information about what is really going on, what we need to do and how to best respond to the moment

A MAP FOR THE JOURNEY HOME
1. Shift from thinking to feeling
As humans we are either thinking or feeling.
Our life can pass without us really experiencing the fullness and richness it has to offer.

2. Tune into your Body
The first port of call when wanting to reconnect is to get out of our heads and feel our body. Our body is here! It is in earthly terms ‘real’ - it is something that exists that we can feel.

3. Tune into your Emotions
Once we have connected with our physical sensations we very soon notice that it feels like there is energy flowing though our bodies. This energy is emotion. All emotions are Energy. The purpose of the energy of emotion is to move us into action.

     There are three things that are important about emotions:
     1. Emotions arise in our interaction with the outside world
     2. Emotions are temporary in that when we feel them they disappear
     3. Emotions are tiring.

     The four aspects of Emotional intelligence are:
     1. Emotional Literacy:  Recognising, understanding and communicating emotions.
     2. Emotional Connection: Opening our heart: connecting with our love current. Accessing the messages of the     heart for inner guidance.
     3. Emotional Management: Healthy containment and expression of emotions.
         Developing the capacity to induce peace and happiness.
         Using feelings to guide and facilitate reaching our goals.
     4. Empathetic Relationship Skills: Relating to others feelings, needs and concerns appropriately.

4. Tuning into Your Heart
The fourth step on the home coming journey involves tuning into feelings that are deeper than emotions. Words that are commonly used to attempt to describe such experiences are peace, love, happiness, spaciousness, wholeness and many others.

There are three important aspects that make heart qualities different from emotions
1. Heart qualities are the feelings that arise from inside.
(Emotions arise in our interaction with the world outside of us).
2. Heart Qualities are Eternal - the more we feel them the bigger they get
(Emotions disappear when we feel them)
3. Heart Qualities are enlivening
(Emotions are tiring)

The Institute of Heartmath have shown that centring ourselves in our hearts induces peak functioning: we concentrate and remember better, our immune system functions better, we relate to others better, and we perform at work and in sport better.

Living from your heart
Having connected with our heart, the next big step is to start to ask ourselves: ‘If I was going to live my life from the deepest part of me (peace, love and happiness) what would that life look like?’. What would I be doing. How would I be responding to others, particularly when I feel hurt by them. What practices would I be using to maintain and deepen my connection with myself and others. (This will be the subject of future Heart Thoughts).