by Cynthia Bischoff | Mar 22, 2014 | Heartliving
Throughout the day, check in with your breathing. Is it shallow and tight? Are you tense, angry, anxious, or relaxed? If so, it is most likely reflected in your breathing. You might even be holding your breath as a way not to feel your emotions, particularly if they are negative.
Your breathing serves to connect you with yourself and others, so that not breathing fully can be an unconscious defense mechanism for disconnecting from emotions you’d rather not feel. Even though shallow breathing can lessen your ability to feel your emotions, it can also repress them so that you create a pressure cooker of emotions internally, creating dis-ease in the body.
To promote better health:
- Check in with your breathing periodically throughout the day. Are you taking short, shallow breaths or is your breathing deep and relaxed?
- Ask what is going on with you emotionally at that moment and how does your breathing reflect this?
- If you realize that your breathing is shallow, take deeper breaths and check in with how you are feeling.
- Are you able to expand the lower abdomen as you breathe in, opening the lower chakras with the breath?
With every inhalation, mentally reinforce that you are opening your body to a healthy flow of energy. The in-breath reflects the process of your own will–the taking in and connecting with life. The out-breath reflects the process of surrendering and letting go. The dance of your breathing will tell you much about your relationship to life.
by Cynthia Bischoff | Mar 15, 2014 | Heartliving
Your spiritual journey begins with this first step: Opening your heart to a sincere desire to renew the spiritual vitality of your life. Since it is truly a responsive universe, if you are sincere and open to your heart’s intuition, you will begin to see signs that point you toward your next step. You will begin to notice where you are investing your spirit—where you are being drained and where you are receiving a return on your investment.
The spiritual journey is also one of knowing that you have inside you what you are looking for. It is not about earning or acquiring something you don’t already have or about finding another person to complete you. It is about awakening to the spirit within you.
Three simple keys will help you to weave your spiritual journey into your daily life:
- Live your life wholeheartedly with as much conscious, loving presence as you can. Hold the intent that you can contribute to your own balance and bring a greater harmony to your own and others’ lives. Pay attention to where you are investing your energy and stop the “leaks” that cost you your spirit.
- Understand that spiritual practice is a path of deep relationships within your life. Begin your day by recognizing how you are connected to your spiritual principles, your friends, your family, and so on. Our relationships provide a mirror to us of ourselves.
- Have gratitude for the moments of “grace” that you experience daily. Don’t live your life waiting for something to happen so that you can start really living. Live your life fully right now in this moment and every moment. It will take conscious thought to do this. It will require that you respond rather than react to the events in your life and in your relationships. But, yes, it can be done.
Taken to heart, these simple steps can transform your life and allow you to “awaken your spirit within.”
by Cynthia Bischoff | Mar 1, 2014 | Heartliving
Ever feel like running from your life circumstances?
We have all had those moments or days in which we desire something better—a different lifestyle, a new experience, or a better set of circumstances. We may abandon our current situation and move into a new circumstance, only to find that the things that we were running from continue to show up in our new situation. It is then that we realize that we are the common denominator and . . . “wherever we go, there we are”!
We cannot run from ourselves. If we run from a certain situation, we generally recreate the same dynamic in a new place. Avoidance does not promote true growth.
To be free and to feel happy, we must first accept our circumstances and ourselves exactly as we are, right here, right now. While we may not be able to change our circumstances, we can change our perception of them, and we can step back and begin to see the “bigger picture” of why things are the way they are.
So what is the secret to staying where you are and working life through?
The first step is to surrender to your current situation. See if you can stop your mind for a few seconds and know that peace is an option. When there are no fearful thoughts, there are no worries.
You begin to realize that you are creating this life in your mind and can release feelings of fear and hurt, or even the idea that you have enemies. It is our mind and our thoughts of judgment that cause these experiences to come to us. Through our thoughts, we create our life conditions. Hence, we create our own reality.
Instead of running from life circumstances, seek to raise the energy to the highest level in each moment right where you are. Remember that the only way out is through. Change your thoughts and you change your life!
by Cynthia Bischoff | Feb 17, 2014 | Heartliving
I’m excited to share that my second Heartliving Webinar, Give Your Life an Awesome Rewrite, is available for purchase!
During this powerful video, you’ll learn to take ownership as the author of your own life by assessing how you are thinking, overcoming limitations, conquering troublesome patterns, and creating and executing a new plan. You’ll get you tips on how to understand your relationship to your thoughts and to the world, and ultimately how you can create a positive and conscious life. Five Heartliving principles and over 30 suggestions will be shared to give your life an awesome rewrite!
Many thanks to Metro Productions in Richmond, VA, who did a fabulous job producing this webinar as well as my videos on my YouTube Heartliving Video Channel.
To celebrate the video launch, the price is $24.50 (retail value $49.95). Ready to purchase? Click Store.
In the coming months I’ll be adding new videos, ebooks and other exciting products. Subscribe to Heartliving.com for the latest news!
~Cynthia
by Cynthia Bischoff | Feb 15, 2014 | Heartliving
What is forgiveness? Why does one forgive? For those of us who have been pained by another person, particularly a person of a past relationship, to forgive may feel impossible. It may feel that the act of forgiveness would be a way of saying that the painful event or relationship did not occur. It is important to understand that forgiving does not erase the reality of the incidents that occurred. The act of forgiving simply opens up a space in the forgiver from which to live more fully.
The beauty of forgiving or being forgiven is that we are the ones who heal as we forgive. In the words of Oscar Wilde, “. . . it is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.”
When we do not forgive a person, we are financing the ill feelings or the lack of forgiveness with our energy. Lack of forgiveness then can lead to illness in the person who is unable to forgive. It becomes like a sword with a curved blade. Or in some cases, you may choose not to forgive because there is a feeling of power and control. This form of power is NOT true power. There is no power in holding a victim stance.
So how do you forgive?
At some point you have to retell the story in a more empowered way and be willing to let it go. Instead of holding yourself to be a victim, you must be able to witness a “bigger picture” than what you believe occurred. What did you learn from this experience? How did this event contribute to your overall growth and development?
Forgiving is about letting go of the past and deciding that you are now the hero and author of your life story. Forgiving is about comfort, kindness, and gentleness to your own soul. Above all, it about liberating yourself!
