Dear friends,
How often do you come out of a business meeting or a conversation with a loved one to find yourself upset or angry? Despite having a regular meditation practice, many of us still struggle with emotional reactions to the ups and downs of daily life. Sometimes we feel calm and contented with the world around us, and other times we feel anxious, over-excited, annoyed or fearful.
In Designing Destiny, The Heartfulness Way, we explore these emotions in depth, understanding their origin and how they influence our consciousness. How can we work with emotions and reactions so that our lives are more balanced and calm? When we observe the patterns our emotional lives follow, we notice that there are certain cyclical rhythms in the ups and downs.
The first thing we observe through meditation is that emotions and feelings arise in the heart. Just as there is the brain and the mind, likewise we have the physical heart and the vibratory or energetic heart, also known as the subtle body and emotional heart.
Qualities associated with emotional intelligence – compassion, empathy, resilience, gratitude and love – arise in the vibratory heart, and whenever the vibratory heart is affected in any way, this then affects the physical heart. For example, when we are angry, our heart rate variability becomes erratic and unstable, our blood pressure goes up etc., even though the origin of the emotion is in the subtle body. So to improve our emotional intelligence we need to work through the heart.
The second thing we observe is the difference between emotions and feelings. Feelings are like pure fire without smoke, where the wood burns clear and pure. Emotions are like fire with a lot of smoke due to dampness or impurities in the wood. And the purest feelings of all are like electricity, where there is not even any burning. Pure feelings are natural and helpful for our evolution, whereas emotions are clouded by impurities, just like smoky wood. What causes the impurities? Impressions or samskaras that settle in the heart as a result of emotional reactions. The purer the heart, the clearer the feelings.
The third thing we observe in meditation is that the vibratory heart is where we find the chakras of the heart. The heart chakra consists broadly of five different energy centres or chakras, associated with the five traditional elements: earth, space, fire, water and air. Each one has a particular spectrum of emotions and feelings that we master as we travel on our inner journey. In fact, feelings and emotions collect in the human system in quite a specific way, which we can map in our spiritual anatomy. Unless and until we master these chakras through spiritual practice, we will not master the emotions associated with them. Each of the five chakras is associated with a particular duality of feelings or opposites, e.g. fear and courage, anger and love.
As we journey through each chakra of the heart, removing the impressions that have lodged there, as well as mastering the associated feelings and emotions, step-by-step we develop greater levels of emotional intelligence and maturity.
How can we work with the spiritual anatomy of the chakras to gain insight into our emotions?
What are some practical tools to help us master these chakras?
Is it possible to let go of our habitual patterns or subconscious patterns and redesign our destiny?
We dive deeper into these and more questions in Designing Destiny, The Heartfulness Way.
All the best,
Daaji