I listen—I listen not just with my ears but my heart—I try to listen.

Often it seems like life gets in the way.

I tend to blame the mind. I blame the mind for thinking thinking matters. I blame the mind for believing it knows when knowing closes more doors than it opens. I blame the mind for confusion when clarity is the clear glass of water before us. I blame the mind for judging when a hug would do.

But if I blame the mind for all this, am I its victim? Is the mind abusive?

In my own case, no, my mind is not abusive. But I take a medication that keeps things straight. I don’t have overbearing thoughts. I don’t usually feel the fog of confusion and though I am not cuffed to judgment I am its prisoner as much as the next person.

I see mind overtaking others all the time in friends, family, students.

I live in a culture where brain power matters and feelings, not so much.

If we ask the body for wisdom….if we use the senses to teach us who we are and what to do, then we can access the higher mind, the mind that is connected from the sixth Chakra to the fourth Chakra so when we speak, through the fifth Chakra, we speak our truth.

If we listen with the heart and allow feelings to move through us we find presence.

The mind is the rattler of fear and like a snake it can coil itself around us and squeeze our truths right out of us. Fear can also charm us into believing there are no choices. We have to work where we are miserable. We have to smoke that cigarette because we are addicted. We have to stay in this relationship because someone is better than no one.

When we are the slaves of fear we cannot hear what the body is telling us.

Carolyn Myss said our biology is our biography. All we have ever done is in the body. All the traumas we have not processed or felt because of fear are in the body. Everyone we have loved and lost is in the body.

The body is wise and moves toward healing.

The heart will too if we listen. The heart will heal if we feed it with love. The heart is the seat of truth. If we beat up the heart with words and thoughts that shut it down, it turns on us and we hurt ourselves or others. The heart is strong. The heart knows when we lie. The heart won’t be ignored. The heart always wins.

But if we aren’t listening, we lose.

We lose the ability to embrace who we are. We lose the ability to choose. We lose the ability to love self and therefore everyone else. We lose the ability to heal. We lose health. We lose happiness. We get lost on the map of Dharma and trudge on a path missing our bliss.

Bliss is the heart. Joy is our birthright. Happiness is our duty.

Listen to the body. It is always talking. Embrace your senses. Train your mind.

Your heart wants to help you. Will you help your heart?

Want 15 free additional reads weekly, just our best?

Get our weekly newsletter.

Editor: Bryonie Wise

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons