1:1-The Healing Heart


Day One: The Healing Heart


Affirmation: Today, I choose love. I apply love to the places inside myself that hurt. I am open to receiving support.


Think of daily affirmations as an exercise for your brain. In our grief, this can act as subconscious reminders to help us navigate through negative thought patterns. We’ve created these as a focus on what we want to create. You may want to write them down in a place you will see as you go about your day. 



Sometimes when grief feels too much to bear, our heart reacts protectively. We push our loved ones away. We isolate. When the pain feels overwhelming, we try to stay busy, run away from our grief so that we don’t feel overpowered by our feelings. We don’t want to be a bother. We say we are fine when we are not. We forget about love.

In these darker moments, we forget our love is always available to us. We want so badly for our grief to go away that we forget about love. We forget about unconditional love, the love for ourselves, the love from our beloved animal companions. We forget love is available when we are dealing with pain and darkness. 

Just for today, can you allow whatever emotions are coming up for you to surface, without having to fix it, push it down? What if we think of love as something that can be sprinkled in between all of the feelings we may be experiencing? Layers of sadness, sprinkled with love, anger, sprinkled with love, regret, sprinkled with love, resentment, sprinkled with love. It's not an either-or. It's all of the above. Instead of drowning in our sorrow, think of love as something that can lift us up, keep us buoyant, bouncing back and forth as we wade through the ebbs and flow of grief.



Today’s inspired action:

A simple self-guided heart-opening meditation

(Click on the audio link to listen to the meditation)

 

Find a comfortable place to sit down. Close your eyes.

Bring your left palm flat against the heart and place the right palm on top of the left, over your heart.

Let your mind settle and relax. Let the thoughts from the day unwind.

Take a couple of deep breaths, going deeper with each one.

Relax your body, and let your mind wander, not settling on anything in particular.

Become aware of the sensations in your body. Notice with each breath that you are letting any external noise fall away. Anytime your mind wanders, bring it back to your heart. Bring your attention to the center of your chest, where your heart is.

Feel yourself sink into your heart. 

Breathe into your heart. Feel the beating of your heart against your left palm. Feel your heart. Notice any feelings that come up. So much is stored in the heart - unconditional love, compassion, kindness. From your animal companion to you. From you to your animal companion.

Visualize your heart being open to receive and give this love.

Do this for a few minutes. Listen to what your heart has to say to you.

In our grief, our heart will have messages for us. Notice with each breath the sensations in your body. Continuing to relax, let your mind come back slowly to the present if it wanders. Allow yourself to experience the hand upcoming up and down with each breath.  

When you are ready, open your eyes. Take a few minutes to journal and jot down any thoughts you may have had during this meditation.

 

Complete and Continue