In 2009, I asked my online community to share what they felt were their top 3 challenges to living in their heart center.

These were the 3 challenges that most people felt were an impediment:

1. OTHER PEOPLE
2. FEAR
   
3. MY MIND
   

It’s now 9 years later, and I’m wondering how much you feel you might have changed in the last 9 years.

Have you made the effort to over come these challenges?

Which one is still holding you back the most?

In 2009, I invited three of my animal family members to share their wisdom.   They provided some rich insights and suggestions of how to make the shift to living in our hearts.

As I reviewed their messages yesterday, it occurred to me that you, too, might benefit from their wisdom, which is still relevant today.

 

The challenge of OTHER PEOPLE

ECHO

Other people are your mirrors. When you are around someone who is negative, you are giving away your power if you allow yourself to be negative, as well.

Become the observer instead. Notice their negativity and the response it evokes within you.

Then, focus on your own Heart. Go into your Heart. Feel the Divine Love that lives there.

When you feel fully connected to that love, send some to the person who was expressing a negative feeling. Don’t try to change anything about the person. Just send the person Love. Then, notice how this has changed how YOU feel.

VIOLET

Stop worrying about what others may think of you if you choose to live from your Heart. Instead, what will YOU think of you? If you have messages inside your head about being logical and if you have a habit of analyzing everything, then it’s time for you to choose another way to be.

The first step is noticing the negative messages inside. The next step is to rewrite these messages.

What messages would support your decision to live from your heart? Write a new message for yourself that is supportive and loving. Then repeat it to yourself every day. Place it into your Heart Center. Use the message every time you need to remind yourself that Heart Centered Living is how you want to live from now on.

SAKHARA

Every day, connect with the Divine Love that lives in your own Heart. Make this a daily practice. It’s really just this simple. BE the Love.

The Challenge of FEAR

ECHO

Love is the answer to Fear. When you are feeling other limiting emotions, fear is often right there, too. Many times, other emotions cover up and hide the fear, but the fear is there. Fear of rejection. Fear that you aren’t good enough or worthy enough. Humans have lots of fears that animals don’t have.

If you saw an animal who was afraid, what would you do? You might want to hold that animal in your arms or pet them and reassure them. You would express love to them.

The same thing works for you when you are afraid. Imagine taking your fear and surrounding it with love. Treat your fear as if it were a small, frightened animal. Hold it in your arms and love your fear. When you do this, your fear disappears.

 

VIOLET

When I’m afraid, I hide. But you can’t hide from yourself, can you? So you have to find a way to transform the fear. The Heart Center is the place to do that.

Go into your Heart when you are afraid or when you feel limiting emotions of any kind. There are many Heart Qualities that will help you. Forgiveness, gratitude, non-judgment, and love are just a few. Forgive yourself for being afraid. Be thankful for the change to take away the power that fear has over you. Stop judging yourself because you’re afraid. And then LOVE yourself. That’s most important.

 

SAKHARA

When I am faced with a challenge, I ground myself. I connect with the Earth because the Earth is so much larger than my physical body and I can easily feel her power, her strength, and her love. I invite that energy to come into my physical body and to surround me. When I feel connected, I am less afraid.

Mother Earth has a big heart and she supports all of us on the planet. Find your connection to the Mother and know that she is always there for you. Then, when you are afraid, you will know that you are not alone.

 

The Challenge of MY MIND

ECHO

So who’s the boss, there in your body? Your mind? Or you?

I’ve thought about this a lot because when I help Nedda in Animal Communication classes, this is one of the big obstacles that people face. Learning to quiet the mind is important for learning to receive telepathically. It is also important for learning to live from your Heart Center.

You are not your mind.

You are Consciousness.

You are the Observer, the one who knows how to BE.

Many animals know how to meditate. That’s a wonderful way to practice BEing instead of DOing.

DOing is what humans seem to prefer. But when you are DOing, your mind is often in control.

So find a way to practice BEing in the NOW moment. Then you will start to have control of your mind.

VIOLET

I know what Echo means about meditating. Cats do a lot of that. Our purr is a kind of mantra that we express outwardly – like saying “Om” for humans. But I like to be quiet inside and out when I meditate.

When you meditate, you can watch your mind do its dance. It twists this way and that like a bird caught in the wind. When you teach your mind to be quiet, there is great peace inside.

If you go into your Heart Center and mediate from there, you soon hear the peace of Divine Love. That’s the best way.

SAKHARA

I’m really good at being quiet inside. It’s my specialty. I do it by grounding myself and then going deep inside. I’m not sure how to tell you to get there, but maybe if you keep focusing on going inward, inward, inward, down, down, down, you will eventually reach that quiet space.

It helps to close your eyes. It helps to let your breathing get quiet, too.

So how are you doing with living in your Heart Center?  Have you made great strides?  Do you still have a ways to go?

Don’t be discouraged.  This is an important shift to make, and it takes time, dedication, and practice.  You’re sure to make it if you stay focused and set a daily intention to come each day from your heart.