A very practical colleague who prides himself on not having any of that hippy dippy woo woo stuff asked me – what’s a heart centred business? Don’t you just mean someone who enjoys running their business, doesn’t everyone, especially if it’s successful and they earn money?
I had to think about it, I realised I couldn’t help anyone who didn’t love their work, I wouldn’t be able to help anyone to stand in the spotlight and share their key messages if they weren’t passionate about it, I asked myself If someone enjoyed earning a good pay packet from running online gambling websites would that tick the heart centred businesses box?
Not for me, unless time stood still for them when they were absorbed in their work and they felt called to do it on some level, (and it was genuinely for the greater good), I’d question whether they had found their purpose, whether they were doing the work they were really born to do.
I attended a wonderful matrix re-imprinting course – yes the room was full of heart centred practitioners – and the founder of the work Karl Dawson told us about the importance of the heart, not just our emotions, the physical organ. He pointed us to extensive research on its powers reminding us that scientists say it picks up on thoughts, events, actions, even before they happen, it operates in quantum time.
To begin with this can seem far-fetched, surely when we think of a heart we just see lovely cute Valentine’s day images, it signifies romantic love or love for a child or an animal, but there are negative images attached too, we also know that a high proportion of people have heart disease, heart failure, heart attacks, we worry about cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and stress and when its linked to our emotional state, we talk of a broken heart, we recognise that our heart can expand to an even great capacity than we thought possible (enough to love subsequent children as much as the firstborn)
Most of us acknowledge the importance of our brain but sometimes don’t recognise that the heart is Emperor within the mind / body system, it’s the first port if call to receive the ‘energy’ of anything, it communicates this to the brain, the brain signals to the body to tell it what to do, and then we have a conscious realisation – oh I’m feeling scared…need to run, I’m feeling upset, my ears will fill with tears, I will cry.
Of course all of this all happens automatically but as we all well know it’s going on constantly and the more negative the emotions the more stressed we become. Many people live in a constant state of stress, the adrenaline is high, they are ready to fight or flee – but there isn’t really a tiger there – it’s just that the bus is late, or the delivery hasn’t been despatched, or we didn’t get chosen to participate in something we had worked hard for, but we don’t fight, and we don’t run either (interestingly that’s why if we do physical exercise it can be brilliant for relieving stress) usually the stress is internalised.
Karl also made us aware of the work of the US Heartmath organisation. HeartMath was founded by Doc Childre in 1991 to help individuals, organizations and the global community incorporate the heart’s intelligence into their day-to-day experience of life. They connect heart and science in ways that empower people to greatly reduce stress, build resilience, and unlock their natural intuitive guidance for making better choices.
The film Heartless portrays Angus Deayton as a straight laced divorce lawyer who has a heart transplant after a sudden heart attack, acting on a new impulse he gets an urge to buy a leather jacket and motorbike and takes off to the wilds of Scotland, there he decides to stay in a B&B, sees a photo on the mantelpiece of a guy on a motorbike, it transpires it’s the owners husband who died in an accident and donated his heart – to Angus’ character – its fictitious – yet according to some surgeons plausible.
What can we do with this kind of information? Well quite a lot it seems, Heartmath have made popular a simple breathing technique that could transform our lives, from the school room to the workplace to our personal relationships and could probably massively reduce the burden on the NHS with anxiety and stress related illnesses.
We watched Karl via the internet link up his heartrate to a monitor on the Heartmath site, we saw his starting heart rate graph, fluctuating between 90 and 50 bpm, the graph showed a chaotic jagged line, then he did the simple Heartmath exercise, with his hand on his heart he took 6 slow breaths in and out, then he consciously thought of something positive, a time when he felt great, a place where he wanted to be, someone he loved deeply, within seconds his heart rate had stabilised and the graph become a gently flowing wave – no more jagged rises or dips – it was extraordinary.
This is what athletes call being ‘in the zone’ – others call this state being in flow…it’s a state of high coherence bringing the brain in sync with the heart. In Ireland it’s used widely in schools, some forward thinking teachers are using it in UK schools too, can you begin to imagine how different everyone’s day might look if it became standardised?
Ask yourself – are you heart centred? You may decide to spin the word around and feel centred at your heart space, try the simple Heartmath technique before the next potentially stressful thing you know you need to do…and check in with it to ensure that you are on course with the decisions you make for your work and your business …..Let me know how you get on.
I’ve written lots of articles and blogs around procrastination and recently I’ve had to take note of my own issues around stopping short of doing something just because I know I can’t make it as perfect as I’d like, sometimes good enough really is good enough!
I’ve also written recently about the death of Wayne Dyer and how that amazing man with his legacy has inspired so many people to follow their dreams – his phrase ‘Don’t die with the music still in you’ is something I trot out regularly especially to clients who tell me they know they want to write a book, start their business, become the founder of a charity…
Nothing brings this home more than the analogy of ‘Your Life in 7 days’ Years ago a normal lifespan would be seen as ‘3 score years and 10 – meaning we will hopefully make it till the age of 70 – (of course most of us hope to live a lot longer but bear with me!)
So if each decade represents a day, and we are born on a Monday, most people reading this will be over twenty so onto Wednesday already, some of us are into Thursday or even (ahem) Friday or into the weekend ….
It really focuses your mind as to how you are spending your time, if there’s something you know you want to do, when will you start it ? If not now – when ? Having explained this to my hubby he sometimes says to me (especially if I’m asking him to do something for me rather than himself)…’.darling I’m on the Friday of my life, I need to do XXX’ Of course he is right, we all must prioritize what it is we are really here to do, define your purpose and get cracking.
By the way if you are on ‘Sunday’ I wouldn’t worry about that one bit, the great Louise Hay is 89 (way past the sell-by 70) and she is rocking (and recently learnt a new skill of playing the piano) Heres hoping we will all make it to that ripe age and beyond, still feeling young, still feeling energized by living our purpose and passion, but why wait to see what age you make it to ? If you know what you are meant to do, start right away. remember you don’t have to get it right, you DO have to get it going.
If you want help getting clarity on your passion purpose, and USP (unique selling point) and your YOU-nique brilliance get in touch I offer a one hour clarity call.
I was sad to hear recently of the passing of Wayne Dyer, as a Hay House author I had met him and heard him speak several times and was always struck by his humble yet inspirational persona. He has regularly been listed as one of the ten most spiritually influential people in the world and last year Mind Body Spirit magazine ranked him at number eight. Wayne was a best-selling author of over 40 books including his first book Your Erroneous Zones, which is believed to be one of the best selling books of all time, (an estimated 35 million copies sold around the world).
Hay House said of Wayne – ‘He offered a way of being that was at the heart of change, a way of experiencing the world so that your focus is internal — on the I AM — and connected to the Source energy of creation. When we move from “what’s in it for me” to genuinely putting our energy and attention into visualizing ourselves in a capacity of serving, the doors to fulfilment open for us, when we extend ourselves in a spirit of giving, helping, or loving, we are acting as God acts’.
People giving tribute to him included Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGenres. Fellow motivational speaker Tony Robbins also wrote on twitter: ‘Wayne Dyer has passed away today. For those of us who loved him it’s sad, but he knew death was a transition. We send love for his next adventure.’ Many tributes mentioned that Wayne had no fear of dying and I must confess I envy him that.
Many fans called him Mr Motivation, one thing Wayne was brilliant at was helping people to overcome feelings of guilt and inadequacy and get started on what they wanted to do, where they wanted their light to shine in the world, one of the phrases made famous by Wayne was ‘Don’t die with the music still in you’ He certainly didn’t and his huge catalogue of work remains to inspire us. It’s a great reminder to us all if there’s something you have always wanted to do, be it write a book, start a charity climb a mountain, if not now….when?
If you want help with clarity and confidence to get started and get your message out there get in touch! www.janeyleegrace.com
Is Perfectionism leading you to Procrastination? Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies – allowing the ‘inner talk’ to take over and tell us ‘We’re not good enough…won’t get the clients…’ This was really brought home to me when a colleague asked me why I’m not doing more vlogging around PR/Media skills etc – I had to really stop and think – with some embarrassment I had to admit that despite advising my clients, entrepreneurs, therapists, authors, experts to get their bite sized bits of content out there on short video clips I hadn’t been doing it because somewhere in my deep seated subconscious I was a perfectionist and because in my career as a Radio and TV presenter I had always had the works – make-up artist, great lighting , cameras, autocue etc – I believed my ‘home grown’ efforts wouldn’t cut it.
Ouch! A realisation that my deep rooted perfectionism in this area was actually leading to Procrastination – by needing it to be ‘perfect’ I wasn’t doing it all!
It’s likely that your sticking point isn’t the same as mine was – maybe you have always wanted to write a book, but can always find excuses, maybe you know you should create an online course but just cant find the time….whatever it is check in with yourself that the ‘but’s that are holding you back are real….not imagined…. Here’s my thought for the day – You don’t have to get it right – you just have to get it going!
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