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The life of holiness is a whole life. We will suffer if we do not continue to integrate thought and intuition, conceptuality and feeling. But, in a “heady” culture, many of us do not have our heart “touched” enough, while we hide from the threatening domain of feeling in the familiar landscape of reason.
I recommend you seek to get “in touch” with your heart. How can you do that? Well, many ways. Here are some recommendations.
1) Write some poetry, even if you are not a poet.
2) Watch a moving movie or film, and let yourself cry if it “touches” your heart.
3) Write and speak love. Write a loving letter to someone you love. Tell persons you are close to “I love you.”
4) Regarding entertainment - reduce to a minimum or completely exposure to violence. Scientific studies have measured a direct, immediate correlation between physiology and exposure to negative images and thought.
5) Regarding persons - surround yourself with positive persons. We all have to associate with negative folk, but reduce it as much as possible. Do not feel obliged to give your life over to persons who feel that if you love them, you will tolerate their negativity. They will bring you down with them. If you are going to suffer, let it be for something noble, not human pessimism, criticism, and persons who feel privileged to expose you to their habitual dissatisfaction with life and themselves.
6) Be compassionate toward yourself. We each have moments of not being at our best emotionally. If you find you are getting negative, admit it and seek to transform that with positivity. Pray, asking the Spirit for help. Do positive meditations. Repeat positive affirmations.
7) You may need to talk with a friend, get counseling or Spiritual Direction, or get on some medication. That is fine, whatever it takes that does not hurt you, but helps you.
8) I, likewise, recommend heart work in meditation. Relax and talk to your heart. Then, listen to your heart, say, “Heart, what would you like to say to me?” Then, listen. You might be surprised that your heart is very compassionate and loves you much, while often your brain will behave more critically of you.
9) Another practice in meditation is to do mantra, or prayer word, work with the heart. Move your awareness to the heart area. Breathing in, interiorily, say “Peace.” Breathing out, say “Love.” After a while, change to, breathing in, do not say anything, breathing out, say, “Thank you” - with a smile.
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