Feeling your heart sing

Have you ever felt your heart sing? It is a tingling sensation in your chest, a combination of excitement, love and joy. It’s the feeling you get when your favorite song comes up on the radio, or when you decide to take out the trash and find yourself under a clear evening sky filled with hundreds of stars and a bright full moon. Our hearts sing when we engage in activities we enjoy, like painting or dancing, and our hearts sing when we exist in the moment, sitting with loved ones around the dinner table or at the beach, listening to the ocean waves crashing to the shore.

We can feel our heart sing when we bring ourselves back into the present moment and pay attention to the small details. The best way to feel your heart sing is by practicing gratitude. If you have been struggling with depression, worrying about money or contemplating a relationship, take a moment to just pause. Close your eyes, and bring your attention to your breathing. Take a deep breath and consider the fact that you do not have to struggle to inhale. You can take a long deep breath, and exhale at your own pace. Take another deep breath and bring your focus onto your head. Look at that. No headache. Any random thoughts that try to enter your mind just let them pass. You’ll have time for them later. But for right now, just scan your body. Everything necessary works? Are you able to walk? Are you able to use your hands? Just to make sure, squeeze your hands into a tight fist, and then release. Experience the relief you get once your muscles relax. Wiggle your toes. Are they tucked away in a cozy pair of socks or free to feel the texture of the ground beneath you? And what sounds are around you? Are your kids arguing in the background? Thank goodness they are healthy enough to argue. They’ll be much older one day and out of the house. Enjoy the sound of their youth. Are you at work? Enjoy the sounds of earning a paycheck. You know you would be much more stressed if you didn’t have that job, right? Yep, take it in. Are you in your car waiting at the red light or in traffic? Well, you know you shouldn’t be on your phone right? So just enjoy the fact that you are safe, and that you can put your phone down before the cops stop you and give you a ticket you know you can’t afford. (Mhmmm…you see how I did that, right?)

I challenge you to take some time today to write down ten things you are grateful for. What are ten things that make your heart skip out of your chest. And then, after you write those ten things down, I want you to take a moment and consider one thing you would love to do that you have not had the time to do. For example, I have not sat down and made jewelry for over three years. I used to love making jewelry. So, today, I plan to set my station up, gather my tools, and I will be creating one piece of jewelry today, even if it is as simple as making a beaded bracelet. I look forward to hearing back from you about what you chose to do, and if you’re feeling up to it, share a picture or two.

-hashtag, just saying

On Self-Knowledge

by Kahlil Gibran

From The Prophet 

A man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge.
And he answered, saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”  
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.