The Art of Slowing Down

Tags

celebration, heart matters, slowing down, stillness

The river is a bit higher than I would have expected it to be today… but there was still just enough space by the shore for me to walk down to the water, find a fallen tree trunk, and simply sit in the silence embellished by the lightly gurgling flow…

As I look around, I notice that the far side of the tree trunk I am sitting on has grown an entire ecosystem of its own… vegetation that looks like ground cover, with the tiniest of white flowers sprinkled amid the green… hundreds of them like stars on a clear night sky… except some of them are overflowing the trunk and making their way to the shale stones that are being lapped by the gentlest of ripples coming ashore from the center of the river…

The sound of falling pebbles from the other shore interrupts the mind’s wanderings, as part of the rock face sends its evening offering to the water below…

I look up to the top of the small cliff face and notice tall trees, young and old, hanging on the edge, many of them with their roots clearly exposed, entangled with the trees next to them as if in an eternal bonding until they are called to immerse themselves into the river below…

In the distance, the road bridge and the walking bridge downstream have not much activity except for the wind bringing them messages from the upstream side as it plays with the leaves of the overhanging trees on its way to them…

I notice that not a single insect bothers me as I sit today, in a location where usually the mosquitoes will find me in less than thirty seconds…

The meeting of the elements without invites the calm created by the meeting of the elements within…

My ‘walk’ today has been a trickle, and that is perhaps by design or maybe a mirror of the flow of the water. I am grateful for what is given today, for if not for my slowing down and sitting at length, I would have missed seeing the play of the water with the shale, the fallen tree trunk’s ecosystems, the trees hanging in suspended animation across the other shore, and so much more.

If I hadn’t slowed down to sit and spend as much time as it took me to write this post ‘in the moment’, I would have surely recorded more ‘steps’, but what of that? Distance traveled is often a poor indicator of what has been accomplished within. My heart rate is down by 10 points in the 10 or more minutes of sitting. I spend the next few minutes breathing at a few breaths a minute. I open my eyes and it is as if the river has stilled to take another look at me and joined me in the slowing down.

I look around and it’s perhaps time to go explore a bit, check out some backlighting on the trees in the forest, and then head home. Thanks for visiting, the river, the tree trunk, the shale stones, the chickweeds and sunflowers seem to say. Do slow down more often. We enjoy sitting with you.

I had figured I would spend twenty minutes or so slowing down today after the work day. The ‘walk’ took exactly sixty minutes – 534 to 634pm. I didn’t time or plan it that way, but that’s how long it sometimes takes to truly slow down. And who am I to argue with that? You can’t rush Art and its creation within, can you?

All the pieces of art that are still cherished after centuries — were they not created in intervals of time and space where the artist was working at their own pace? If so, then why would one imagine that our heart’s work can be accomplished without learning the art of slowing down?

Let the world go on on its own pace. If you know what you want, then the beat of that ‘unstruck music of eternity’ will set your heart’s pace. May we make friends with our own beat, and may we find bliss in all the moments of slowing down and listening to the heart.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday July 31 2022 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India with the #SpiritChat community. We will enjoy a bit of slowing down in each other’s company, and mark another year of walking together. Namaste. – @AjmaniK

Taking a moment to enjoy the art of slowing down… in the middle of Rocky River, Ohio

Matters of the Heart

Tags

awareness, centering, heart matters, heartmonth, joy, spirituality

The walk lasted only about twenty minutes – a third of the time that I typically walk when the trail isn’t covered with ankle deep snow. Walking in the tundra can be like where every step involves expending energy to pull your shoes gripped in what seems like wet cement.

And yet, walk I did because the calling after a couple of weeks of not walking was strong today. The invitation of the orange glow of the sunlight filtering through the trees branches and the cloud cover was hard to resist. I also needed to check on the health of the lake and the trail. As unexpectedly difficult as it was, I am glad that I went.

The first thing I learnt quickly was to not walk in snow tracks left be those who walked before. It’s tempting to walk in their tracks, because you think that it would be easier than walking on thinly iced snow — but that isn’t true. The previous tracks tend to be slushy, icy, and are tougher to navigate than creating your own new trail. In walking my own path, it took me longer to half-circle the lake, but it was more fun because I felt like I was more engaged and aware during the walk.

The lake looked like it was in good health, completely frozen over as it was, except for an oval patch in the middle, where it was clearly melting from the center out. When I got to a vantage point where I could get a closer look, I was fascinated to see that the water was actually gurgling out from the center, and sending circular waves into the enclosing ice. Fascinating. And the reason?

My speculation is that the lake is deepest at the center, and hence is able to retain the most warmth during the freeze. It’s a bit like how the love that has been poured into us over time and space finds a reservoir in the deepest parts of our hearts, keeping us warm through. The warmth of this very same love gurgles up and melts the ice of the world that may have frozen us out of the remembrance of who we truly are — truth, awareness, and joy.

Yes. Sometimes we may have to go without to go within. Sometimes we may have to walk new paths created of our own walking, in the middle of our winters, to rediscover That center where the depth of our love’s warmth resides. Sometimes we may have to be reminded that what truly matters — in the beginning, the middle, and the end — is the heart.

The home of light softness, stillness, kindness, lightness, listening, compassion and more. That is why our center matters. May we find ways to return to it.

Kumud

Join us for our weekly gathering with the #SpiritChat community on twitter, Sunday Feb 13 at 9amET. We will explore what matters to us. Namaste – @AjmaniK

The heart matters… in all its colors and patterns (Art by A.A.)

Heart Paths and Practices

Tags

awareness, distractions, heart matters, mind, practices, spirituality

Some autumn mornings start off cold, dark, gray and wet, and mostly stay that way. The state of the outdoors really ought not to matter much to our indoor practices; and yet, our mind is adept at sending us all the old messages to distract us from our path. “Hit the snooze again.” “It’s cold outside the blankets.” “Just foe today, sleep through the hour of meditation.”

I let the mind run through its games and then smiled at it. “Not today. I’m having none of your wiliness,” I said. “You will move on to other things in a flash, but if I listen to you, I will miss out on the best part of my day!” For the practitioner who has experienced even one of them, the morning-hour is rife with possibilities of peace, joy, light, lightness, relaxation, silence, stillness and more. What would the irascible an unruly mind know about any of those rewards?

Forty five minutes after stepping out of the warm cocoon of sleep to sit in the warmth of daily practice, I feel the familiar glow within. As often happens, the heart is lighter, and the still dark morning feels a little brighter. The small decision to ignore the entreaties of the mind often results in rewards that cannot be described in words. I sometimes wonder why the mind keeps doing this same song and dance every so often, despite the fact that I can’t remember the last time it was actually able to convince me to ‘sleep in’ on my morning practice.

When we succeed in creating a new habit or practice which adds a sense of permanence, stability and value to our life, the mind isn’t going to be able to break us away from it. The practice can take any form. The form of the practice May not matter, as long as we remember to practice it. Our daily practices help us remember who we are, where we are and where we are going. The duration of the practice may not matter, as long as the practice creates a measurable, qualitative difference in our life’s path over time.

A mentor once told me that “ten years of your life will go by, just like that, whether or not you are paying attention – so wouldn’t it be better to pay attention?” Yes. The question becomes: what are we going to pay attention to? How are we to take back our attention from our mind, which is always driving awareness outwards, and re-direct it inwards, towards the heart?

I have to admit that I don’t think much about the next ten years, the next year, the next month, and so on. Why? Too-much forecasting can empower the mind and its games, and make us forget that it is our daily practices that build the heart‘s resilience for the paths ahead.

I’ve been up for two hours, and yes, it’s still cold, gray and damp outside. But so what? Time to put on some layers, walking boots, a warm hat, and go visit with the trees, the waters, and the birds. No matter the weather, it’s a practice that has yet to do anything but lighten my heart. Even the mind now knows not to try and sway me from the trail. What else is it to do after watching me walk the heart path for all these years?

Kumud

P. S. Join us for our weekly gathering with the #SpiritChat community on Twitter on Sunday, October 24 at 9amET / 630pm India. We will talk about the heart, the mind and the path. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Treasures found on the path… keep inviting my heart back to the trail

On Raising Intuition

Tags

belief, experience, faith, heart matters, intuition, trust

It is the kind of spring morning where the Sun shining on your back warms you just enough to be comfortable in a t-shirt as you watch the blackbirds flit back and forth across the lake between the rows of cattails that line either side of the water channel leading away from you. There is an ineffable feeling of peace as you feel the breeze waving its silken scarf across the lake’s surface to send the slightest of ripples adrift among the floating patches of green algae.

The two boys on the other side of the lake are blissfully swinging away without a care in the world as they launch their legs upwards towards the stars to go a bit higher with every swing. Your gaze scans the bank of trees on your right and you notice that they are much greener and fuller near the sky than they are at their roots. A blackbird has discovered that it’s safe to sit on the fence and pick on the block of suet hanging off of the fence post, even as the puppy walks the fence line right below her.

And so it goes. The mind occasionally wonders about the reasons for being, about the causes and the effects, while the heart says – hush, observe, feel, absorb – tune into your intuition to discover depths of capacity that you could or would never fathom if your mind were in charge. Feeling without clinging or grasping allows intuition to shine through our translucent heart. Intuition sets our heart free to feel so deeply that we raise our level of feeling. And so goes the cycle of life.

As my daughter reminded me on her birthday this week, and I quote: “Life is not linear. It is actually more non-linear than we want to accept or admit”. The mind has trouble with non-linearities, but the intuitive heart rarely does. The heart probably uses every experience of non-linearity, every unexpected happening, every serendipity, to slowly raise its level of intuition. Try this, experience that, adjust this, try again.

And then, one day, you wake up to an awareness that you have raised your intuition, step by step, to progress from belief to trust to faith. How may we have such faith? We sense a permanence of light and lightness within, a deeper intensity, an expansiveness, a sense of wholesomeness and wholeness in our heart. 

What may be the effect of such faith? It propels, even compels us, to spread goodness through empathy in action. It inspires others to be more empathetic, connected and trusting. In loving and living through intuition, we can forever change the orientation of our hearts, and connect more deeply to the seekers around us.

Namaste, intuitive seekers. May we all find joy in the raising.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter chat and gathering with the #SpiritChat community on Sunday, April 11 at 9am ET / 630pm India. Bring some intuitive experiences to share – I will bring some tea and cookies, and yes, questions. – @AjmaniK

The Heart’s Serendipity

Tags

heart matters, heartmonth, serendipitiy, surprises, surrender

To try and define serendipity is to perhaps attempt to fly without wings. Let that not stop me from trying, though, because the mere notion of the word makes me smile. Saying it out loud makes me smile even more. Try it. Slowly. Se-ren-dip-ity. There. Are you smiling yet? Now, let’s get back to the definition.

Let’s begin with the dictionary definition and origin of Serendipity:

…the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way…

Origin: coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of’.

What’s you’re definition of Serendipity? Does it involve any fairy tales? Here are a few of my offerings. 

Serendipity is an unplanned, unheralded, unexpected event, accompanied with a welcome surprise, which transports us to a different level of consciousness from the level of awareness that we initially stepped into the event with.

Serendipity is a suspension of attachment accompanied by a surrender to the possibility that infinite outcomes may exist for any given action.

How about a bit of word play? Serendipity happens when we allow our awareness to be ‘dip’ped much deeper into the gap in consciousness that seren-ity creates for us. Who needs wings, eh?!

Enough of definitions. Let me share some personal serendipities with you, in no particular order of time and space. Perhaps it will inspire you to think of some of your own.

Serendipity is a bit like when your teenager downloads yet another painting app for her phone, and you wonder – how many painting apps does she really need? A few days later, she shares with you one of her most creative ‘finger’ paintings yet. Yes, that.

Serendipity is a bit like when you, finally, after years of ‘rolling your own’ with your ‘practice’ of meditation, humble yourself enough to say ‘yes’ to the invitation of ‘meditation with pranahuti’ (Heartfulness), and the universe smiles back at you with deep love as it holds your hand on your new walk. 

Serendipity is a bit like when on a vacation trip to Mexico for spring break, you wake up early one day to take a walk with a Shaman who teaches you about how to ask permission of the universe – the earth, the skies, the waters, the winds – and then, a day later, your fear of water disappears as you learn to float in a crystal clear cenote. Yes. That.

Serendipity is a bit like when you go to the Friday evening happy hour after work on the insistence of a friend because you love all their deep-fried appetizers and you end up with a ‘chance meeting’ with a savant who ends up becoming your friend, then your wife and the one who has taught you every day over the past twenty six years about the meaning of higher love with her actions.
Yes. That.

Serendipity is the result of the universe’s gifts to us when we untether our mind from our heart and surrender a sliver of time and space to creativity, intuition, and openness. The result is that the infinite does its thing and adds sparks of joy to our heart.

The heart’s serendipity. Yes. That’s That. 

Kumud

P.S What does serendipity mean to you? Can you think of instances of ‘discoveries of sagacity’ that have created sparks of you for you? Join us and share some of your moments with us in our weekly community gathering in #SpiritChat on twitter, Sunday February 28 at 9amET. Namaste – @AjmaniK

The Heart’s Serendipity – Artwork by AA

The Heart’s Purpose

Tags

fulfillment, heart matters, heartmonth, purpose, significance

Sometimes, you can live a lot of life in a mere five minutes. Sometimes, it may take you five hours, five days, or even five years to life a lot of life. Sometimes, even fifty years may not seem to be enough to live the life that we feel we ought to have lived or hope to live.

Before we go further, let me ask a question. What is the most significant ‘thing’ that you can remember about the last five years of your life? Some will ask in return – well, what do you mean by significant? One way to answer the ‘what is significant’ question is to ask – how well did it align with my purpose? To go further down the rabbit hole, we then ask, what is my (heart’s) purpose?

Purpose can be a very wide-ranging thing. Some of us (ahem) tend to spend a lot of time – a bit more than five minutes – wondering about purpose. Does my purpose need to be something I love (to do)? Does purpose need to align with what the world needs? Does purpose have to focus on what I can make money with? Or can purpose be drawn from my natural talents and what I am good at? 

The four questions related to refining and defining of purpose, so that we can arrive at significance, and what the Japanese have called  Ikigai – a reason for being. 

Ikigai entails actions of devoting oneself to pursuits one enjoys and is associated with feelings of accomplishment and fulfillment – Michigo Kumano

I was pointed to this perspective on purpose by my very good friend, Gopi Maliwal, following a discussion four weeks ago after he had cryptically (and uncharacteristically :)) tweeted… “this is one of the happiest days of my life”. We talked more via DM, and the reason for his “happiest day” became abundantly clear to me. He shared that he felt a sense of fulfillment because he had taken a step “to make his life truly useful”.

The brief conversation made me ask the question – what would give my heart and its actions a sense of accomplishment, of fulfillment, of significance, of having fulfilled its purpose? I further asked – five minutes, five days or five years hence, how much of my living will contribute to bringing me closer to my heart’s purpose?

I invite you to ask some of these questions. If it helps, sit with a loved one in your heartspace and reflect on the four quadrants – what are  you really good at, what is your current work, what does the world need, and, what do you love? What is it that lies at the intersection of the four quadrants? What emerges from the intersection?

Kumud

P.S. Heartmonth continues in our weekly conversation on twitter – Sunday, Feb 14 at 9amET / 730pm India. Join us as we explore our heart’s purpose and share the love. Namaste – @AjmaniK

The heart’s purpose is often revealed by Nature…

The Heart of Bliss

Tags

bliss, heart, heart matters, heartmonth, joy

There is a certain clarity about those winter mornings where the sun finally breaks through the grey gloom which has been seemingly hanging around for weeks. You look out at the sprinkling of snow that has turned into a film of scattered ice on the driveway, crystals shining in the sunlight cresting over the homes across the street. You want to take a walk, but you know that it is better to wait because the brilliance is deceptive. The temperature is still in the single digits and there won’t be enough layers to keep you warm. 

Such is the majesty of a winter morning where the sun is now fully streaming onto your face as you have pulled back the last bit of curtain from the front window where the puppy has claimed the one warm spot on the bench along the split windows. You sit cross legged on the divan, just as you had sat on the floor a bit earlier for morning meditation where the waves of light from your connection to the earth and sky had filled you with the same warmth that you had felt when you last walked the beach at sunset on a Caribbean island.

Your heart is quieting as you keep writing, taking an occasional sip from the coffee mug which has “baby it’s cold outside” inscribed in a half circle around a snowflake. You can taste that special taste of fresh ground beans from a freshly opened bag of coffee seeping through your tongue, combining with your next breath, as it sends a unique sense of aliveness into the deeper layers of your awareness. More sunshine, more stillness comes your way as the puppy is now transitioned into an early morning snooze while she waits with me for the rest of the household to come awake.

Oy. Stop already. When are you going to talk about the heart of bliss? Ahem. What do you imagine I’ve been doing in the last three paragraphs? I’ve been trying to put my stream of thoughts into words. You can’t really plan this stuff, can you? You can practice to move your heart and its awareness towards silence, stillness, and warmth. You can practice to quieten the noise and filter out more of the daily perturbations. You can practice to be open to the remembrance that you have been through the glooms and storms  before.

What does the practice yield? You wake up to days like this when the Universe and its energy transports you from the walk along the shore to a deep dive into the ocean and whispers to you…

You are truth. You are awareness. And above all. You are the heart of Bliss. You belong. 

Remember That. 

Kumud

P.S. February is “heart” month. We will celebrate the heart every Sunday this month. Please join our kickoff celebration by joining our weekly chat with the #SpiritChat community on twitter, Sunday Feb 7 at 9am ET / 730pm India. Bring some #MomentsOfBliss to share. Namaste. ~ @AjmaniK

The heart of a rose, no matter its name is defined by bliss…

The Heart’s Quadrants

Tags

agape, heart, heart matters, love

I am not much of a sport’s watcher any more, perhaps because I’m not much of a TV watcher any more. However, this year, I found myself tuning into the Super Bowl because – actually, I’m not quite sure why, but it just happened. More than the game itself, I was actually paying a bit of attention to the ads. I have to admit, I was totally taken by the story told by the ad that talked about the four types of love… 

While thinking about the topic for this week’s #SpiritChat conversation, I knew that I would end up talking about something heart-related. February is heart-health month, and this year has that extra-special day at the end, for which I have a  special affinity (more about that in two weeks). And then, this morning, reflecting on the heart, I was reminded of the four quadrants of the heart. This made me wonder – is there a connection between the four types of love and the four quadrants of the heart?

What about love? The four types of love are deemed to be philia (love that grows out of friendships), storge (love that is founded on family relationships), eros (the romantic love) and agape (love that comes from acts of service and selfless actions). And what about the heart? The heart’s upper quadrants are the two atriums or atria  – the right, which collects the impure blood through the venous system, and the left, which collects the purified blood from the lungs. The lower quadrants are the two ventricles or the pumps. The right ventricle receives the impure blood from the right atrium, and then pumps it to the lungs for purification. The left receives the purified blood from the left atrium, and pumps it to the organs through the arterial system. 

On the surface, it doesn’t seem like there is any correlation between the four types of love and the heart’s quadrants, is there? Delving a bit deeper, I thought of people whose love resembles the quadrants of the hearts. There are the “receivers” or the atriums – always available and open to us, helping us to lighten our load in any way they can. They do not judge whether our output is “pure” or “impure” – their role is to simply be receivers. “Atrium people” are perhaps primarily engaged in the practice of philia or agape love by their actions of presence and active listening, aren’t they?

Then, there are the “givers” or the ventricles – the ones who “feed” us continuously, whether we are asleep or awake, regardless of our mental and emotional state. The “givers” help us absorb the goodness that every breath brings into our  hearts, and remind us to share that goodness with every cell in our bodies. Our heart’s two ventricles are essential to life and living. The same is true of those who are the ‘givers of love’ in our lives, isn’t it?

What would our lives be without the magic of friendships, the special bonds of family, the incorrigible romantics, or those who are ever-eager to give? Who are our heart’s atriums and ventricles, the ones who teach us about philia, storge, eros and agape? Do we not live our best life when all of the heart’s quadrants work as a unified whole for a single purpose – which is to flow higher love?

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly chat, Sunday February 16 at 9am ET / 2pm GMT / 7:30pm India. We will talk about the heart and its giving and receiving of love through all its quadrants. Join us to tea and cookies. Namaste – @AjmaniK

 

Streaming the Heart’s Light

Tags

heart, heart matters, light, lightness, streaming

 

We have come a long way from the time when our televisions and radios had rabbit ears and antennas that reached out to receive their signals. In this always-connected age of WiFi and cellular service, where cell phones, tablets and laptops can ‘stream’ almost any type of audio and video at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse, our works is inundated with the concept of “streaming.” Corporations like NetFlix, YouTube, Disney and Apple are all in competition for our audio and visual awareness and our dollars.

What does all this “streaming” mean for our spiritual practices and awareness? How are we to develop, maintain and sustain the health of our mind and our heart when we are seemingly immersed in this Alphabet soup of marketing, advertising and ‘news cycles’? What are we to learn and teach from this upheaval that is causing many of us to question our values and beliefs in things like trust, honesty, integrity, service and the like?

One possible solution to the unknown of massive change created by digital “streaming” is to apply it to what we already know. We know our heart is the repository of love and light. We know our heart is the seedbed of softness and kindness. We know our heart is the source of silence and stillness. What if we were to condition and train our heart to constantly stream love, light, softness, kindness, silence and stillness?

In all of my forest walks this autumn, I am yet to undertake a journey that has not infused me with hope and elevation. The subtle changes of color, the falling of a leaf as it spins towards the earth, the rustling of the forest floor as I step gently, the sun emerging from behind clouds and streaming light from behind tall trees — I could go on and on. Observing and being in Nature is frequently my external antidote to the digital stream.

And yet, we need an internal antidote to the digital soup that we often find ourselves boiling in. A four-part practice has served me well in creating my own portable stream. It consists of cleaning the vessel of the day’s digital stream, universal prayer, physical relaxation, and sitting with a gentle focus on the source of light within the heart. It may seem like a lot of work, but I find these four actions harmonize the four quadrants of the heart. The heart’s light flows with clarity again, and the stream of joy and silence is available to immerse in wherever and whenever I need reconnecting to source.

No internet connection required.

 

Kumud

P.S. Join us in our weekly stream on Twitter in #SpiritChat — a gathering of folks “streaming their heart’s light” with enthusiasm — Sunday, Oct 20 at 9amET / 630pm India. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Growing the Heart’s Intelligence

Tags

celebration, heart, heart matters, intelligence, sisters, spirituality

There was a confluence of events which occurred over the past week that reminded me of “the heart’s intelligence”. Two back-to-back lectures by a visiting monk from the “Vedanta society of Houston”, two pieces of mail that arrived on Thursday, and my stumbling on a few personal notes from a book that I had read a few years ago.

The Vedanta lectures address some important questions – Who am I? What is real? What is the truth? What is awareness? And more. My one takeaway was that the mind is not real. From the physical plane, the ‘mind’ is fed inputs by our senses, and creates reactions, which we then respond to as actions. So, what is real? Our awareness that ‘we exist’, even when we are asleep, is a reality. Where does this awareness register? It is in the ‘heart’ – not the physical heart, but the ‘heart’ of every cell of our body. That is the “heart’s intelligence” fed by our spiritual practices.

Fast forward to Thursday morning, when I was “celebrating all my sisters, then and now”, on the day of annual “brother sister festival” called Rakhi. Phone conversations with my sisters in India are a must on this day for me – I actually get to hear their heart’s, share my heart, and there is much laughter and good-nature’s ribbing. They both always ask the question – “did you get my ‘Rakhi’?”

In both cases, I had to reluctantly say – no, not yet. In both cases, I said with a confident heart – “but I am sure that it will come, right on time, in today’s mail”. It is a festival of the heart – and yes, each piece of mail, after traveling 7500 miles, arrived that afternoon. The heart’s intelligence grew a bit more, with two shiny threads from my sisters this week. They’ve been sending me love-filled threads for many decades. I am in awe of them and their hearts.

“The Heart’s Code” was a wonderful book that explained the multiple dimensions of the “heart” and its importance, as I started a focused meditation practice a few years ago. Sorting through my electronic notes this week (getting ready for my “book”), I stumbled on some treasures. First, there was this reminder, to take time to receive.

Take time every day to be open to the energy those you love give off; let your heart receive that energy, store it, and recall it as often as you can. Look, listen, smell, touch, and feel with your heart those you love as profoundly and deeply as you can while the physical manifestation of their energy is still yours for the feeling.

Then, there was this reference to the heart’s role as a ‘memory-keeping’ intelligence portal.

The brain is very busy with its own memory system. It is less sensitive than the heart to the more subtle energetic memories. By putting our heart into remembering those we love every day, we are recovering cellular memories…

And finally, this note spoke to a special propensity of my mine, and perhaps yours too…

When poets describe love as “giving our heart away,” they are cardio-energetically correct.

All the events of this week were designed to remind me that there is perhaps no better return on investment than in growing the heart’s intelligence. I am thus inspired to focus on tearing down my walls of intransigence and prejudice, so that I can heart-connect more often with more of my brothers and sisters across the world. Join me in growing the world’s HeartIQ, will you?

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering of brothers and sisters in #SpiritChat on Sunday, Aug 18 at 9amET. I will bring some sweets – we shall grow our hearts. Namaste – @AjmaniK