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Are you ready to share your purpose with the world? Join Briana on Facebook Live for the
FREE Open To Change workshop. We will make magic together. See you there!
***UPDATE: This workshop is now closed, but stay tuned because we will have a whole new Free Workshop Series for 2020!***
[post_title] => Your Purpose: The Key to Unlocking Your Gifts
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[post_date] => 2019-07-10 17:47:21
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So much of what we do through The Dragontree – both at our spas and with our products, courses, and articles – is meant to assist people to prioritize self-care. In an age when many people barely take a minute in a day for pure self-care, I’m happy to hear of any way in which someone is making space in their life for wellness. And also . . . if I could be a little nitpicky about it, I’d wish for even more Self in people’s self-care.
From talking about it with my patients, I’ve gathered that most people’s idea of self-care includes things like grooming, bathing, exercise, eating well, and perhaps reading a book in a cozy chair. These are all good and important, but it’s possible to do them without really getting to what the Self needs, and we can perform these activities without any conscious care. I’ve even known people whose die-hard approach to yoga was ultimately more stress-inducing than it was nourishing.
Care implies listening – quieting the mind and being open to understand what is needed. If someone handed you a crying child and said, “Care for this child,” you’d probably drop what you were doing – both physically and mentally – and ask something like, “What’s wrong?” Then you’d just listen. And perhaps you’d next ask, “What do you need?”
I don’t mean to imply that grooming can’t be self-care. But let’s think of self-care as comprising multiple layers. On the surface there are the things you do to maintain your appearance, your general health, your ability to function in society, and your composure – bathing, eating, sleeping, haircuts, etc. The next layer contains the deeper (or higher, if you prefer) measures of maintenance that enable you to manage your challenges and thrive. Perhaps this means taking time to forgive, to process your relationship challenges, work on your communication skills, clean up interpersonal conflicts, deactivate your buttons, define and pursue your (worldly) dreams, discipline your mind, etc. Most of this falls within the realm of “self-help.”
And then there’s an even deeper (or higher) layer of self-care that’s could be described as making space for your Essence. That is, letting your Self (AKA the Consciousness that you are, your Divine nature, Spirit, God, your Highest Self) be recognized and listening to it. (By the way, I make no promise that there are only three layers. There might be seventeen layers. My point is that self-care can address the form or the essence or both.)
Take a break from giving your attention to your mind, your emotions, your pain, your grievances, or any of the other content of your life. Instead, notice the container that holds it all. Or, as Adyashanti says, “Turn your attention upon itself.” Your attention – whose attention is that? Turn the focus of your attention around to notice the source of that attention.
The container that holds all the contents of life – all the thoughts, feelings, events, all the objects of your attention – that container itself, the Space, is You. Many spiritual teachers assert that it’s actually much more your true Essence than any of its contents. The contents are fleeting. The container – Consciousness itself – is eternal. The deepest self-care is the practice of trusting in it. Surrendering to it. Relinquishing everything to it. Even if only for the duration of a single breath.
If you need help integrating self-care into your routine and you live near Portland or Boulder, consider getting a membership with us so that you’ll have a structure that you can designate for care of your Self. Leave everything at the door and be present to each moment for its own sake.
If you don’t live near us – and even if you do – a daily practice is likely to yield the greatest transformation, and you don’t really need to make time for it. You just need to make Space for it. Several times a day, give the whole of your awareness to a single breath (or a couple breaths). Once in a while you might ask yourself, how much of my awareness did I give to that breath? I just took a breath between that sentence and this one, and I’d say I gave 83% of my awareness to it. Notice that. Does it change over time?
Sometimes, try doing it without stopping whatever else you’re doing. Watch your breath while you are in conversation, while eating, while showering, while driving, and especially while doing the other forms of self-care. Although getting a pedicure might be a relatively superficial form of self-care, if you are completely present to it, it becomes true Self-care.
Little by little, your Essence will be a growing presence in your everyday life. You won’t get wrapped up as easily in drama. Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “My secret is . . . I don’t mind what happens.” This is the case when Essence, rather than ego, is in the driver’s seat.
Be well,
Peter
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Sometimes it’s tricky to avoid thinking of the chakras as having a hierarchy. Even though they’re all equally instrumental in our development, certain ones get more attention than others, and I hear people mention the “heart chakra” the most. It’s understandable, since, as we discussed early in this series, the functions of the chakras are difficult to distinguish from other physiological and spiritual processes, and we are in many ways creatures of the heart.
Until science elevated the brain to the position of highest esteem, humans instinctively saw the heart as the center of our ability to feel and connect, to experience love and compassion. As our language conveys in phrases such as “the heart of the matter,” we see the heart as symbolic of the center or core of something. In the same way, the heart chakra is considered to be our spiritual core.3 As the pivotal chakra between the three below it and the three above, it has the role of integrating and bringing wholeness and balance to all parts of ourselves and our world – above and below, inside and out, body and mind, spirit and matter.
The heart chakra is called Anahata, which means “unstruck” – like a drum that beats without ever being hit. It’s located in the center of the chest and is associated with the air element and the breath. Physically it relates to the heart and pericardium, the lungs, the thymus (an immune gland that produces T-cells), breasts, and the arms and hands. Psycho-spiritually, it governs all those functions we historically attributed to the heart – the capacity to love, to feel, to empathize and relate. Different from the love associated with the second chakra, which relates more to physical connection, sexuality, getting needs met, and which always has an object, the love of the Heart Chakra transcends objects and needs.3 It is inclusive and unconditional.
Although the chakra system is from India, there is a tremendous amount of overlap between these Tantrik concepts and those of Daoism and Traditional Chinese Medicine, where the heart is referred to as the Emperor or Empress among the internal organs. The emperor in ancient China (and Greece, Japan, and other cultures) was seen as a human representative of God. Thus, the heart, as emperor, was viewed as the main portal for the Divine to enter a human being. The first acupuncture point on the heart channel is called Utmost Source, and it is used to restore a person’s connection to Spirit.
The empress’s job, like a divine metronome, is to set the rhythm to which the kingdom will be synchronized. In such a way, she generates the atmosphere within which the world will be held. A loving empress, like a healthy heart, includes and unifies all the citizens, not excluding anyone or anything.
The connection between the heart and upper limbs is also easily explained within the framework of acupuncture, where the heart and its three accessory organs are all accessed through channels that run along the arms and hands. In this way, our hands help us communicate the truth within our heart and to do the heart’s work in the world.
Harish Johari wrote that when we evolve to living with an open heart chakra, we “have overcome the preoccupations of the lower chakras: security (first chakra), sensuality and sexuality (second chakra), name, fame, authority, social status, power, and physical immortality (third chakra).” He said that we naturally orient around this chakra between the ages of 21 and 28, “becoming aware of one’s role, one’s actions, and one’s life goal. Dedication, devotion (bhakti), faith, and self-confidence are the motivating forces as one strives to achieve balance at all levels.”1
Caroline Myss writes that this chakra teaches us “how to act out of love and compassion and recognize the most powerful energy we have is love.” She says this center represents “our capacity to ‘let go and let God.’” And she proposes that its energy enables us to “accept our personal emotional challenges as extensions of a Divine plan, which has as its intent our conscious evolution.” Instrumental in this evolution, she explains, is forgiveness – and releasing “our lesser need for human self-determined justice.”
Besides cultivating love and acceptance, listening to your heart, and practicing forgiveness, there are some body-oriented ways to support the heart chakra. Breathing deeply and freely helps this center to open – and, in contrast, restricted breathing promotes (and is promoted by) a relatively closed heart chakra. Chest-opening stretches, like cobra and behind-the-back prayer pose, can also help.
Finally, if compassion is one of your gifts – or you’d like to grow in this area – I'd love for you to attend this workshop Briana is hosting today about clearing the blocks that stand between you and your heart's work.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
RSVP for You Are Enough: a free workshop on clearing the blocks that stand between you and your heart's work
Sources:
- Johari, H. (1987). Chakras. Energy Centers of Transformation. Destiny Books.
- Judith, A. (2004). Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts.
- Judith, A. (1999). Wheels of Life: The Classic Guide to the Chakra System. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.
- Khalsa, G. K. (1991). Energy Maps: A Journey Through the Chakras. La Crescenta, CA: CyberScribe.
- Myss, C. M. (1996). Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing. New York: Three Rivers Press.
- Svoboda, R. E. (1995). Aghora II: Kundalini. Albuquerque, NM: Brotherhood of Life Publishing.
- Wallis, C. D. (2013). Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition. Petaluma, CA: Mattamayūra Press.
- White, J. W. (1990). Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment. New York: Paragon House.
- Woodroffe, J. G., & P. (1931). The Serpent Power: Being the Shat-chakra-nirūpana and Pādukā-panchaka; Two Works on Laya yoga. Madras: Ganesh.
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Are you ready to share your purpose with the world? Join Briana on Facebook Live for the
FREE Open To Change workshop. We will make magic together. See you there!
***UPDATE: This workshop is now closed, but stay tuned because we will have a whole new Free Workshop Series for 2020!***
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