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The Healing Power Of Opening Your Heart

cathy arkle zucchiniWhen you were born, you were totally available to Life, but as an adult, chances are you have come to believe that who you are is your thinking mind. As a result, you buy into whatever your mind says. When you awaken, you begin to see that you are not that voice in your head. Who you really are is that which can see what your mind is doing which allows you to not buy into it or be run by it. As this happens, you become a part of the healing of our planet, for as you clear the clouds in your mind, you are more available for the wisdom of your heart. I had two experiences recently where Life showed me that the awakened heart is what will heal our planet – one experience, one person at a time.

Before doing my grocery shopping one morning, I stopped at the bank. There was only one teller window open and there was a woman at the window, so I waited in line. I heard the customer raise her voice and curse the teller. It has been a long time since I have heard anyone be this rude. The teller tried to be courteous to the woman, but I could see he was becoming more and more upset as she raised her voice even higher. Finally, she said “Just do your damn job.” As she left, she walked past me, and my heart opened up to her. What deep pain she must carry to be that hostile to a fellow human being. When I approached the teller window, I could see that he was in reaction. He said to me, “Wow, do you believe that lady?” I responded, “Yes. She must be really struggling in her life.” In that moment, he got it. He was no longer a victim because he understood this woman’s pain. His face relaxed and he proceeded to help me with my transaction.

We have all had this same experience. Perhaps you were rude to someone on the phone or curt with your mate or you yelled at the receptionist in your doctor’s office. We all have that part inside that gets angry, upset, or frustrated when something does not go the way the mind thinks it should, and so it reacts. Because I have done my awakening work, I have had the opportunity to meet this reactive part of myself many, many times. If I had not met that same part inside of me the woman in the bank was experiencing, I would not have been able to bring her into my heart. Perhaps I would have said “What a bitch” under my breath as she passed by me and maybe I would have responded to the bank teller by saying, “Yeah. What a rude woman. What is her problem?  I can’t believe she would treat you that way.” Instead, my heart opened to her and my response caused the bank teller to let go of his upset. This is the phenomenal power of meeting ourselves and others exactly as we are. When you learn to meet yourself in your own heart, you can energetically meet others, even strangers, exactly as they are, and this makes a difference in the world. For the woman in the bank who was encased in her struggling self, I truly believe her life changed in some small way when she walked by my open heart.

The second experience happened that same day. After I left the bank, I went grocery shopping and on my list was zucchini. I always buy organic zucchini and they have stickers with tape wrapped around them to help the clerks recognize it is organic and thus a different price. As I walked up to the place where the zucchini was, I watched a man unwrapping the tape and taking the sticker off each zucchini before putting it in his bag. At first my mind was appalled. It said, “This man is a bad person. I am going to tell him that it is not right that he is ripping off the store. And then I am going to report him to the manager.” At that moment, I thought back to the time when I stole a package of batteries. I was a single mother raising two children on a frayed shoestring budget and I barely had enough money for food, let alone batteries. After I had shoplifted, I felt horrible shame and swore I would never do it again. Years later my heart opened to that shameful part of me that had taken something without paying for it, and I was able to forgive myself. Because I had met that unacceptable part inside of me many years ago, I was able to unhook from reaction and instead, meet him in my heart, even though he was doing something that I viewed as ‘wrong.’

Each and every one of us have those same parts inside of us that cause us to do unskillful things. It would have been so easy to get angry and lash out at the woman in the bank and then commiserate with the bank teller. It would have been so easy to give the man in the grocery store a piece of my mind and then report him to the manager. Instead, I touched both of them with my heart, and that energy permeated the bank and the entire produce section. Reaction will never heal our world. We are ready for a new way of healing – a way that weaves everything back into the spaciousness of the human heart.

The more you wake up, the more your heart opens to the people who most need your compassion and loving kindness – the ones who are acting unskillfully. And usually those are the people who wake up inside of you something that you put out of your heart. So meet yourself – all of you – in your heart so you can meet the world with the healing of your open heart.

Image of Squash Blossoms by Cathy Arkle  http://www.cathyarkle.com/shepaused4thought/

  1. The timing of my reading this coincided with an opportunity to put this into practice with my husband. Thank you for opening my heart a bit more through sharing your palpable experiences. Namaste.

  2. Mary,
    Thank you for your writing and being able to so clearly articulate your heart work. It is so helpful and has caused great shifts in my life. I am reading/ learning/ living/ loving your book “What is in the Way Is the Way” and it is changing my experience of life. The meadow of well- being and the clouds of struggle is a powerful concept. I appreciate your teaching.
    In peace,
    Dianne Rizzo