Swami Parameshwar Das, known as Swamiji, is a seasoned professional with decades of experience in the worlds of business consulting, psychology and spirituality. Swamiji’s mission is to serve everyone to be leaders in their life and fulfill their dharma or purpose.
We’re moving into a new era of truth on the planet where we remember and express who we are in our essence as love. Our heart is key for this shift, and this article highlights the heart’s influence and seven ways to access its power.
Why am I writing about the heart and asking you to focus there? Why follow my tips for living a heart-centered life?
First of all, I’ve learned at a very deep level about the healing power of the heart through my personal experiences in the spiritual path over the last 30 years. Add to this the numerous scientific studies that have demonstrated its energetic power. Spending more time in our heart impacts us on many different levels including physical, psychological (mental, emotional), social, and spiritual.
Let’s delve into some examples of the heart’s influence.
Physical/psychological impact
When we’re in our heart we charge our battery; we have greater resilience or capacity to prepare for, recover from, and adapt in the face of stress or challenge. We release more DHEA, the resilience hormone, compared to cortisol, the stress hormone that depletes our physical energy. Studies show that positive emotions can lower blood pressure and boost the immune system. Our heart rhythms affect the brain’s ability to process information as the heart’s 40,000 sensory neurons are involved with relaying ascending information to the brain.
Many studies conducted by HeartMath Institute show how heart-centered practices increase heart rate variability (HRV) which refers to variations in the time intervals between consecutive heartbeats. Individuals showing higher HRV are able to manage stress more effectively. The Institute has found that the heart actually sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. These signals have a significant effect on brain function, influencing emotional processing and higher cognitive faculties such as attention, perception, memory, and problem-solving.
Spiritual/energetic/social impact
Until my mid-forties when I met my spiritual guru, Her Holiness Jagadguru Sai Maa, I focused most of my attention in my mind, succeeding in school through my doctorate and then in my management consulting career. I suffered especially in later years just before meeting Sai Maa which I recount in my first book, In the Path of Light with Maa: A Journey of Love and Transformation. I can attest to the healing power of the heart as I shifted my focus and achieved greater balance of heart and mind.
Energetically, the two major energies on this planet are love and fear. Love is our essence, resides in our heart and is high frequency. We’re moving from an old to new era, from the old fear-based Kali yuga (cycle) to the new love-based Sathya yuga of truth which we find in our heart.
Results of HeartMath Institute studies like those below speak to the energetics of the heart. They substantiate the heart-focused energetic work that I do with clients in my new era coaching, and that many of us do in our spiritual community.
The heart's electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain; the magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 5000 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain.
The electromagnetic energy of the heart not only envelops every cell of the human body but extends out in all directions in the space around us.
Our cardiac field touches those within 8-10 feet of where we are positioned and perhaps in more subtle ways at greater distances.
One person's heart signal can affect another's brainwaves, and heart-brain synchronization can occur between two people when they interact.
The power of the heart doesn’t just impact each of us, but all of us interpersonally and socially. Working with the heart’s energetic field can influence society, humanity and the planet.
When you live a heart-centered life, you benefit from the power and impact of the heart. I summarize below seven ways for you to move into your heart and reap its benefits.
The 7 tips
Breathing in the Heart
Gratitude & Appreciation
New Self-Perception
Compassion for Self & Others
Generosity & Acts of Kindness
Authentic Communication
Creative Expression
Breathing in the heart
Close your eyes, relax and focus on your breath. Move into continuous or cyclical breathing where you breathe through your nose without pausing between the inhale and exhale. Your breath is a constant, consistent flow of air through the nose. As you breathe this way, focus your attention on your heart and feel like you’re caring for yourself with each breath. Bring any thoughts that come to you into your heart. Touch your heart with your two hands. What do you notice? What are you experiencing? What is the impact on your body and state of being? Continue this breath and focus for a minute or two before opening your eyes.
Practice this any time during the day or night, taking only a few minutes to breathe continuously in your heart.
Gratitude & appreciation
Feeling gratitude is a surefire way to enter the heart and spread its powerful expansive energy. First thing in the morning or when you go to bed at night, identify a person or situation/event that you are grateful for. See, feel, experience it. Ask yourself what this offers you, its value, why it’s important to you. Truly appreciate the rewarding aspects of whoever or whatever you have chosen. In addition to expressing your gratitude internally, of course, you can directly communicate your appreciation to another person.
To support you with this practice, take advantage of a few recordings I’ve made:
A 7-minute audio recording of breathing and gratitude practices mentioned at the end of my first article published in Brainz Magazine, “New Era Coaching and Your Transformation”
A 19-minute audio recording of a gratitude meditation on my website (also in French)
A 6-minute video recording of a heart-centered meditation on my website
New self-perception
Judgment is a universal pattern, meaning that we judge constantly in our lives. This applies especially to ourselves. We evaluate how we’re doing, whether we’re succeeding or failing, how we compare to others. Many times we’re overly hard on ourselves, holding ourselves to very high standards, and we don’t recognize our value and what we offer.
Instead of spending all this time in our heads, why not relocate to our heart and shift our perception about ourselves. As a practice, sit down and reflect about yourself. Keep your focus in your heart and on what you appreciate about yourself. Create heart-centered, love-based replies to these questions: Who am I? What do I offer? What are my best qualities? What do I value about myself? Write down your answers and take time to refine your list.
After completing the list, choose the top 3 and write: I AM ___, filling in the blank with a few words to describe who you are. Use those statements to remind yourself to be this fully in your daily life. You can even place the statements on your desk, at your altar if you have one, wherever it best serves as a reminder for being who you are.
Compassion for self & others
Compassion is love with understanding whether applied to ourselves or others. When we’re compassionate we feel and express love with an understanding of what we or others have gone through, challenges faced, mistakes made. Compassion is key in the new era of truth where we are asked to come together and relate to one another in new expanded ways. When we’re compassionate, we’re in our heart, higher frequency, and we spread our love within and without.
In practice, notice when you’re judging yourself. Breathe slowly in your heart; you might touch your heart with your hands. Be gentle and tender with yourself. Breathe into any resistance as you acknowledge and accept whatever you’re thinking or feeling, welcoming everything into your heart. Realize how having compassion for yourself is healing and radiates the loving high frequency energy of your heart throughout you.
When you’re compassionate toward yourself you learn how to be compassionate toward others. If you’re judging others, shift your perspective and put yourself into their shoes so you can better understand them. Realize that many people are suffering and you can serve them with your loving energy. Use the power of your empathy and compassion.
As I discuss in my article “Activating the Divine Feminine,” the new era requires balance and harmony of Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine. Compassion is a key quality of the Divine Feminine, present in different forms of the Divine Mother that are within us no matter our physical form.
You might choose to activate the compassionate energy of a Divine Mother such as Quan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion. If you recite mantras, you can repeat “Om Mani Padme Hum.” I recommend you use the audio meditation I share in the above article to activate the Divine Feminine within you.
Generosity & acts of kindness
Being generous with yourself and others activates the healing power of your heart. Generosity includes openheartedness, caring, trust, and altruism. It’s an act of giving, of making an offering from your heart to yourself or another. Ask yourself the question, “How can I be more generous toward myself, toward this other person?”
Being kind. How can I be kind to myself, to another? Identify one act of kindness that you will express with yourself or another and commit to this. Make an agreement with yourself to take this action within yourself or in interaction with a specific person. Include a time frame for when you’ll express this and how often. After you act, decide on another act of kindness. Continue as often as you can so you embody kindness. As you practice, notice how this new pattern you’re creating impacts you, your relationships, your life.
Authentic communication
When being authentic while you communicate you express the truth of who you are, what you’re actually feeling or thinking. Authenticity can take the form of stating your feelings about another person or an action she/he took. For example, you can say “I feel this when you …” rather than blaming and saying “You did this to me.” Instead of covering up or holding in what you feel, when you’re authentic you show your vulnerability for the sake of your relationship with the other person.
Another form of being authentic is asking for what you actually want or expect. This entails making a specific request and reaching a clear agreement with another. When the other person says “yes” it’s an agreement; if the person says “no” you can reach a different agreement by continuing to be authentic in your conversation. Authenticity reduces implicit expectations, assumptions, and subsequent disagreement or conflict.
One more form of authenticity is generous listening, coming from your heart as the other person speaks, putting aside your inner voice and being fully with the person in each moment. You can also listen generously to yourself, asking: What words am I saying to myself? Where are they coming from (my head, gut, heart)? What is their impact when they come from my heart?
In practice, think of one example where you will communicate authentically with another, especially where you’ve been hesitant to say anything before. Take action. Reflect and perhaps journal about the outcome. Choose another example and continue to develop your ability to be authentic in your communication.
Creative expression
When we’re being creative, expressing our creativity and our passion, we’re in our heart activating and sharing high frequency energy. This also happens when we’re experiencing and appreciating another’s artistic expression.
The Laws of Vibration and Resonance come into play with creative expression. Everything vibrates in a spectrum from low to high frequency, and when we create we’re in a high vibration. When we resonate with another’s creation it touches us and activates a high frequency within us. For example, music we enjoy brings us into our heart and we vibrate with what we hear. We’re feeling and not in our head.
Ask yourself some questions to come up with new ways to express yourself creatively:
What do I love to do? What are my hobbies?
When do I feel most alive? What makes me feel like nothing else exists?
What have I always dreamed of doing? What did I want to do when I was a child?
Is there something I've wanted to do but was afraid to try? Is there something that someone I know does that thrills me?
Perhaps journal or create a dream board answering some of these questions. Specify at least one new thing you’ll pursue as soon as you can. Put it into your calendar and make a plan.
In conclusion, take time to choose from these tips. Play, experiment, move through them at your own pace. Which of them most resonate with you or lead to the greatest benefits? Repeat what works. Share these tips with others along with what you’ve learned from using them.
The new era asks us to unite, heart to heart, supporting each other to evolve, raise our energy and consciousness, and fulfill our shared purpose for global awakening and enlightenment. We’re in this together!
Visit my website to learn more about me including my New Era Coaching services, and enjoy other articles and audio/video recordings.
Swami Parameshwar Das, Spiritual and Leadership Coach
Swami Parameshwar Das, known as Swamiji, is a seasoned professional with decades of experience in the worlds of business consulting, psychology and spirituality. Swamiji’s mission is to serve everyone to be leaders in their life and fulfill their dharma or purpose. He has traveled the world leading transformational programs for thousands, and has published six books. His educational background includes a Ph.D. and M.S. in Organizational Psychology. Swamiji was licensed as a Psychologist in New York, and designated as a Master Coach by the International Coaching Federation and Ontological Coach by Newfield Network.
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