From Mind to Heart-Centered Consciousness

“Your heart does not answer to your mind; Your heart reveals the deepest wishes of your soul. No amount of clever justifications or smart excuses alters your heart’s wish, it just delays the richly fulfilling life you truly seek.” — Robert Beno

There is a reason phrases such as, “follow your heart,” “trust your feelings,” and “let your heart lead the way,” have withstood the test of time. To many they may sound like cliche inspirational phrases that don’t really mean anything, but for those on an advanced spiritual path, they are the answer to long awaited prayers.

One need not know that they are on an advanced spiritual path to be on it. Just like a seed in the ground does not need to be ‘told’ that it is growing, our consciousness level expands at a rate that is automatic and completely organic to our personal journey.

There are certain stages that all people will have to traverse in their journey, and to be in the more advanced stages is not to say that one is “better” than another person, but rather just at the part of their journey where a spiritual reality is very much a way of life, vs something that they have to believe in or learn about in order to know about. This happens at the perfect moment for the individual.

The number one indicator that our spiritual path is in the advanced stages is when consciousness drops from the mind to the heart. To put it bluntly, when shit gets real. At this point, merely understanding ‘why’ emotions are there, or why things in our life are going the way they are no longer helps.

The sense of ‘self importance’ we may have cultivated at the stage of our journey where our spiritual ego was being formed is confronted repeatedly by the unconscious and un-awakened people we still encounter in our day to day life.

No longer are we able to maintain the guards and walls that have formed over time around our most vulnerable aspects. The only way past the pain, fear and judgment is through them, which means feeling them. When consciousness drops down to the heart, it becomes apparent that our emotions are actually the language of our intuitive guidance.

The Crucifixion

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” — Rumi

Although reading this article won’t give you the luxury of by-passing the pain that often goes hand in hand with this stage of your journey, it will give you at the least some insight into what’s happening and also may give you support to accept yourself and your life as is, vs fighting with what’s already meant to occur.

Many religious texts have stories that when de-coded tell the story of the ego (the mind/thoughts) shattering into pieces leaving the doorway to our “god” self, or divine nature in its place (the heart). In the Christian Bible the story that symbolizes this stage of the spiritual journey is called “the crucifixion”.

In this story, Jesus, after being sentenced to death is forced to carry his own cross to the top of the hill all while being physically and verbally abused by the on-lookers. Emotionally, and physically exhausted, Jesus reaches the top of the hill where he is hung on the cross he carried to die.

In our own lives, we see how the story of the crucifixion can compare to the devastating life circumstances that often become the catalyst for our own heart to open. Just like Jesus was pinned to the cross in a completely vulnerable position, our heart often opens when we are at our most vulnerable.

At this point, the defenses of the ego-mind no longer work in protecting our innocent nature from being exposed, but rather we are forced to embrace these most vulnerable aspects as they are. Consequently, by embracing our most vulnerable aspects we find they held the power all along to protect against all the alleged “predators” our ego mind had come up with throughout life.

What we thought would be our demise transforms us into a courageous pillar of strength and light. The more one allows themselves to be vulnerable, the stronger they realize they are. By letting life crucify us, we realize how powerful we are and always were.

Honesty, Humility, Silence

“Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure.” — Bob Marley

The dropping of our consciousness from mind to heart will most likely not happen overnight. It is a process that happens over a period of time after we begin to embrace the qualities of honesty and humility.

The ego hides in the lies we tell ourselves. The fears we believe in, the unworthiness we feel about ourselves and the sense of lack we think is waiting for us on the other side of following our heart’s deepest wish is how the ego continues to exist.

But, as the saying says, the truth shall set you free. The most honest confessions that we allow ourselves to embrace (even if just in our own mind) become the very catalyst by which the ego begins to unravel. The un-judgment of our most judged and hidden traits (the most vulnerable) is what ultimately liberates us.

The ego quite literally cannot survive when we no longer are lying to ourselves. The more we come to embrace worthiness, abundance, fulfillment and happiness as the ultimate truth of existence, the more the ego has nowhere to hide and is forced to integrate into the light that we are.

Over time, as we soften our approach towards our own ego/inner child, start treating it with love and compassion it begins to feel safe enough to relax into our heart space, and the heart feels safe enough to feel. As the thoughts in our mind begin to subside, silence becomes our natural state, and feeling our way through life becomes the norm.

A Spontaneous Shift

Although we can certainly teach ourselves to feel our way through situations, to calmly respond to life rather than react, and to breathe deeply and slowly, there is still an element of awakening into the heart space that happens spontaneously and without effort.

Some call it ‘grace’, others call it a ‘mystery’, but nonetheless shifting awareness to heart is something we cannot force. Unfortunately, the ego’s constant attachment to putting effort towards a goal can very much become spiritually oriented. In the spiritual ego, enlightenment, or awakening is chased and ‘worked on’ like a person who is training for a race. This effort towards something must eventually be unraveled and dropped by our ego as well.

We must ultimately accept that one of the most beautiful parts of a spiritual journey is that awakening into the heart space happens through absolutely no effort of our own and at the perfect moment in time planned by our soul. Until then, just try to enjoy the ride.