I ended last week’s blog by sharing ways to create heart harmony in our lives. This week, I’ll delve deeper, providing methods for leading from the heart and living with conscious intent.

In order to get you more in touch with your heart feelings and to figure out what’s working and what’s not working, ask yourself questions– we spend so much of our lives seeking answers that we often don’t allow for ourselves to ask questions and be patient with the process of living. Two great questions are, “What do I want to bring into my life?” or “What do I want to release?” and they can lead you to think about:

• An area in your life that might be calling for you to make a change
• An area where the most or least learning is going on
• An area in which you feel “stuck”
• An area in which you could challenge yourself more
• An area that causes the most pain
• An area that scares you the most in your life

Also, give some attention to the balance of your body, mind, and spirit. Do you honor your body with movement—whether it’s exercise or yoga or tai chi or walking? Because if you don’t honor your body, it will talk to you—and generally through illness or pain.

If you had to choose one area—body, mind, or spirit—which one would you feel needs the most attention or balance right now? Explore that and attend to that area.

Leading from the heart and maintaining heart harmony may also require that you to live with conscious intention. How do you do that? Here are some helpful suggestions:

• Slow down and become more focused. If you are living at warp speed (and I know some days I feel this way), it is very hard not to be living in reactionary patterns.
• “Practice the Pause.” Instead of reacting, just stop, take a deep breath, and reflect before doing or saying anything. Instead of reacting, respond to your circumstances.
• Adopt a daily ritual. When you get up in the morning take a moment that gets you in touch with conscious intention. Ask yourself, “what is it I wish to accomplish today?” or “what can I do to contribute to a positive outcome today in my world?”
• Practice holding a “Bird’s Eye View” as a way of living and being in the world. Lift yourself above the situation you find yourself in, especially difficult ones, and hold a bigger picture. You’ll find yourself less caught in the drama.
• Think less about “what’s missing” in your life and focus on what you do have and what you want to create. For example, instead of focusing on thoughts like “I don’t have enough money,” focus with intention on thoughts, such as “I attract unlimited abundance into my life.”
• Instead of concentrating on “what has always been”—which usually creates a stuck place– focus on what you want to create. For example, instead of “I can’t change things because they’ve always been that way in this relationship,” why not try thoughts like “I’ll work at being peaceful and complete in myself and contribute positively to this relationship.”
• Another tip for bringing coherence to your heart and de-stressing yourself is NOT to take things personally. Remember that someone else’s judgment is simply that. Maybe what’s going on with that person has nothing to do with you, so don’t let your own positive feelings and intentions waver. Some people like to hook you in their negativity, too, so remain detached from the drama.
• Pay attention to your self-talk. Become more conscious of your thoughts. Every thought you have impacts you. So shift “weak” or negative thoughts into ones that strengthen or enhance your well-being.
• And pay attention to how your family and friends, your workplace, affects you. In an energetic world, we find that the consciousness of your friends, family, and acquaintances will definitely impact you and your consciousness in turn impacts others. Don’t allow others’ behavior and choices to bring you down and vice-versa.

Also realize that the more responsibility you take for what is going on in your life and the more conscious you become of your feelings, you may go into more pain in order to heal. But what’s really important is to know that this is a natural part of the process since you cannot heal what you will not let yourself feel.

Finally, I really believe if you wish to lead from your heart, forgiveness is the ultimate in creating heart harmony.

You know, when you are holding on to negative feelings or hurt about a situation with someone, and haven’t forgiven a person, the person most affected is you because you are still giving energy to them. It’s as though you are plugged into them and leaking your own energy or life force that affects the coherence of your body, mind, and spirit.

But how does a person forgive? You can’t just will it. In next week’s blog I’ll talk about some myths around forgiveness and how forgiving can be a powerful tool for making a difference and improving your heart harmony.