Heart-centered awareness is the first step in shifting our state of consciousness into the openness of experience and finding acceptance for what is. As discussed in previous posts, when the ego defends, we are still in a fight-or-flight response mode and have locked ourselves into old patterns of thinking and behaving. There are two ways of working with heart-centered consciousness: one is directly with the experience, and the other is in meditation.

Dropping our awareness in a moment of stress and anxiety allows a different part of our brain to activate and begins the release of fear’s control, so that we can experience true free will as we move out of reactive states of consciousness. We can move beyond the illusion of our projection onto a situation.

For example, you may have come into an understanding of a pattern that operates within you that has to do with feelings of unworthiness. Let’s say you are sitting with a group of friends, and a friend wants to know why your partner has asked for a divorce. This question may bring up a feeling of unease, and then underneath the unease is a feeling of unworthiness. The ego initially wants to defend itself by deflecting the question or establishing your power forcibly, such as by saying, “It is none of your business.” In that case, you have entered into the fight-or-flight mode of reactivity. You have created an illusion of the situation based on your own inner belief system of who you think you are. Your friend may have an interest in your well-being.

However, if you use heart-centered awareness, then once your friend asks the question and you become aware of a reactivity within you, as you use the intent to be present with your unease, you can drop into the heart and see the question for what it is without the filter of unworthiness being projected onto the situation. You can discern that your friend’s interest is in the right place, and you can determine the details of your response. You have provided a space of compassion and unconditional love, two attributes of the heart, for your beliefs of unworthiness. The ego transforms in the moment.

Oftentimes, we are not able to drop into the heart center because our reactions are too strong; our beliefs that are not based in truth are too large. We are along for the ride in this situation, reacting out of old patterns…but we can become aware that we are acting from old patterns, which is a huge leap in spiritual or consciousness  development. Later, when we are alone, we can sit in meditation with our feelings of unworthiness. We can begin to allow our ego to experience unworthiness without ego defenses, and being present in this vulnerability assists us in obtaining personal strength. It also begins to develop those new neuron pathways in the brain that will allow the frontal lobes to become activated, and this takes us out of the fight-or-flight reactivity of the primal or reptilian part of the brain.

Once, as an adult, when I was alone and riding my bike on a county road, my wheel slid off of the road and into gravel as I was going about 27 miles an hour. Both bones in my forearm, the ulna and the radius, fractured as well as my wrist bone. As I looked at both of my bones exposed, my awareness automatically dropped into the heart center. At the time of the accident, I had used heart-centered practices for 20 years. So at this moment, I experienced a calmness of emotion and took action by placing the bones back into my arm and bracing my arm on my chest as I began walking to locate the nearest house.

When I arrived at the hospital, the doctors reported that I was lucky to be alive. I didn’t understand this, as I believed I only had a broken arm, but they informed me that I should have gone into shock, become nauseous, passed out and being alone in a remote area, I would not have gotten help.

I attribute my heart-centered practice to my ability to save my life, not once but several times, as I discussed in the previous posts on violence in the culture.