Appreciating our beautiful hearts ❤️
Breathe in love and place both of your hands on your precious heart
“Every day, think as you wake up, ‘Today, I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.’” — Dalai Lama
Hi friends,
On the beach over Memorial Day, I placed my hands on my heart, feeling it beat, eyes closed. I breathed deeply into my heart, feeling the blood and oxygen flowing, feeling the power of the heart, and finding its strength. I am grateful my heart has guided me on this Earth, pumping blood in my system every minute for 25 years. Consider incorporating a brief moment of heart gratitude — even 10 seconds a day — into your daily routine. It has helped me find a sense of calm and inner peace, regardless of external conditions. Our gentle heart truly loves us unconditionally, for it beats for us without judgment.
Our hearts beat about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. Our system of blood vessels — arteries, veins, and capillaries — is more than 60,000 miles long. That's long enough to go around the world more than twice. Blood flows continuously through the body's blood vessels. The heart is the pump that makes it all possible.
We don’t think about our heart frequently, but it’s always there for us while we sleep, eat, walk, relax, stress, and rest. It is an ultimate gift. What are you grateful for that your heart has guided you to do, enjoy, appreciate, or give? I journaled about this question last week, while down for the count with a nasty cold, and it elevated my sense of being.
May you breathe in all the love and abundance that permeates your existence, while exhaling the gratitude of this precious moment.
When I place both of my hands over my beating heart, I remind myself of the fragility of this moment. ‘I love you, heart,’ I say. ‘I love you.’ Without my heart beating nonstop, I would not be here alive. When I feel my heart beating, I feel its power. What a gift!
An exercise Tony Robbins has taught includes thinking of three specific experiences for which you are incredibly grateful. So, as you feel your heart, step into those experiences. They could be big or small, recent or long ago. As we hold our hearts, let us feel grateful for those moments, reliving them, moment by moment.
As you breath in and out, fill up your being with gratitude and love toward yourself and the people around you. Let us decide to live in a beautiful state as visitors of planet Earth. Remember, our stay here is not all that long. Let that notion drive us to fill our mind and heart with appreciation, no matter what. Love will flow inside you, then translate into joy that will uplift the people around you.
A good fable:
A wealthy investment banker goes on vacation to a tropical fishing village. As he walks along the docks one afternoon, he comes upon a small, run-down fishing boat with several large fish on its deck.
"How long did it take you to catch those fish?" he asks.
The fisherman looks up from his work and smiles at his new visitor.
"Only a little while."
The investment banker is caught off guard by this response. He likes the fisherman and wants to help.
"Why don't you fish for longer so you can catch more fish?"
The fisherman shrugs and explains to his new friend that he has all he needs.
"Each day, I sleep late, fish a little, and spend time with my children and beautiful wife. In the evening, I go into town, drink wine, play the guitar, and sing and laugh with my friends."
The investment banker is puzzled. He wants to help his new friend, who he recognizes is clearly confused. The investment banker has helped many businesses and has an MBA and other fancy credentials to his name. So he lays out a plan for the fisherman...
"First, you spend more time fishing, so you can catch and sell more fish. You use the proceeds to buy a bigger boat, which allows you to catch and sell even more fish. Then you buy a fleet of boats. You hire a team. Vertically integrate! As CEO of a large, growing enterprise, you could move to the big city. You would take your company public and make millions!"
The fisherman looks confused, but smiles.
"And then what?" he asks.
The investment banker laughs at the silly question.
"Well, then you could retire to a quiet town! You could sleep late, fish a little, and spend time with your children and beautiful wife. In the evening, you could go into town, drink wine, play the guitar, and sing and laugh with your friends."
The fisherman smiles broadly, thanks his new friend for the advice, and wanders off slowly into the warm afternoon sun.
An Awakening
Former professional basketball player Ray Allen writes in his autobiography that one of the worst days of his life was the day after he won a NBA championship. Winning it all was not what he thought it would be. "As the days wore on, there was a part of me that felt empty," Allen writes. "If had to do with having always believed that when you win a championship you're transported to some new, exalted place. What I realized was that you are the same person you were before, and if you are not content with who you are, a championship, or any accomplishment, isn't going to change that."
The lesson here is that it’s unlikely achieving XYZ will make us much happier — lottery, big house, big job, promotion, etc. Knowing this helps us be more grounded in the process of our activities rather than the outcomes. We can enjoy the pushing toward our goals instead of engaging in magical thinking that a win or loss will somehow change our soul.
As I sat on the beach reading over the holiday weekend, I thought, what pleasures are as wonderful as sitting outside, reading by the beach, breathing, feeling the sun hit my skin, and hearing the sound of the water?
If we worry too much about what might be, or might have been, we will miss on what is. Forget popularity, focus on sincerity.
As life passes, we realize how much nonsense we have wasted our energy and resources on. One person who taught me this lesson was a childhood friend who lost her father. It shattered her, understandably. Months later, she said something I won’t forget about what the death taught her. “I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore,” she said.
In a similar breath, I wrote a story about a cancer survivor college student about two years ago. She recalled a time when she had inadvertently cut off another driver. “They were so mean,” she said. “They gave me the finger.” She didn’t bother with retaliation, though. “What I’ve been through, it made me realize most things in life aren’t a big deal. They’re not worth worrying about.”
You only control the effort, not the results (Via Ryan Holiday)
John Kennedy Toole’s great book A Confederacy of Dunces was universally turned down by publishers, news that so broke his heart that he later committed suicide in his car on an empty road in Biloxi, Mississippi.
After his death, his mother discovered the book, advocated on its behalf until it was published, and it eventually won the Pulitzer Prize.
What changed between those submissions? Nothing. The book was the same. It was equally great when Toole had it in manuscript form and had fought with editors about it as it was when the book was published, sold copies, and won awards. If only he could have realized this, it would have saved him so much heartbreak. He couldn’t, but from his painful story we can at least see how arbitrary many of the breaks in life are.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, the botanist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss, has said:
That kind of deep attention that we pay as children is something that I cherish, that I think we all can cherish and reclaim, because attention is that doorway to gratitude, the doorway to wonder, the doorway to reciprocity.
And it worries me greatly that today’s children can recognize 100 corporate logos and fewer than 10 plants. That means they’re not paying attention.
“Overwhelmed? If you feel anything less than ‘hell yeah!’ about something, say no. We say yes too often. By saying no to almost everything, you leave space and time in your life to throw yourself completely into the few things that matter most.”
Derek Sivers
Never underestimate the power of routine and deep breathing, self-discipline, self-trust, breaks, solitude, fresh air, small steps, patience, hard conversations, kind words, the human touch, and a big smile toward someone.
Almost everything we’ve experienced helped us grow in some way, big or small.
Photo of the week: Memorial Day weekend sunset, Hampton Bays, NY, marking the end of another precious day on Earth.
Parting question: When was the last time you were in tune with your breathing?
Be joyful and celebrate your gifts,
Matthew