The Heart area guides creativity, expression, and dreams, to help you become fully alive.
Heart
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Essential
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Medium
Dreams
Mysterious is the force from the heart. A fire that will not be extinguished, yet allows itself to be silenced to the point of a whisper. At any moment, like a hurricane, it can erupt and leave an imprint that changes the core of who you are. Our intuition can transcend the confines of reality and touch upon something far deeper than the ordinary world. The heart speaks to us in dreams, but some might reject the call of the heart due to fear, while others surrender and see their lives change beyond their wildest expectations. Whichever of the two cross-roads we tread, the heart will be there, as loud or quiet as we allow it to be.
Essence
Heart is the creative domain of life that helps us imagine, express, and create. Whether it regards writing, painting, singing, or creating any type of beauty—the Heart is the well of that creativity. It’s non-linear, intuitive, and feminine, allowing for new possibilities to manifest in reality. The Heart is the area of inspiration, our dreams, and its biggest enemy is fear. Steven Pressfield stated it without much preamble: “Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.” ¹
Dullness
Without dreams, life would become dull. So many of us are not pursuing what our hearts tell us to do. As children, when we arrive in this world, we know our place and the reason why we were born. Even if it’s as simple as to love and be loved. Yet, when we grow older and become conditioned, or whatever label is appropriate, we lose the connection with our heart. It becomes more silent until it ends with a quiet ache in the chest. Yet, pursuing our hearts is not an easy task, and is therefore a path less trodden. Life has her own way, and the path of the heart is one of surrender instead of force. When our hearts awaken, things can change drastically, often overturning everything we’ve achieved or done so far. Faith is needed to continue in those moments of despair.
Paulo Coelho wrote: “My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer. Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. No one ever abandoned a dream because of the time it took to accomplish it. Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested. Wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” ²
The nature of the heart is to open, to connect, and to grow. Being able to create is the foundation of this area, and thereby 1/7th of your life. Although the Heart can be incomprehensible, from a mind perspective, it’s however, practical in nature. Our world, the universe, is creativity in action, and by aligning ourselves with creation. And by pursuing our dreams, we align ourselves with the unfolding of the universe and become more closely linked with reality.
The danger of romanticism
Our hearts know the way, it knows the destination and the journey. But it doesn’t know everything, and can be a great cause of suffering when followed heedlessly. To reverse the Mind area, the heart is a good master but a bad servant. Very heart-oriented people are often astonishingly bad with finances, tidying up, structured thinking, and various others ‘unheartly’ pursuits. Once this area is activated, it’s hard to turn it off at the right moments, and the irrationality of the heart can be hard to deal with. When we apply ourselves to our dreams or creativity, but take them too seriously—disasters follow.
Being open to our creativity all the time prohibits us from functioning in this world. We mustn’t become too romantic to the point where our heart has a greater hold over us than is sustainable. This is why many creatives ruin their life through, e.g., drug use, financial blow-ups, loss of reputation, and so end their craft. Life poses real risks and threats that our hearts often cannot foresee, nor protect us from. Be wary of over romanticizing any endeavor. Life is both poetic and practical; beautiful and harsh. The heart is a tremendous source of power when used right. But wielded without care, like any area, will lead to burnout of another.
Pillars
Cultivating any area can be difficult, as there is a broad range of paths we can pursue. These five pillars lie at the core of the Heart area, and investing energy in every pillar leads to sustainable growth.
Imagination
The inner wellspring of visions, symbols, and other sensations that arise from within. Almost everything we use in our modern times has been created by thought. Practices such as visualization, daydreaming, and anything that can get you in an altered state help us break free of the material world.
Play
Play is pure experimentation without heading or striving towards an end result. It helps to explore freely, take risks, and break patterns. This can be cultivated through activities such as improvisation and games. By quieting the mind, and becoming more present and we can enter the state of play in any endeavor.
Expression
The ability to give form and connect the inside and outside world. This can be done through words e.g., storytelling, writing, music, artful movements, photography, and various other crafts. We mustn’t let the fear inside us win, and express ourselves freely on a consistent basis. To open up the heart means to become a vessel for that inspiration to enter into the world through your expression.
Connection
Our ability to relate ideas with each other, and bridge the physical and non-physical are part of any creative endeavor. Our ability to relate is our ability to love, to recognize the oneness of all things. This can be cultivated by meditating on your heart, following your curiosity, and allowing yourself to feel.
Craft
Having a specific practice—call it a form, craft, or discipline—to refine and produce work is essential. We must build skills, develop a personal style, and finish things we start. A consistent creative practice, whether it’s morning pages, painting 20 minutes a day, or singing in the shower, is a way of refining the raw inspiration into its physical equivalent. Choosing to commit to an art form can strengthen the Heart area and allow for greater skill in expression over time.
Signs of balance and imbalance
A balanced connection with your heart means that you’re aware of your dreams and are taking action on them. Being dedicated to your craft, while disregarding the result yields great output. Yet, recognizing the simplicity in things and opening our hearts results in a different vision of your life—one of fulfillment. You’ll know when you’ve cultivated this area, because you’ll become less dull and more alive. Both suffering and joy will be present. Life will not become easier, but it will become more magical.
Carl Jung wrote about one of his experiences in a memoir that shows the polarity between the mind and the heart: “See how cruel the whites look. Their lips are thin, their noses sharp, their faces furrowed and distorted by folds. Their eyes have a staring expression; they are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something; they are always uneasy and restless. We do not know what they want. We do not understand them. We think that they are mad." I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad. “They say that they think with their heads,” he replied. “Why of course. What do you think with?” I asked him in surprise. “We think here,” he said, indicating his heart. ⁵
Our hearts can sometimes carry a hefty weight because of the hardness of the world, and that of the mind. An almost completely silent heart can produce great suffering in our lives. We become restless, give up on our dreams, or even forget that they’re there. When we’re not careful, we’ll end up living someone else’s life, and that is never a fruitful journey. It’s always better to fail at one’s own dreams than it is to succeed in those of another. A simple check we can do is to write our biggest pursuits that we’re currently engaged in and the why behind them. If it’s an internal motivation, it’s usually our heart, and if the reverse is true, it’s a sign of imbalance.
Relationships to other areas
Heart is in direct polarity with Mind, which means that energy investment in this area will reduce energy investment in the other and vice versa. It’s important that our heart is our master and leads us with a direction in life. Our mind should follow and aid the heart in its pursuits and wishes. Working against our own nature is unwise; we’re destined to become someone, and it’s best not to fight it. But this duality acts more like a swing than a scale. Our heart gives us inspiration and thereby direction. The mind analyses and breaks it down to manifest it into the world. Being able to open the heart and sharpen the mind is a recipe for success.
Our heart stands in the middle of Spirit and Relationships, taking the responsibility of providing energy towards spiritual development as well as one’s relations. ⁴ Cultivating the heart area will allow for greater understanding and ease in the areas of Spirit and Relationships. But often there’s a tendency of our heart to prefer either relationships or spirituality, but it’s essential to invest in both for a harmonious life that doesn’t end up in burnout. This triad of Relationships, heart, and Spirit, if aligned, produces flow.
A guide without a map
The heart can be an incredible guide in our lives. Its importance cannot be overstated when we’re looking to create a good life. It activates us to become a creator and contribute in stead of being a consumer only. It gives us direction, but should not be treated like a map. The Heart is a compass, our north star, and when we choose to let it guide us, it will bring us along for the journey of a lifetime.
Footnotes
The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield
The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho
Memories, dreams, reflections, by Carl Gustav Jung
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