July 15th 2011 - When discussing the Heart Breath, someone recently told me something to the effect of “I woke up the other night with a panic attack. I did the Heart Breath but it didn’t do anything for me.” I was taken aback! It had never occurred to me that someone would interpret the purpose of the Heart Breath like that of a drug. “Have pain, take a pill. Have panic, take a Hearth Breath . . . and that will fix it.” Our society has so programmed us to look at discomfort as bad and to therefore try to make it go away right away — when what it really comes down to is we’re afraid to feel.
The Hearth Breath is not about fixing anything. Each time we practice the Heart Breath, it opens new doors in our consciousness, yielding new possibilities, new options other than the patterned reactions we’ve been stuck in. While shifts are often felt immediately, the point is this effect is cumulative. Over time, we find ourselves in a brand new place oh-so-much-freer, more enjoyable than before. Without ever trying to fix a problem, we begin to live the solution.
From the Do’Hai perspective, it is understood that in order to fix you first have to define something as a problem! The Masters have taught us: “Your reality is arbitrary,” and “Life is a game of perspectives.” Once you define something, that’s what it is for you! You give it the shape, reality, and power you say it is/has. This is usually automatic — a tendency passed down generation after generation.
In Do’Hai, we first acknowledge where we’re at by being honest with ourselves about how we feel — not “what that thing is doing” (note where the power is placed). How we feel is just how we feel. It’s not good, bad, right, or wrong. It may be uncomfortable, but there’s nothing “wrong” — unless we define it as wrong in our minds.
So often the Masters have said that it’s not the situation that creates struggle, but rather the judgment we’ve imposed upon ourselves for being in that situation . . . and for all those other times we were in it (i.e. felt powerless). It’s so often, if not always, the self-judgment that keeps us from gracefully, quickly moving through a situation we don’t prefer.
“Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want,” the Do’Hai Masters have encouraged so many times. This is an aspect of the Do’Hai Principle Proactivity. What we want is the light at the end of the tunnel; but if we’re focused on that “problem-thing,” we get caught up and distracted among the dark tunnel mire and debris. We think, “But I don’t like the darkness. I don’t know what’s here that I might trip over or that’s gonna get me. I need to keep my attention on all this debris and make sure I stay safe.” The key word here is “stay.” And stay in the dark tunnel of our patterns we will until we take steps towards the light (action), focus on the light (intention), make daily affirmations about the light (practice) — whatever it takes to keep us on our goal of how we prefer to feel.
“You have to be where you’re at to get where you’re going,” The Masters have repeatedly taught. Here’s the real trick. This is the new way of responding to a situation you’re in and don’t like. This is something our parents didn’t teach us . . . and certainly not the drug companies that blast us with their philosophy of “killing pain” with their product (even if we think we’re immune to such programming). Here it is: Feel what you feel while simultaneously reminding yourself of your goal, of what you prefer to feel. [See: Open-Heartedness & Proactivity Principles.]
It won’t work if you do it out of hating where you’re at and staying angry with yourself for being there in the first place. (It may be an unconscious belief/emotion, but if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see it.) Chokai often suggests that we practice “I love me anyway” (Open-Heartedness)? This statement, this thought/feeling, this application, this acknowledgment has MUCH more power than we may give it credit. We could ascend just by repeatedly applying it in our lives! It’s not a convincing, like some mental mantra or mind game you play with yourself; but it may feel that way at first. The more you use it in any uncomfortable situation of any kind, the more it will trip up the cogs that are cranking out unhealthy patterns. And eventually, you find yourself in a new, very wonderful, non-reactive place.
In a way, “I love me anyway” is the goal. The “anyway” is not a judgment of any kind. On the contrary, it’s for the ego mind to stop judging and start accepting you — no matter what it thinks. So instead of fighting your ego’s beliefs and struggling to change them, you’re overriding them. What do you want to give your power to anyway? Your ego mind with all its judgments that are absolutely based in misconceptions, inaccurate assumptions, and misunderstandings OR your all-wise, “omni-loving” Soul? Remember those bracelets that say “What would Jesus do?” Well, what would your Soul do? It would love . . . no matter what. Because that’s what It is, what we all are: Love.
So when we get to the light at the end of the tunnel, “I love me anyway” quickly becomes “I love me” to “I love” to “I Am Love.” When we realize we are Love, nothing else matters. Nothing else has control over us. We are standing in our True Self. This is not a fantasy. This is where we’re really headed — if we claim it, intend it, take steps toward it. Each time we make our way through a tunnel to the light, our awareness of that light expands and becomes more our true Reality. Joy, Peace, Abundance — it all comes down to Love, you know. And the Heart Breath is one of the most — if not THE most — direct ways to get there (which is really “here,” but that’s another article!), or so the Masters tell us. And since the Masters are there, I have to accept that they know what they’re talking about. The Heart Breath is not a technique to treat a perceived problem. It’s a gateway to the best party in the cosmos, and we’re all invited. Will you accept your invitation???
[Hint: Every time we practice the Heart Breath, we say, “Yes.”]
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